THINGS GET WORSE FOR HAITIANS IN THE BAHAMAS

Prejudice is very difficult to fight.  Someone gets a notion fixed in their heads and it is difficult to overcome that notion.  Such is the view in The Bahamas of too many Bahamians that there is something intrinsically wrong about being Haitian or being of Haitian ancestry.

It is part of a larger prejudice.  That larger prejudice is that there is something intrinsically wrong with black people.  It is deeply ingrained in the society. Through all the civil rights era, the cries of being black and proud era, it still remains.

It remains when you see black women wearing wigs that make them look like white women. It remains when you see black people using chemicals to bleach their faces even at the risk of serious and permanent harm to their skins.  These prejudices are dangerous.

There is a serious shortage of labour in The Bahamas. Contractors complain all the time. They have largely been able to supplement entry level labour with people from Haiti.  This has brought howls of protest from Bahamians. Yet contactors complain that they cannot find reliable workers of Bahamian citizenship to come to work.

The problem is acute in a country where the economy is busting at the seams.

The Haitian people cannot generally get a break from prejudice. The US President Donald Trump is responsible in part for promoting nonsense about Haitians. It is simply regrettable that Haiti and its people cannot get a break. It is sad that the prejudice exists in The Bahamas where we have lived side by side with Haitians for years but as we said prejudice is hard to fight. But fight we must.

Number of hits for the week ending Saturday 2 August 2025 up to midnight: 1;

Number of hits for the month of August up to Saturday 2 August 2025 up to midnight: 220,675;

Number of hits for the year 2025 up to Saturday 2 August 2025 up to midnight: 12,732,009;