This is a word, a podcast from Slate.

I'm your host, Jason Johnson.

The nation of Haiti may be nearing collapse.

Gangs run the streets, political leaders fear for their lives, while health and economic

disasters threaten its people.

But Haiti's problems are centuries in the making, and powerful nations like the United

States have been fueling them.

If Haitians were allowed a fighting chance and were simply allowed the dignity in the humanity to simply govern themselves, Haiti would thrive and Haitians would be perfectly happy to stay where they are.

The history driving Haiti's crisis coming up on a word with me, Jason Johnson.

Stay with us.

Welcome to a Word, a podcast about race and politics and everything else.

I'm your host, Jason Johnson.

For many Americans, the nation of Haiti is synonymous with the word crisis.

The current government is in chaos, never having stabilized after the 2021 assassination

of President Jovenel Mouise.

As a cholera epidemic rages and gangs take over the nation's streets, many Haitian

migrants are scrambling for a way to get to the United States and claim asylum.

But there's no real way

to understand Haiti's current circumstances without understanding its history. And the way race and

revolution made it a target of persecution for the most powerful nations in the world, including

the United States. Join us to talk about it is Leslie Alexander. She's a professor of African

American and African diaspora history at Rutgers University.

...