The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) chapter in Springfield, where Haitian nationals are overrunning the small Ohio town, has emerged as a vocal proponent of the Haitian invasion. Any opposition to the town's takeover is "racist," NAACP Springfield's leadership says.
"I don't care if you're from Haiti. I don't care if you're from Africa. You're black," Springfield NAACP president Denise Williams told The Springfield News-Sun. "An attack on one is an attack on all of us."
According to the Springfield newspaper, Williams said she and the NAACP arm "will not let the community revert to the attitudes and practices of the 1950s and 1960s." She said the Haitians look just like black Americans and "hate toward them is damaging for everyone."
"I'm tired of all of this talk in 2024 about black people, whether they're from Haiti, whether they're from Africa, regardless of where they're from," Williams said. "Black people are black people and we ain't going nowhere, so they need to stop saying, 'Send them back where they came from.'"
Springfield city commissioner Krystal Phillips Brown, an outspoken ally of NAACP Springfield, lamented the "us vs. them" language she's hearing around town calling the Haitians "invaders."
Therefore, the local NAACP chapter has been hosting a series of tabletop discussions, titled "Welcome to the Table: Let's Talk Racism," in response to the "racist" and "discriminatory" rhetoric directed toward the Haitians dumped there.
In particular, the organization cited concerns that aggrieved community members have raised at Springfield City Commission meetings in recent months, although it was a black resident who went viral telling city commissioners that the Haitians are decapitating ducks in the public park and eating them.
SPRINGFIELD, OHIO RESIDENT SOUNDS ALARM: "[Haitians] are in the park grabbing up ducks by their neck, cutting their head off...and eating them!"
— Breaking911 (@Breaking911) September 8, 2024
pic.twitter.com/qlT4b7ClnP
At the first NAACP forum on August 8, the city's St. Vincent de Paul director Casey Rollins said, "Diversity is a fact. Equity is a choice. Inclusion is an action [...] Springfield is more than capable of achieving all of these ideals together."
One Springfield native pushed back at the City Hall "racism talk," saying that allowing an unprecedented amount of aliens to cross the U.S. border is causing chaos across the country.
"When it comes to Haitians, I'm an American. I don't care what color any person is as long as they come here to be an American, and Haitians are not here to be Americans; they're here to take what they can get from us taxpayers," she said.
At the second NAACP session on the subject, Jen Casto, another Springfielder, spoke in defense of the Haitians. "I may not walk in a black person's shoes, but I'll always walk right beside you," she said.
Diana Daniels, a frequent speaker at the city commission meetings, said some people's criticism of the matter is not based on race, but rather a cultural difference.
Williams objected, insisting that the issue is about race and non-black individuals don't understand racism.
"It is nothing but race; it is all about race," Williams retorted. "Nobody knows about race if you don't look like me because you ain't never experienced it [...] until you have experienced that, until you have walked in a black person's shoes, until the door has been slammed in your face because you're black, until the restaurant tells you you will not be served until you're black."
"Please don't tell me about race," continued the NAACP Springfield head.
Glenda Bailey, an opponent of the Haitian occupation, called the NAACP conferences "political Kabuki theater," with the majority of attendees being non-profits and "high-earning leftist whites."
"The only thing average working-class whites want is to be left alone to live our lives without others demanding more and more of the taxes that we already work six months out of the year to pay for," Bailey said.
Bailey also denounced the NAACP for having members of the Nation of Islam, an antisemitic black nationalist group, present during these events. Williams said that they were there to act as security and nothing else.
During the public comment period at the monthly city commission meetings, a number of longtime locals have expressed similar sentiments about the financial burden imposed on Springfield taxpayers by the immigration crisis.
Fellow resident Bruce Clay criticized a 2014 resolution proclaiming Springfield as a "Welcoming City" for immigrants.
"They sold the taxpayers out. We didn't vote for this; you guys did," Clay told the city officials. "Now we're seeing the repercussions."
Others in agreement said that "taxpaying citizens have become their economic slaves."
Nathan Clark, the father of the 11-year-old boy killed by a Haitian in a horrific car crash, has since spoken out against "intolerance" toward the Haitians.
On August 22, 2023, a Haitian national crashed a minivan, which he was illegally driving with a Mexican license, into a school bus carrying 11-year-old Aiden Clark and dozens of other elementary school students. The crash caused the bus to overturn and crush Clark, who was launched out of the emergency hash, to death on the first day of school.
11-year-old Aiden Clarke was kiIIed on his way to school in Springfield, Ohio.
— End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) September 9, 2024
His kiIIer was a Haitian illegal alien.
DHS (Biden-Harris) let him in. pic.twitter.com/oiuiJHEBjO
"We do not want our son's name to be associated with the hate that's being spewed at these meetings," Clark's parents previously said in an October 2023 statement shared by Springfield Mayor Rob Rue. "Please do not mix up the values of our family with the uninformed majority that vocalize their hate. Aiden embraced different cultures and would insist you do the same."
This year, at the September 10 convening of the city commission, Nathan Clark took the stage to express that he wished a white man had killed Aiden instead.
"I wish that my son, Aiden Clark, was killed by a 60-year-old white man," the deceased child's dad declared Tuesday. "I bet you never thought anyone would say something so blunt, but if that guy killed my 11-year-old son, the incessant group of hate-spewing people would leave us alone."
Father of 11-year-old Aiden Clark, who was killed by a Haitian migrant:
— Breaking911 (@Breaking911) September 10, 2024
"I wish that my son, Aiden Clark, was killed by a 60-year-old white man..."
pic.twitter.com/gYes0BBMJc
Denouncing multiple prominent Republican politicians, including Ohio Sen. JD Vance and former President Donald Trump, the older Clark claimed they're "morally bankrupt" by "using Aiden as a political tool" for "political gain."
"This needs to stop now. They can vomit all the hate they want about illegal immigrants, the border crisis, and even untrue claims about fluffy pets being ravaged and eaten by community members," Clark said. "However, they are not allowed nor have they ever been allowed, to mention Aiden Clark from Springfield, Ohio. I will listen to them one more time to hear their apologies."
To "clear the air," Clark said Aiden was "not murdered" but killed by accident. Aiden was "accidentally killed by an immigrant from Haiti," he said of the tragedy. "Don't spin this towards hate."
NAACP Springfield, meanwhile, is focusing on initiating a Haitian driver's ed program to prevent more car crashes.