By Handel T. Destinvil

In September 2024, after a candidate for public office asserts a blood libel against immigrants from your ancestral homeland, a journalist friend asks you for a quote for an article that is eventually titled, “Far From Ohio, Haitian Americans Feel the Sting of Threats in Springfield.” At the time, you remember trying to think of something profound to say. In the end, you can only voice your opinion that Haitians, including your mother and yourself, are real people. It feels silly to say, but what else can you say?

As you think back, you remember joking afterwards with your friend about your desire not to end up on a government watchlist. Later, when the candidate becomes the president and his regime traffics Venezuelan men to the “World’s Coolest Dictator” for storage at the largest prison in Latin America, you realize your nightmares lacked imagination. You are living a completely normal life in a completely normal country.

Handel T. Destinvil is an attorney and has lived in three of the five wards in Newark.

Featured Image: Tom Wiedmann Instagram: positivelytom_photos