“We are here, but our hearts are in Haiti”: temporal and racialized emotive existences of ethnically identified Haitian Americans

Abstract

ABSTRACT This study argues that three racialized emotive existences – nostalgia, fear, and hope – mark ethnically identified Haitian Americans’ temporal and cultural narratives of Haiti. First, nostalgia highlights Haiti’s significance as the first independent Black nation in the Western Hemisphere and the pride it evokes for Haitian Americans who grew up in a society that shunned them. Second, fear emphasizes the growing concern for safety as political instability, economic deprivation, and natural catastrophes undermine Haiti. Fear and anxiety prompt the need for physical safety and distance, while Haitian Americans also desire the emotional security of their parents’ presence in response. Finally, Haitian Americans anticipate a future that permits Haiti’s history and beauty to be the focal point. Much of this focus is on their children, but hope draws Haitian Americans back to Haiti. The findings suggest that racialized emotive existences frame Haitian Americans’ (dis)connection and reveal tenuous ties to Haiti. This study demonstrates how regimes of power, anti-Blackness, and subjectivity shape discourses about the home country.