Rachel Bass of Showing Up For Racial Justice speaks about President Trump's reported remarks Amy Bennett Williams/News-Press
There’s no doubt that President Trump’s reported remarks have area Haitians and Salvadorans talking.
Some who attended a bipartisan meeting of lawmakers said Trump essentially called Haiti, El Salvador and African nations "shithole countries," saying he'd prefer more immigration from places like Norway. His reported remarks created a firestorm of criticism.
But whether the people outside the Carnival Grocery and the Eglise de Dieu on Fort Myers’ Fowler Street, where many Haitian immigrants gather, were willing to repeat their thoughts on the record is another matter entirely.
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Several shook their heads and rolled their eyes Friday when asked about what the president is reported to have said, while declining to give their names. "No comment,” and “If you can’t say something nice…” were the prevailing sentiments.
The U.S. census estimates there are about 11,800 Haitians in Lee and 15,600 in Collier counties, though it doesn’t have estimates for how many people from El Salvador are here.
Mario Dominguez, who came from El Salvador and owns Fowler Street’s El Acajutla restaurant, sums it up this way. “In my view, it’s better to be quiet. We don’t need to start any kind of argument back and forth … I have to think of my family, my house, my daughter, my son,” he said. “(But) he is my president, he is your president and that’s what he said, so I have to keep my head down.”
In contrast, Melody Bales, who runs the Naples art gallery/boutique Lady from Haiti, is more than willing to voice her thoughts. The former teacher who adopted now 25-year-old Rachel from the country says her daughter, who’s now studying marine science at Florida Gulf Coast University, is “a prime example of a Haitian who needs a chance."
"Of course these people can’t contribute with no education, but they’re willing to try. Rachel at least had a chance (and) she’s just one of these industrious people. She’s been working at Publix since she was 14, riding her bike over ... and she works part-time at Collier County Mosquito Control.”
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Bales thinks Trump is “totally uneducated about these people that he spouts off about. He just wants to generalize … He has no sense of decorum, obviously.”
However, she said, “I don’t want to be so one-sided that I don’t give him credit for what he has accomplished,” Bales said, “He has good instincts when it comes to financial stuff. But he doesn’t have the moral equivalent of those instincts.”
Trump's most recent comment, calling Haiti and other African comments, 'shithole countries' has not quelled critics accusing Trump of racist. Here are some other times Trump's comments were questionably racist. USA TODAY
Members of the nonprofit Showing Up For Racial Justice issued a statement Friday morning that said in part, "The Southwest Florida chapter ... usually concerns itself with rooting out the everyday racism that permeates society. However, there are extraordinary public displays of racism that should not go without swift and public condemnation. We are outraged that the president of the United States has demeaned our neighbors who hail from Haiti and Africa. We wish to express our profound respect and gratitude for the beautiful people of Southwest Florida who have left their beloved homelands out of necessity and in pursuit of the American dream. Their dreams are ours, too. We are happy they are here."
Yet as conversation swirled in the Fort Myers and Naples area about President Trump’s reported remarks, some, like bookseller Julie Gray of North Fort Myers, questioned that very reporting, since Trump has denied using the now-oft-quoted term.
"We have so many truly SERIOUS issues to address both locally as well as nationally ... and something on possible words from an unknown source?"
President Trump is being accused of racism after reportedly using a profane, derogatory term to describe immigrant countries. USA TODAY