WHITES IN HAYTI

Evening Post, Volume LXXXVII, Issue 103, 2 May 1914, Page 10

WHITES IN HAYTI

WHERE THE BLACK MAN, RULES. In Hayti, colour prejudice as a problem is non-existent, says a writer in The African Tim^s. There is no doubt that prejudice itself exists, but in a remarkably quiet and unobtrusive form. Any open expression of this feeling is so sharply resented that it is always safer to conceal it Under a cloak of politeness. The "blancs," as the whites aro called in Hayti, enjoy a certain nrestige, due not so much to their colour as to the fact that all, or nearly all, whites here are more or less capitalists, or hold wellpaid positions. And in Hayti. like all over the world, money counts. This prestige, however, is by no means accepted by the Haytians as a mark of racial superiority, and_ any such interpretation is likely to receive a rude contradiction. The arrogance of the European in Africa and the East would most likely be fatal to him were he to try and indulge in it in, Hayti. The writer, a coloured man, sometimes recalls, with amusement, the pathetic remark a white American once made to him while on a trip to America. "These people," said the American, referring to the Haytians, "lack respect." His dignity as a white man must have received some rude shocks. I suggested to him that he might have given them some lessons while ashore. HOW INSULTS ARE RESENTED. Without going into details I can vouch for the following incidents, showing the way in , which Haytians resent an indignity. * For a kick, a white man. was shot dead ; another was clubbed by the man > whom he kicked ; yet another was mobbed by workmen for kicking one of their number. Two captains were badly beaten for using contemptuous expressions about blacks; another "blanc" had his nose broken for the offence, etc. These are only some of the instances that can be related of Hayti. Please note that in the first three instances the Haytians were men of. the labouring class. Indeed, to kick or slap a Haytian of the upper or middle class invariably means a resort to arms, and the death or severe injury of one, oi' perhaps both, of the principals. "The consequence of this is that in this country, where colour insolence is so vigorously resented, the white residents ale careful not to make a parade of it ; for what's the use of expressing contempt of people when you are likely to have to fight each time you do so, especially when the odds are so heavy against you? And then Haytian government administrators do not understand the dogma of 'maintaining the prestige of the white man.' "Socially there is no line drawn— the relations between the races being most cordial— and each finds that there is something to learn from the other; foi' in this land where black rules white, even the sneerers among the latter are forced to admire and' respect the^ type of bold and self-reliant man that indepen' dence has developed in Hayti. And the foreign-born coloured man who has resided here for some years finds it exceedingly hard to settle down again under the conditions prevailing in the United Btates of America, or even under those of the European colonies in the West Indies."