The nation of Haiti is more than its headlines, and to know Haiti is to know its people. The Haitian Times knows its people.
Thrust into the spotlight by presidential and vice-presidential candidates Donald Trump and J.D. Vance over debunked claims about eating pets, Haitians living in America are under intense pressure. They’re leaning on The Haitian Times perhaps more than ever before.
The Caribbean country is home to more than 11 million people. According to U.S. Census data, approximately 1.2 million individuals with Haitian ancestry live in the United States, about 42% of whom were born here.
The Haitian Times, written and edited by journalists with Haitian heritage, is dedicated to keeping Haitian Americans informed. Launched in 1999 by former New York Times reporter Garry Pierre-Pierre, it was the first Haitian publication to focus on English-speaking readers. The publication dives into a sophisticated mix of culture, politics, crime and sports. A blend of motivated reporters and seasoned editors cover issues in Haiti and large communities of Haitians in places such as New York, Florida, Indiana and Ohio.
A review of headlines at haitiantimes.com at the time of this writing showed how The Haitian Times is covering how false racist claims put Haitians in Ohio under attack and how bomb threats, in response to those claims, shut down public schools and municipal buildings. The threats were under investigation by the FBI. The publication quoted the president of the local chapter of the NAACP, Denise Williams, who said, “I’ve been here 37 years, and I know what the atmosphere feels like. I know how it feels, what it smells like. I know what it sounds like.” Williams was present during the 1968 riots when rioters attacked and killed her cousin, The Haitian Times reported.
Haitian Americans have come to expect this kind of context from the Haitian Times.
Haitians were recruited into the Springfield, Ohio, area to help fill factory jobs there.
Macollvie J. Neel, special projects editor, said readers don’t just rely on the publication to know the Haitian culture, but also to help them understand U.S. culture.
Haitian Americans came to the U.S. for many reasons over the last 50 years. Mostly, they have sought asylum from political dictators, violence or natural disasters.
“They’re in important conversations,” Neel said. “There’s some guidance we need to provide to our community so that they know how to protect themselves, physically and mentally, so they know how to recognize when someone is being racist with them, because remember, we don’t have that history of [racism] in Haiti that we have here in the U.S., right? Jim Crow laws and things like that haven’t been a thing within Haiti because it is a black country. We have colorism, but it’s different.”
Before Vance made his comments about eating dogs and before Trump repeated them on national television, Neel reported about how a member of a neo-Nazi group delivered racist remarks at a city council meeting in Springfield, Ohio. The articles quoted Haitian Americans demanding more action from city officials to beat back the racist rhetoric.
“We’re going to have a two-hour meeting on Saturday afternoon with — we’re expecting 60 to 75 people — and we’ll stream what we can just out of pure interest from other folks now who are paying attention because of this [national story],” Neel said.
The Haitian Times organized a meeting even before the presidential debate. “We’ll focus on giving people space to discuss how these have affected their lives. I’ve heard a lot about folks feeling unsafe. You know, they’re afraid. I heard this one woman — her landlord was asking her to vacate the premises because they just don’t want Haitians there anymore. It’s drawing too much attention or because of racism, right? So our focus will be to show how Haitians themselves aren’t being supported at a broader level regarding their civil rights.”
Generations of Haitians have come to America — most of them legally. Older Haitians in the United States, according to Vania André, editor-in-chief and chief operating officer, came into the United States during the reign of dictator Francois Duvalier, known as Papa Doc. That generation of immigrants tended to be artists and educators or those with the means to leave and escape Duvalier’s oppression. Neel said further generations continued to seek residence in the United States for other reasons — the earthquake and gang violence among them in more recent years. Often, Haitians seek asylum and link up with family members who were already established in the U.S. Unfortunately, over the years, some of Haiti’s best and brightest individuals left, and “Haiti just kept getting worse and worse,” Neel said. But, “mind you, throughout all this time, there’s always been ‘legal migration’ where people come in through visas or family reunification programs and go through the so-called right way to get into the country with papers and documents.”
