OCTOBER 10, 2025 | OPINION | By Stecy Mwachia
Following the comments Donald Trump made stating that the Haitian migrants in Ohio were “eating the dogs, eating the cats” in 2024, controversy erupted throughout the country. Hundreds of news commentators, podcasters and TikTok personalities swarmed to give their commentary on his rhetoric. This is when I began to question the media’s, as well as society at large’s, understanding of insular communities across the United States.
Everyone was asking if Haitians actually ate dogs or cats as a cultural practice, but no one was asking Haitians how they felt about Donald Trump’s rhetoric. I decided to go out there and ask them myself.
It became my mission and goal throughout my Venture Grant to document the experiences of Haitian Americans in Miami. Miami features the largest Haitian American community in the United States. My partner, Ashley Paul, and I went down to Miami to ask as many people as we could about the Haitian experience, as well as their representation in mass media.
We got an Airbnb in Little Haiti and set out on a quest to interview as many Haitians as possible. We attended the Haitian music festival and interviewed people of all ages, including some who had recently come from Haiti and others who had lived in the United States their whole lives. We conducted interviews in both English and French, and received some very interesting responses from everyone. At the festival, we learned that the event had been unexpectedly moved to a new location just three days before it was supposed to take place. A woman I sat next to during the festival, who turned out to be cousins with the event promoters, anonymously shared that the festival had been moved from its original site of South Beach, where it had been held for the last 29 years, because the organizers received a tip that ICE would be at the festival ready to arrest people.While visiting the beach, Ashley and I met a young group of Haitian boys and spent the day swimming with them and visiting restaurants along the coast. Among them, one studied engineering at Texas A&M University and revealed that both of his parents had been killed by gang violence in Haiti. He was studying in the United States and living with his aunt and uncle.In regards to Donald Trump’s comments about their community last year, the majority of Haitians interviewed said that they had heard about them but didn’t care. This was the crux and the most shocking finding of the entire research project. While many groups in the United States that have been historically disenfranchised often express righteous anger about their marginalization, these Haitian migrants showed no signs of anger at all.They showed no resentment about the rhetoric their president had pushed. Instead, they spoke about Haitian pride and the glory of freedom. They grounded themselves in their illustrious history and what they have given the world in terms of cultural expression, personal autonomy and liberty. These are people so deeply rooted and confident in their identity that they rely on no external validation. In my eyes, there is truly no population that is more self-reliant and motivated than this community.They could not be offended by Trump’s rhetoric because they are so far removed from valuing the opinions of white Americans. Haitian Americans care little about what African American or Hispanic communities in the U.S. think or say about them, either. They are completely content living within their own community and embracing their cultural traditions without interruption.If there’s one thing I would like everyone to take away from this research project, it is that we are not defined by the perceptions or expectations of those in power over us. We get to define our worth and our value independently and exclusively for ourselves. If Haiti’s history teaches us anything, it’s that one should not wait for someone to give them permission to be exactly who they are. Haitian Americans’ self-determination and spirit is unmatched by any other population, and these are traits we inherited directly from their revolutionary legacy.