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Words Matter, but Back That Thang Up

By Holden Bellamy —

Volume 3, Episode 2

Last week, I wrote about President Biden and the US government's deplorable treatment of the Haitian refugees.

What we've seen this week by the Biden Administration are words without action. More on this point later.

You've seen by now the atrocious and inhumane pictures of the US Customs and Border Control agents on horseback with whips pushing Haitian evacuees away from the US border. These images reminded me of a chapter in the book, How Emotions Are Made. The book's author, Lisa Feldman Barrett, Ph.D., posits that emotions are constructed, and our brain uses past experiences to derive meaning. So, let me bring it back to the men on horses with whips. Those pictures of the border patrol agents with whips pushing Black Haitians away from the border remind us of a past that America often wants to gloss over, ignore, or perhaps even whitewash.

As Feldman Barrett would describe, these simulated emotions drew outrage and raised concerns from celebrities, activists, and politicians who posted, tweeted, and retweeted these images calling on and calling out the USG. Folks were pleading for the government to call "off the dogs" or perhaps more appropriately to "whoa."

Before I provide my critique of this debacle from the Administration, here is a timeline of events to give some context:

  • September 16: US District Court Judge Emmett Sullivan granted a preliminary injunction petitioned by the ACLU to halt Title 42 expulsions for migrants arriving at the US-Mexico border.
  • Sunday, September 19: The US began deporting Haitian evacuees.
  • On Monday, September 20: pictures and video of Border Patrol agents on horseback using whips to prevent Haitian evacuees from coming across the border in Del Rio, Texas, began to circulate.
  • Wednesday, September 22: Vice President Kamala Harris "raised" her concerns, too. Take a look at the video.
  • Thursday, September 23: Ambassador Daniel Foote, the special envoy for Haiti, resigned. Here is an excerpt from the letter:
“I will not be associated with the United States inhumane, counterproductive decision to deport thousands of Haitian refugees and illegal immigrants to Haiti, a country where American officials are confined to secure compounds because of the danger posed by armed gangs in control of daily life. Our policy approach to Haïti remains deeply flawed, and my recommendations have been ignored and dismissed, when not edited to project a narrative different from my own.”
  • The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) suspended horse patrol in Del Rio, Texas, on the same day.
  • On Friday, September 24: In an interview on The View, Vice President Harris was asked about the situation again, and she responded by saying: "We have to do more in terms of supporting the Haitians who are returning to the island. Our administration feels strongly about that."
  • The same day, President Biden finally called the horses and whips "an embarrassment."
  • By early afternoon, Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas announced an all-clear in Del Rio.

I remain uncomfortable with our elected leaders. All week, members of Congress and policymakers, who were speaking out about their outrage, used the opportunity to talk about immigration issues more broadly rather than address the root cause of the atrocity and abuse we were witnessing. Instead, folks were addressing the broader issue of immigration to dodge the crux issue.

For me, watching these performances felt like a new parent avoiding a dirty diaper of their newborn baby. Because the poop lacks form, it makes a complete mess, but it's the parents' job to change the diaper.

Importantly, while the US immigration system is broken and rightly should be addressed, the images shown in Del Rio were the critical race theory in practice, but a glimpse into the world's colonialist past, and demonstrated the economic underpinnings of global racial inequality.

Rather than pushing the Administration on its position regarding Title 42 and Judge Sullivan's order, or the specific treatment of Haitians at the border, trying to understand how the Administration will rebuild trust and how the US will address the unrest on the ground, they ignored the issue at hand.  More to the point, Haitians make up a small percentage of migrants who cross the border.

I alluded to this earlier, but it's one thing to say the pictures are horrible, an embarrassment, et cetera.  So, words alone are not convincing.  Our progenitors made it plain in a roundtable on June 12, 1963 - the Open Minds: Race Relations in Crisis moderated by Richard Heffner.  The Honorable Malcolm X, often characterized as militant and radical, said something quite prescient in his characterization of a speech by the US President when he said we could not be satisfied with "mile-mouthed speeches." Looking back on the roundtable, even the president of Congress for Racial Equality (CORE), James Farmer, one of the Big Four civil rights organizations, said something moderately similar, "we have to judge by deeds, not by words."

In all of our progress as a people, our ancestors have written a blueprint.

Respectfully,

m.

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