Every time I think of France doubling down on its racism I remember this speech, specially the following paragraphs.
Citizens, my countrymen, on this solemn day I have brought together those courageous soldiers who, as liberty lay dying, spilled their blood to save it; these generals who have guided your efforts against tyranny have not yet done enough for your happiness; the French name still haunts our land.
Everything revives the memories of the cruelties by this barbarous people: our laws, our habits, our towns, everything still carries the stamp of the French. Indeed! There are still French in our island, and you believe yourself free and independent of that Republic which, it is true, has fought all the nations, but which has never defeated those who wanted to be free.
What! Victims of our own credulity and indulgence for 14 years; defeated not by French armies, but by the pathetic eloquence of their agents’ proclamations; when will we tire of breathing the air they breathe? What do we have in common with this nation of executioners? The difference between its cruelty and our patient moderation, its color and ours the great seas that separate us, our avenging climate, all tell us plainly that they are not our brothers, that they never will be, and that if they find refuge among us, they will plot again to trouble and divide us.
Peace to our neighbors; but let this be our cry: “Anathema to the French name! Eternal hatred of France!”
Not today, it has an
OAS puppetdemocratic republican government. It has had 2 periods of time where it termed itself “Empire of Haiti” in manner similar to the Empire of France, as well as one in which it was a kingdom. The term empire is historically usually self-identified in messy ways, like Yankee Empire pretending they are not one or the very insular and isolationist First Haitian Empire taking the name anyways to position themselves as equals to the Europeans. Even going into the origins of the term in Rome it had nothing to do semantically with what we now term imperialism.