When History Repeats: Haiti, Headlines, and the Plot Against Gonâve
What Drew Me Back
I wanted to come back on here with some thoughts about a headline that came out over the last two days. Two young men in Texas were arrested after plotting, from 2024 through this past July, to take over an island off the coast of Haiti. The island is called Gonâve. Their plan has since fallen apart, the FBI discovered them, but the intent was clear, and they’re now facing charges.
I haven’t blogged in a while because life has been…a lot. And the reality of the times we’re living in has weighed heavily. But this headline pulled me back because I’ve written before about how Haiti stays in the headlines, and how that’s never accidental. As a Haitian American, I’ve watched throughout my life the way narratives about Haiti are shaped and manipulated when convenient, especially for political purposes.
Haiti Is Always in the Headlines
The last time I wrote about Haiti being in the headlines, I was responding to how the now-President weaponized anti-Haitian rhetoric during the 2024 campaign. And here we are again.
What’s important to underscore in this latest story isn’t only the plot itself, but what it reflects. The headlines described a plan to massacre the male population on the island and enslave the women and children. This plot was carried out by two white men in Texas, and as shocking as that initially sounded, the longer I’ve sat with it, the more I’m reminded it’s not new.
This Pattern Is Older Than We Want to Admit
We’ve seen this pattern before.
The first example in our shared historical memory is Columbus in 1492. He wasn’t seeking Haiti, or even the Caribbean, but once he arrived, he enacted well-documented violence: subjugation, sexual enslavement, and genocide. The same colonial strategy repeats itself throughout history.
There’s also the example in 1981 of members of the KKK who plotted to take over the island of Dominica. I only learned about that because of this very story. And then there’s Rudyard Kipling’s “White Man’s Burden,” where Kipling openly encouraged the annexation and colonization of the Philippines. Nothing new here.
What I’m saying is this: when we hear these headlines, we often react with shock, as if this kind of violence is unimaginable or unprecedented. But it isn’t. It sits in a lineage. It’s part of a long history where white supremacy seeks to dominate, control, and destroy. The attempts to water down or erase these histories aim to make us forget and strip us of the knowledge that can empower us to act and resist.
Everything Is Connected
This is why the headlines matter.
Not just because Haiti is being invoked again, but because these moments expose patterns some prefer to ignore. They remind us that everything is connected. There are threads, echoes, and recurring tactics that show up across time.
I wanted to capture that here, as a way of returning, because it’s important we keep talking about these things. The work closest to my heart is rooted in education and social justice, and this moment reinforces why both remain urgent. With so many rights being stripped away, and others hanging in the balance, we cannot afford to disconnect history from the present.
These patterns are not new.
And we do ourselves no favors by pretending they are.
