Debate over Trump exposes divisions among Haitian Americans

ATLANTA – First Donald Trump said Haitians came from a “shithole” country. Then came the pet-eating lies. Next the Trump campaign doubled down on the Haiti hate at an Oct. 15 rally, using a slideshow with the words “KAMALA’S BORDER PLAN: MAKE AMERICA HAITI” superimposed over a pile of garbage. 

Many Haitian American voters, not surprisingly, are outraged and are using these attacks as an opportunity to organize politically to defeat Trump in the waning days of the election. But those who support Trump — the ones who haven’t gone silent, that is — remain steadfast in their support for the former president. 

Haitian Americans are having heated debates with the Trump supporters in their lives. These so-called Haitian MAGAs, are being called out on Haitian radio programs, shamed in online forums and mercilessly dragged on social media platforms: “Idiots.” “Morons.” “Self-hating fools.”

Meanwhile, “Haitian Americans for Trump” organizations and Facebook groups, as well as those on X and Instagram, have come under searing ridicule by Haitian and non-Haitian critics alike. 

Trump is kicking off his final weekend of the campaign in Gastonia. Next to the stage are two billboards saying “Kamala’s Border Plan: Make America Haiti.” Another image says “Kamala Harris promised free health care for illegals: they’re coming to collect.” pic.twitter.com/NkpdEBFAwh

— Eric Michael Garcia (@EricMGarcia) November 2, 2024

“Why don’t you ask J.D. Vance to cater your next event,” one critic suggested on Facebook.

Another commenter asked facetiously if these Trump supporters had upset stomachs or diarrhea “from eating cats and dogs,” adding: “Stupid bunch. Trump and Vance hate you.”

A huge billboard on Interstate 95 in Miami near Little Haiti pulls no punches on this issue: “Haitians who respect themselves don’t vote for Trump,” it declares. Bus stop shelters in the neighborhood are also plastered with the ads, according to local reports.

Some Trump enthusiasts have stopped posting on social media due to the heightened scrutiny. 

Trump, who once promised to be “the biggest champion” for Haitian Americans, is driving a wedge through the Haitian diaspora in the U.S., exposing long-simmering tensions over class and politics — and in the process, dividing families. 

“I say the exact same things about Haiti as Trump and they don’t condemn me as a Haitian-born Haitian American. But when Trump says it, they condemn him because he’s white,” says Jean Rene “J.R.” Apollon, an architect, interior designer and professional musician, who emigrated from Haiti to Georgia with his family in 1971. He and his brother Harry support Trump. Their other brother Ron, and sister Sabine, are squarely in Kamala Harris’ camp. 

“If Haiti wasn’t a shithole, we’d all be living and thriving in Haiti and growing businesses and developing art and living well,” J.R. Apollon says. “People are trying to obscure the issues.”

Ron Apollon, who owns a soccer academy here in Kennesaw, right outside Atlanta, sees things quite differently: “Harry sent me a text message saying to ‘vote red.’ I said, ‘Don’t tell me how to vote, I don’t tell you who to vote for. Leave it alone dude, I’m not going to vote for a racist narcissist.’ I don’t understand how anyone in their right mind can support him. There’s no justification whatsoever to support an idiot like that. None, zero.”

For many Haitian Americans, but especially those whose politics align with the Democratic Party, their compatriots’ unapologetic support for Trump is an unacceptable betrayal. But here in Georgia, that isn’t deterring a small and devoted group of Haitian Republicans. Instead of being swayed by appeals to act as a voting bloc, MAGA Haitians are holding firm in their support for the former president, whom they argue is being unfairly maligned by Haitian American groupthink.  

“Everyone knows he has a big mouth and says whatever he wants,” says an Atlanta-born Haitian American in his 20s whose parents emigrated from Haiti. “But at the end of the day he has done a good job taking care of the American people.”

This supporter, who asked not to be identified, dismisses the debate over Trump as faux outrage that ignores “fact over feelings.”

He says he voted for Trump in 2016 and 2020 and will vote for him again.

“There’s so much more going on in America in terms of inflation and the border crisis and drugs coming in,” he says.

