Humanitarianism and the Racial Question in Haiti

Abstract

This article examines humanitarian policies in Haiti, which carry a racism that is not expressedin an individual way, but rather in the very structures that those policies create or help tocreate. Humanitarian racism ended up producing an effect contrary to its intentions: it encouragesHaitian workers to flee the country. Brazil, by affirming its disposition to welcome “withopen arms” Haitians who want to join a process of humanitarian immigration, reduces theheadaches of the U.S. administration with the undesired presence of these workers, and alsoscores points toward its own imperial objective: to obtain a seat on the U.N. Security Council.