Media Matters: Pat Robertson's racist coments about Haiti

 

PAT ROBERTSON: And, you know, Kristi, something happened a long time ago in Haiti, and people might not want to talk about it. They were under the heel of the French. You know, Napoleon III and whatever. And they got together and swore a pact to the devil. They said, "We will serve you if you will get us free from the French." True story. And so, the devil said, "OK, it's a deal."

And they kicked the French out. You know, the Haitians revolted and got themselves free. But ever since, they have been cursed by one thing after the other. Desperately poor. That island of Hispaniola is one island. It's cut down the middle. On the one side is Haiti; on the other side is the Dominican Republic.

Dominican Republic is prosperous, healthy, full of resorts, et cetera. Haiti is in desperate poverty. Same island. They need to have and we need to pray for them a great turning to God. And out of this tragedy, I'm optimistic something good may come. But right now, we're helping the suffering people, and the suffering is unimaginable.

KRISTI WATTS (co-host): Absolutely, Pat.

This is the sort of racist blather Rightardia noticed on Usenet about the Haitian disaster today. 


Acording to Wikipedia, the Haitian Revolution (1791–1804) was a period of violent conflict in the French colony of Saint-Domingue, leading to the elimination of slavery and the establishment of Haiti as the first republic ruled by blacks. 


Although hundreds of rebellions occurred during the slave era, only the revolt on Saint-Domingue, beginning in 1791, was successful in permanently abolishing slavery. The Haitian Revolution is the only successful slave revolt in human history, and, as such, is regarded as a defining moment in the history of Africans in the new world.

Although an independent government was created in Haiti, its society continued to be deeply affected by the pattern established by the French under colonial rule. 

The French established a model of minority rule over the illiterate poor using violence and threats. Colonialism and slavery were outlived by the racial prejudice that they had contributed to; the new post-rebellion racial elite (referred to as mulattoes) had African ancestry, but many were also of European ancestry as descendants of white planters. 

Some had received educations, served in the military, and accumulated land and wealth. Lighter-skinned than most Haitians, who were descendants mostly of former enslaved Africans, these mulattoes dominated politics and economics.


Historians traditionally identify the catalyst to revolution as a particular Vodou or Voodoo ceremony in August 1791 performed at Bois Caïman by Dutty Boukman, a priest.

The voodoo ceremony  is probably what Robertson is refreeing to. Haitian Vodou shares many similarities with other faiths of the African diaspora, such as Louisiana Voodoo of New Orleans, Santería and Arará of Cuba, and CandombléUmbanda of Brazil. 

Rightardia does not believe any religion is superior to  another. The Haitian Revolution was alarming  to Southern Plantation Owners. Because the French lost Haiti, Napoleon sold the vast Louisiana territory to the United States on April 30, 1803, for about four cents an acre. With this abrupt act, France removed itself as a power in the Western Hemisphere.

^{sources: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haitian_Vodou and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haitian_Revolution}


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