Haitians to Protest Hillary Clinton’s Speech at New York City College
On June 8, Hillary Clinton is scheduled to serve as the Class of 2017 commencement speaker at Medgar Evers College in Brooklyn, New York, where she will also be awarded an honorary degree. The announcement has incited protests from several members of the Haitian community who plan to protest the speech and are pushing the college’s president, Rudy Crew, to rescind the invitation.
The Clintons’ role in Haiti has incited immense criticism and has tarnished their relationship with the Haitian community. In 2010, Haiti suffered a massive earthquake. Several NGOs and the United Nations flocked to Haiti to help relief efforts, but their intervention came with several costs. In 2011, UN Peacekeepers caused a massive cholera outbreak that killed at least 9,500 people and sickened 800,000 others. During this time, Bill Clinton served as the United Nations Special Envoy to Haiti while Hillary Clinton served as secretary of state. While the Clinton Foundation has staunchly defended their role in Haiti, their involvement in the country has been far from successful. “Many of the most notable investments the Clintons helped launch, such as the new Marriott in the capital, have primarily benefited wealthy foreigners and the island’s ruling elite, who needed little help to begin with,” wrote Jonathan Katz for Politico in 2015.
For Komokoda and many Haitians, the Clintons epitomize NGOs and corporations exploiting the crisis and relief efforts in Haiti for their own gain. Haitians also blame the Clintons for the controversial rule of former Haitian President Michel Martelly, who stepped down in February 2016 due to his record of corruption after the Clintons helped him get elected in 2010.
The Washington Postreported, “Clinton reportedly pressured then-President René Préval with the loss of U.S. and international aid unless the election results were changed to fit the OAS’s recommendation.” That recommendation handed the election to Clinton ally Martelly—despite the drastic irregularities and controversies associated with the election. Manolia Charlotin, a Haitian journalist based in New York, told the Washington Post, “What does that mean as to her approach to foreign policy? To have a secretary of state visit a country, to make a stop, and as a result of that meeting, you have an illegal selection of leaders? How does that decision promote the American views of democracy?”
The Haitians involved with Komokoda don’t want Hillary Clinton to exploit Medgar Evers’ students the way that the Clintons and foreign countries have exploited Haiti and its people for decades.
