The damage has been done. It’s significant and lasting.
The lies distract from the real problem of allowing too many people into a small community already struggling with poverty, a substandard housing stock and a low income. More than one in five residents (23.7 percent) live in poverty. The median property value of $102,100 is 53% lower than Ohio’s. The town’s median household income of $45,113 is 39 percent less than the state’s $67,000.
The low cost of living and job availability made Springfield an attractive destination for people desperate to leave an unstable society plagued by gangs and violence.
They wanted a good life. They got dehumanized instead.
Lies are one thing. Over time, those can fade. But the liars have succeeded in demeaning an entire group by amplifying a tale sure to repulse most citizens — especially the white working-class Americans Trump needs to win the election. Those voters bought into Trump’s narrative of violent, dark-skinned immigrants who rape women, take jobs, and disgrace the American way of life.
The U.S. has let in some bad people who should be immediately deported. But they’re in the minority, not the vast majority. And understand that then-president Trump renewed Temporary Protected Status in 2017 for Haitian immigrants, giving them the right to live and work in the United States. Trump ended TPS in 2020, but if he saw it as a problem, why did he wait three years to take action? (Biden reinstated and expanded TPS in 2021).
Now, Trump and Vance have supercharged the immigration issue to appeal to the easily influenced who need fury to go to the polls.
They don’t care that their words leave behind a scarred community and people, and they don’t care that their lies hurt children and families.
How long will it take for students to stop asking their Haitian classmates what dog tastes like? We all know that kids can take teasing to an unkind level. How long will it be before they recognize that their peers and their families have been wronged for the sake of a vote?
When will Haitians, frightened by the rhetoric, take their children to the park again without worry? How long before the taunts die down when a husband and wife take their poodle for a walk?
How long before the Klan stops spreading racist leaflets and white supremacist groups stop going to the city? How long before the threats stop?
How long before more people drown out the noise and say, “Enough?”
Springfield has a long road ahead. It can’t do anything about those who suffer from the Illusory Truth Effect, in which people believe often-repeated lies, no matter how outlandish. Sadly, research shows that people will likely repeat the lie even in the face of new evidence that debunks the falsehood.
That’s what’s happening in Springfield. It’s disgusting.
It needs to stop, which is hard to do since Trump and Vance have cleverly switched from “it’s a fact” to “we’re hearing from people.” But we also hear from people that they’ve been abducted by space aliens, and we don’t spread that as truth.
I’ve said this repeatedly and will keep saying it until data shows otherwise, but I see Trump and Vance victorious in November. The immigration strategy is a winning one, and it doesn’t matter what the collateral damage might be.
The Haitian community is that damage. Those who refuse to believe the truth should be ashamed.
Ray Marcano’s column appears on these pages each Sunday.
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