Of the estimated 1.2 million to 1.5 million Haitian Americans living in the U.S. about 630,000 to 753,000 Haitian Americans are eligible to vote. And while most are loyal Democrats, a portion of Haitian voters — including two of the Apollon brothers — cast their votes for Trump in 2016 and in 2020. Because Americans of Haitian descent don’t always self-identify, it’s hard to get a pin on how many Haitians are registered to vote here in Georgia, let alone how many are registered Republicans. But the population here is on the rise, numbering between 60,000 and 80,000 — which could make them an influential voting bloc in a state Trump lost in 2020 by just under 12,000 votes.

Haitian voters in Georgia are an untapped power, says Saurel Quettan, an executive coach and leadership consultant in Atlanta, and former president and chair of the Georgia Haitian American Chamber of Commerce. He’d like to see Haitian Americans in the state act as a voting bloc and create a political action committee.

“So that the next time somebody calls and says, ‘Find me some votes’” as Trump did in 2020, Quettan says, “they’ll be asking to find at the very minimum 50,000 votes” because Haitians in Georgia voted en masse. 

Despite his optimism, Quettan has not been spared from the debate between Trump supporters and opponents. He is a Democrat; his 92-year-old father is a Republican.

“He’s not running around wearing a MAGA hat,” Quettan says, “but mark my words, when he goes to the ballot box, he will vote Republican, and he will vote for Trump. He says somebody ‘must have fed Trump these lies’ about Haitians eating cats and dogs, ‘otherwise Trump would not say such things.’”

“I was not offended and I’m not disappointed or disgusted,” Quettan says. 

“This is just my dad.”

Clash over Haitian conservatism and MAGA mentality

Back in 2020, sensing the potential political power of Georgia’s Haitian American community, Haitian organizations in Miami sent bus caravans of volunteers here to canvas suburban neighborhoods and convince Haitian households to register and vote for Joe Biden. “Haitians for Biden” operatives from Florida worked with local party officials to get the vote out, and their efforts were credited with helping Raphael Warnock become the first Black Democrat elected to the Senate from a southern state. (They boasted of the success of “lending the Haitian political machine” to Georgia.) This election cycle, some Haitian political organizers focused their efforts on Pennsylvania and Georgia. 

But Frantz Bougert, a 45-year Atlanta resident and co-founder of the United Front of the Haitian Diaspora, an advocacy organization, isn’t waiting for the Florida cavalry. He has worked for decades to get Haitian Americans to become more politically engaged, especially in the local and state policy issues that have more immediate impacts on their daily lives. 

“I’m not talking to any Haitian Republicans,” Bougert says of his efforts to increase the political influence of Haitian voters. He believes they have a flawed view of what it means to be politically conservative and have no credibility in their defense of Trump. 

“American style conservatism is very different from what we Haitians know as conservatism,” he says. “They’re wannabees, they think they’re conservative, but they’re not. They don’t realize the difference between Haitian conservatism – go to school, get a good education, don’t stay out all night, respect your parents – and American conservatism.

“They want to be atypical Haitians and to differentiate themselves from other Haitians by stressing their education and their social status, but they don’t really understand what being a Republican means.” 

Cecile Accilien, president of the Haitian Studies Association (HSA), agrees. A recent transplant to Maryland from Georgia, she attributes Haitian American support for Trump to a lack of self-awareness and social and political education.

“I see it as being rooted in people who don’t know who they are,” she says, “rooted in their own self-hatred, not knowing their own history, not understanding what’s at stake for Haitians in the U.S. and how this impacts future generations. It’s also rooted in their identity and their ideals of being upright and upper middle class.” 

“By wanting to belong and fit into a certain class, they’re being co-opted and buying into whiteness,” she explains. “And let’s not forget how class plays out in Haiti, it may be about wanting to belong to a certain class, and we know class differences are huge in Haiti.”

HSA issued a joint statement with the Haitian Studies Institute at Brooklyn College condemning the “hate and bigotry” directed at Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio as a result of Trump’s and Vance’s comments.

Accilien, now a professor of French and Francophone studies at the University of Maryland, says on a personal level, “I am appalled and vexed for any Haitian to dare to say they’re going to vote for Trump.” 

“To say you are going to vote for Trump, means you don’t respect yourself, your family, or your children because Haitian children are really suffering. They are being hurt by this; they are being physically and verbally abused and some are depressed.”

