Behind the misinformation targeting Haitians in Springfield

With just two months until voters take to the polls in the United States to cast their ballots in the country's presidential election, a narrative targeting the Haitian community in a city in Ohio has taken hold. 

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump and his running mate, JD Vance, have been among those amplifying the narrative, based on no credible reports, that Haitian immigrants had stolen and eaten pets in Springfield.

The baseless claim, which began circulating in early September, has already caused real-world harm. American outlets, including ABC News, NPR, and USA Today, spoke to Haitians in the community, reporting that they felt concerned about their safety.

The Associated Press reported on September 17 that more than 30 hoax bomb threats were made toward the likes of schools and government buildings in the city in the wake of the falsehood.

Trump said during a rally on September 18 that he plans on visiting Springfield within the fortnight, as the narrative continues to rumble on.  

But the emergence of anti-Haitian rhetoric in the U.S. is not a one-off. Logically Facts examines the broader context behind the recent narratives. 

Why Springfield?

Ohio, Vance's home state, has had a lumbering economic outlook since the pandemic, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland. The Midwestern state has, in recent years, faced population decline and an aging workforce. 

Springfield is the main administrative center in Clark County, southwestern Ohio. The County is home to an estimated 12,000 to 15,000 immigrants, according to an estimate published on the City of Springfield website, which also cites jobs and a lower cost of living as reasons why immigrants have chosen to move to the city. 

Haitian migrants came to work in Springfield "because there were jobs, and they filled a lot of jobs," Ohio Governor Mike DeWine told CBS in an interview on September 11.

The debunked narrative that Haitian migrants had stolen people's pets in Springfield comes as the election heats up. A poll conducted by The New York Times, the Philadelphia Inquirer, and Siena College and published on September 19 found Harris and Trump neck-and-neck nationally. 

Ralph Thomassaint Joseph, the Caribbean Communities Correspondent for Documented, a New York City-based independent, non-profit newsroom that reports on immigrant communities, told Logically Facts that "they're trying to use this to leverage political gain."

"Accusing migrants, Black people and under-represented communities like Haitians is the perfect storm," he said.

The narrative comes after Nathan Clark, the father of an 11-year-old boy killed in Springfield by a Haitian driver who crashed into a school bus, as reported by the Associated Press on September 13, said that his son's death was being used "for political gain."

In his address at the City of Springfield Commission Meeting on September 10, Clark said his son was "not murdered" but was "accidentally killed by an immigrant from Haiti."

The New York Times reported that, in response to a request for comment about Clark's criticism, a spokesperson for Vance said that the Clark family was in the vice presidential candidates' prayers.

HIV misinformation targetting Haitians

The narratives that have surfaced in recent weeks echo those that have targeted the Haitian community in the past — with longstanding consequences.

In an interview with CBS News on September 15, Vance said, "Thanks to Kamala Harris' open borders, there is a rise in HIV cases in Springfield."

According to Clark County health reports, the number of newly diagnosed cases of HIV rose by one, from 12 cases in 2021 to 13 in 2022. 

The 2023 Clark County Annual Communicable Disease Report did note an increase in HIV cases to 29, and preliminary unfinalized data for Clark County in the first half of 2024 reports 26 cases of HIV, with no mention of nationality or race in either report.

While Vance did not explicitly mention Haitians, it echoes a similar narrative that arose in the 1980s, where Haitians were blamed for HIV.

Nathan Dize, an assistant professor of French, Arts and Sciences at the Washington University in St Louis, penned an article in The Conversation, saying that the Reagan administration referred to HIV as "4H" — hemophiliacs, homosexuals, Haitians, and heroin users. 

A paper published in 2008 details how the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)  created "unprecedented national stigmatization" in the 1980s against Haitians after incorrectly stating that they were at higher risk of acquiring the disease.

Jeffrey Kahn, an associate professor of anthropology at the University of California, told Logically Facts, "At the same time, journalists and even scientists circulated the long-ago debunked hypothesis that AIDS—this was before the discovery of HIV—might have jumped from animal to human hosts as a result of Haitians consuming animal flesh or blood in Vodou ceremonies."

This was "all nonsense," Kahn said to Logically Facts. "But at the time, there was anxiety over large numbers of Black asylum seekers arriving in the United States from Haiti with unfamiliar cultural practices, and the Haitians ended up bearing the burden of widespread fear about this emerging epidemic."

Joseph, too, said that Haitians had been singled out, adding, "In the 1980s, the CDC accused Haitians of being at the origin of AIDS, so it's not new from the United States to criticize and use blackness and Haitian immigrants as a tool for political leverage — which is a political pattern we see now."

Real-world consequences

These narratives have a direct impact on people's lives. The Haitian Times, an online newspaper based in New York for the Haitian diaspora, reported on September 11 that Haitian families felt physically unsafe in Springfield. 

Real-world effects of misinformation aren't new. Kahn said that the stigmatization of Haitians during the 1980s "had a devastating impact on Haitian communities in the United States and in Haiti."

"Haitians in the United States often hid their ethnic identity to avoid various forms of discrimination, harassment, and ostracization," he said.

Joseph, too, said that such false narratives have long-lasting impacts. 

"Haitian immigrants kept their kids from speaking their own language and revealing their country of origin because everywhere Haitians went, they were accused, and people didn't want to get in touch with them. Because they were seen as practicing voodoo, cannibals, you name it, and now they were seen as spreading AIDS." 

Follow Logically Facts' coverage and fact-checking of the U.S. Election 2024 here.