22383: Antoine: Reactions to Manbo Racine's expose (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Guy S. Antoine <webmaster@haitiforever.com>


When I first read Kathy Grey's post about Haitian men and women's
attitudes towards sexual violence, I felt outraged by her blatant and
repeated overgeneralizations. I think that Haiti is vulnerable to such
broad and negative assertions, disseminated to a list of thousands
of individuals, in a way that another country, many times its size,
population, and economic power would not be.  If I said "every
American is a born liar" or "every French woman is a whore" or
"every Jew is a sadistic killer", I would be condemned and ridiculed,
and rightfully so.  Make such statements about Haitians though, and
you will get some anonymous posts piously praising you for your
perspicacity.

However, this is not the first time that Kathy Grey has made similar
statements to the List, and I can very well imagine that this will not
be the last time.  On another occasion, it was that Haitians are liars
and fundamentally dishonest (or to mitigate the statement, that truth
and honesty simply do not fit into our system of values, the way they
do in more virtuous countries).  However, I will admit that those are
hardly the only times I have heard such prejudiced generalizations.
In the Dominican Republic, I have heard people maintain that "All
Haitians smell bad, that is their nature."  Some time ago, I even
used to hear from some Haitians that all Black Americans were
uneducated good-for-nothing. So, Kathy is by no means the first to
disparage so an entire people.  Even Haitian people have been guilty
of that on occasion (I believe that over the years, we have become
more hip to Black American culture, to the point of embracing it
and contributing to it.)

As outraged as I felt initially, I knew intuitively that it would not
significantly advance the cause of the Haitian for me to simply
vent my feelings.  I also sensed that in her sempiternally provocative
ways, Kathy was also pointing to some very real problem in our
society: the issue of sexual violence.  I do not consider this typically
Haitian, as Kathy does -- at least not until this would be buttressed
by a serious comparative study. The issue of rape is seriously real
in the United States as well and any number of other countries.
However, our context is Haiti and there is no denying that there is
simply too much sexual violence in Haitian society. That is an
issue that deserves our policymakers and educators' attention.
It should be approached with cultural sensitivity, based on
knowlege and understanding.  To approach it with disrespect will
simply defeat the purpose, as you will not only fail but may fall
victim to your perceived aggression.

My present contribution to this debate consisted of asking my
friends and associates to relay to me their own reactions to
Kathy Grey's post.  Off list, some people would feel less inhibited
to express themselves on the topic, and go beyond rant to address
squarely the issue of sexual violence and gender roles in Haitian
culture.  The answers have been most interesting.  I will send to
the list 22 responses, 11 from men and 11 from women.

I warn you however that the texts will be quite long, so you may
safely delete if you are not interested.

Guy S. Antoine
Windows on Haiti
http://haitiforever.com