Backlash breeds secrecy, turn to MAGA-land

Haitians, the second largest Black immigrant group in the country after Jamaicans, are a diverse community of the haves and the have nots, of those who’ve been in the country for decades and those who arrived in more recent years — and those differences bubble up in their politics. In 2016 and 2020, the Trump campaign was a visible presence in Florida, where the majority of Haitians reside, followed by New York, Massachusetts and Georgia, respectively. 

This election cycle, however, the campaign doesn’t appear to be doing as much outreach. Team Trump didn’t respond to repeated requests to speak with campaign representatives involved in or knowledgeable about Haitian American voter outreach. In a written statement, Janiyah Thomas, Team Trump Black Media Director for the campaign, said, “Our operation is deeply committed to engaging with voters across all demographics, recognizing the unique concerns and aspirations within each community.”

Madgie Nicolas, a former Trump advisor who heads the Georgia Republican Party’s official Haitian for Trump campaign affiliate, boasts of having Haitian American Trump surrogates across the country. However, when contacted, she declined to discuss her work and didn’t respond to interview requests sent by email, text, voicemail and through the state party’s media representatives. Nor did Team Trump respond to repeated requests to speak with campaign representatives involved in or knowledgeable about Haitian American voter outreach. 

When contacted for an interview, the local Republican office in Gwinnett County directed inquiries to Derrick Gibson, founder of Black Patriots for Trump, who appeared in a controversial YouTube video, wearing a “NIGGAS FOR TRUMP” t-shirt. 

Gibson says there were “huge numbers” of Black people in Georgia who support Trump, “but they won’t say so publicly.” He characterized these supporters as “the foundational black people who didn’t come from the Caribbean and who have direct connections to slavery in America” — which notably does not describe Haitian Americans.  

Camilla Moore, chair of the board of directors of the Georgia Black Republican Council, says Haitian American voters in Georgia are unlikely to sway the outcome of the election.

She notes that of the state’s more than 2 million registered Black voters, only 8,705 are self-identified Haitian Americans. Haitian American political activists believe the number of registered Haitian voters is significantly higher.

Moore doesn’t believe Trump’s comments about Haitian migrants, or for that matter his past comments about Black people in general, will be a deciding factor among Black voters here.

“I know Trump the man, I’ve seen his administration,” she says. “He’s the same man as he was in 2016. People were able to get beyond his rhetoric in 2016 and they will get beyond it again today…. People take offense too quickly.”

But Ronald Cetoute, associate director of the Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurial Development at Clark Atlanta University, says there are Haitian Republicans in Georgia who plan to vote for Kamala Harris “because they don’t believe Trump is the right person for the job.” Others are Trump supporters who are keeping quiet because they don’t want to be called out by the Democrats in their community. Cetoute describes himself as an Independent who would never vote for Trump, says Haitian Democrats often exacerbate conflict with Haitian Republicans because they are intolerant of their views. 

“So those who are Republicans have laid low and usually go find their circles of support outside the Haitian community,” he says.

Instead, that support is usually found among like-minded Republicans, including local Republican Party officials, according to Sandra Jean, founder and former president of the Haitian American Lawyers Association of Georgia.

“There aren’t a lot of Haitian Republicans, but they’re very powerful,” Jean says. “Haitians for Trump in Cobb County are very embraced by the county Republican Party.”

Jean says she was invited to join the group even though she’s a registered Independent, “but I declined because I have a problem with Trump.” 

‘War’ against Haitians triggers grassroots mobilization

Bougert, for his part, is focusing his efforts on Haitian Democrats and Independents. That’s why, on an early October morning, he’s sitting patiently through a nearly three-hour Sunday service at Haitian Ministry Theophile Church in Christ, just so he can speak to congregants afterward and encourage them to register to vote. 

A screen above the glass podium flashes a message: “Register to Vote,” informing congregants where to register, how to check their voter registration status online and listed the deadlines for early voting and for requesting and sending in mail-in ballots. 

Pastor Jean Jacob, who leads the church, asks Bougert to stand. This is the man, he explains to the congregation, that they should talk about registering to vote “so that our voices count.”

“We’re not going to tell you who to vote for, or how to vote,” the pastor says, speaking in Haitian Creole. “We’re asking only that you pray before you go vote but do vote. Because it is a right you have and should use. Your vote is a weapon to combat what you oppose, so use it.”

After the services conclude, congregants mill around in the parking lot, talking politics. 

Fritz Desrosiers, a self-described Independent, says he will be voting against Trump.