Those working at The Haitian Times know this history and the evolving conditions for Haitians. The publication reports with authority on immigration matters not just in the U.S. but in South American countries.
On the same day, it reported on the reaction to Trump's comments, The Haitian Times wrote about how a global human rights group urged Latin American governments to expand protections for Haitians and Venezuelans, citing issues with access to work, healthcare and education in host countries. The news organization has a history of reporting on the ground in South America, detailing the issues that Haitians face.
But it’s not all about immigration. The Haitian Times routinely covers the culture and life of Haitians living in the U.S. or Haiti. Their coverage includes stories about sports and music.
The publication also has produced significant projects, such as hard-hitting coverage of a cryptocurrency Ponzi scheme that targeted and defrauded thousands of Haitians. Some of the fraud was perpetuated through churches or groups on social media platforms.
The Haitian Times, a for-profit news organization, also published a special report on the state of Haiti and another that examined gangs in Haiti more deeply.
It’s a publication with a specific audience, an audience that is growing but is also on the move. More and more Haitian Americans are settling in the Midwest after migrating from South America, unlike previous generations that would more often arrive by boat on the East Coast.
“So at the time when the paper was founded, the media ecosystem in Haiti was extremely small and nonexistent in the diaspora for the most part,” said André, the editor-in-chief who also serves as an assistant professor of journalism at The Lawrence Herbert School of Communication at Hofstra University. “So in Haiti, you had, I want to say, about two to three daily major newspapers. One has been around for at least 100 years and is published in French. And then you had one diaspora paper, I believe, that was founded maybe 10 to 20 years before The Haitian Times was. [This paper] was based in the United States and published in French. So, for someone like myself who was born and raised here, I can speak Haitian Creole. I can speak French conversationally and understand it, but not enough to really be able to consume news and complex matters. So the biggest thing that was novel at that time was Gary creating news about Haiti in English and covering the Haitian communities that had left the country.”
André said the publication has been through a lot of changes, as has any publication since the 1990s.
The Haitian Times has operated with a fully remote staff for over a decade. The publication supports five reporters in Haiti, including two in the capital and three in the countryside, André said. They also have a webmaster. Other editors and journalists are located in different parts of the U.S., including Florida, New Jersey, New York and Indiana.
“I’m really proud of our staff for several reasons. Our staff is very diverse. It’s not purely about race or gender. For me, it has to do with experience and type of background. To some degree, we all fall on a spectrum of what it means to be Haitian or Haitian American and what that experience looks like.”
André said the staff has several new journalists experiencing life in new ways, but older editors help with context and sourcing.
In terms of audience, André sees a growing demand for its journalism in the Midwest.
“Two things we’re constantly trying to make sure that we’re getting is equal coverage and balance because one of the criticisms we’ve had in the past from our research is not wanting to get a lot of this heavy, negative news that’s coming out of Haiti. While it’s necessary for them to know what’s going on, they also want a lot of these other stories that are more locally based within the United States. [Stories] that highlight many of the same issues that you and I have, that other immigrant groups have, but just putting on a Haitian American lens from their experience.”
Like many publications, The Haitian Times is grappling with revenue diversity. It’s weighing the pros and cons of removing its paywall and depending on donations vs. subscriptions as a reader-generated revenue source.
André said one key to driving more readers is having a journalism presence in the Haitian communities. She said she would encourage journalists wishing to cover Haitian immigration issues to reach out to The Haitian Times to help with context.
Journalists need “to be cognizant in how they cover immigrant communities and how they elevate their voices and stories … part of it is that knowledge sharing, info sharing as an opportunity to produce even better journalism. I’ve worn a lot of different hats, and the one true thing is that collaboration is important, especially as everyone is clamoring for the same sources,” André said.
Bob Miller has spent more than 25 years in local newsrooms, including 12 years as an executive editor with Rust Communications. Bob also produces an independent true crime investigative podcast called The Lawless Files.
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