“Let’s put it this way, I’m Haitian before anything else. I cannot tolerate him as a person,” he says. “He’s arrogant in the way he speaks against immigrants, especially Haitians. It revolts me. There is no word to express the harm he’s done to Haitian people.” 

Desrosiers says he doesn’t know anyone who plans to support Trump.

“A true Haitian won’t vote for Trump,” he says. 

Antonio Beauge, a longtime member of the church, chimes in. 

“Only those who have no sense, or who have lost their minds would vote for him.” 

Bougert also takes part in a local Haitian radio program, Loulou Ran2vou, on Sunday afternoons in which he tries to educate listeners who call-in or ask questions via Facebook about the American electoral system and “the local government officials and policies that really affect our everyday lives.” The subject of discussion varies from how the U.S. tax system works to why it’s important for community members to be counted in the U.S. census, to how voting is an important way to showcase and flex the political muscle of the Haitian American community.

But right after Trump and Harris had their first and only debate in September, the main thing the callers wanted to talk about was Trump’s comments about Haitian migrants in Ohio. Bougert said the fear of a Trump victory is more palpable among new Haitian immigrants who are not eligible to vote and will have no say in the outcome of the race. 

“They’re scared and we should be scared as well,” he says of more established Haitian Americans. “If Trump is not elected, it will be a bloodbath. And if he wins, we’re in trouble.”

So Bougert and his co-host use the controversy as an opportunity. 

“That’s how we tried to mobilize people and get them to go vote,” he says. “I went the extra mile and said go vote Democrat because we already know how the Republicans feel about us, so why vote for them. I reminded them that Trump said he wanted to deport all Haitians starting with those in Springfield.”

“I give them something to think about,” he says. “Do I make the case for the Democrats? Of course I do. We’re at war.”

Lately though the “war” has seemed more like an intrafamily dispute than an interparty political battle.

How one family navigates the rift over Trump  

The Apollon siblings used to be close — that is, until eight years ago when Trump came between them and caused a political rift that grew into a gnawing wedge and is now a gulf of disagreement.

Ron, at 65, is the oldest. He and his youngest sibling, Sabine, 58, have never voted for Trump and insist they never will. Their brothers J.R., 60, and Harry, 62, have voted for Trump and plan to do so again.

Ron and Sabine are dismayed that their brothers support a man they find repugnant. They’re infuriated that Trump spent much of October campaigning for reelection by stereotyping all Haitian immigrants as poor, unskilled and uncivilized  “illegals” who are using up the limited resources and services of hard-pressed cities and towns like Springfield, Ohio and Charleroi, Pennsylvania.   

“I don’t know how this happened,” Ron, who is also the organizational director for Serve Haiti, a non-profit that runs a health center in rural Haiti, says of his Trumpie siblings. “We were raised by the same mother and father.”

For his part, J.R., who now lives in South Florida and who voted for Obama in 2008 and sat out the 2012 election, says being a Republican has nothing to do with his Haitian identity. 

“It’s because I’ve been given the best opportunities to thrive, to grow as a business owner and as a Haitian American professional. That’s what it’s about for me,” he says. “It’s not about race or color, or party. It’s about opportunity, growing businesses, and giving people opportunities to help other people. I do not believe the Democratic party offers those opportunities.” 

His son and daughter-in-law are Democrats. He says when they make derisive comments about Republicans, he bites his tongue. 

“It’s safer and more conducive to loving each other,” he says. 

The Apollons no longer discuss politics.Ron says it’s the only way to keep the peace between them. 

“Rather than rock the boat, I just leave it alone,” he says. 

As for Sabine, she says “I just avoid political conversations with my brothers and my ex,” whom she describes as a “Jamaican Trumper.”

“It’s like talking to a brick wall.”

Harry declined to be interviewed, but J.R. says he also avoids talking politics with his Democratic brother and sister. 

“Harry and I had a very conflicted time with Ron and a lot of it had to do with how we view politics.”

All of this has come at a cost to extended family members. Now, even the younger generation of cousins is battling over politics, Sabine says. 

“If the four of us had the same mindset and saw the world in the same way, we’d absolutely be closer,” Sabine says. “If politics comes up, I just step away… I think my mother would be turning over in heaven right now if we didn’t get along.”  

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Debate over Trump exposes divisions among Haitian Americans was first posted on November 5, 2024 at 12:36 pm.