THE COMPLEX HAITIAN MENTALITY

You either got to be a Nurse, Doctor, Businessperson, Lawyer or Engineer, in order to be a person of importance according to Haitians.

Haitian mentality in a nutshell.

Ask a Haitian native or a Haitian American college student what they're studying, and I guarantee you that the majority of the ladies will say Nursing and the majority of the lads will say Business or Engineer. Now ask them why they picked those subject matters, and you'll either get well I want to help people (Nurse, Doctor), or the bold will say, "I need a career that makes money" (Business, Engineer), or you'll get the (my favorite) "I dunno" aka "my parents told me so". A lot of Haitians are very artistic, musical, poetic but yet we limit ourselves to jobs that requires us to sit in front of a box (PC) within a box (cubicle) and tek tek tek making someone else filthy rich (ooooooo I wonder who that could be).

When I was graduating from High School, I told my mother that I wanted to major in Art and she almost had a stroke. She looked at me said "KISA?! [WHAT]" and called everyone in the family saying that I lost my damn mind and that I was setting myself up for failure. She made sure to change my mind, by pointing to her skin everyday saying discordantly, "You see this, you you see this right here, ou nwo [you're black] ti neg [niggers] can't do just ANY job because of this". So the punk that I was, listened to her brainwashed ass and became the confused college student who changed their major 10 billion times and played it safe. Don't get me wrong I don't have any regrets, but I do wish that I had the ovaries to DREAM BIG and made my dreams my reality at a much younger age. My passion is art and writing; however I never thought of making a career out of them. I always sought them as side jobs or hobbies, something to do for fun, but never as a medium to encourage change. Granted I sort of rebelled against my mother's wishes of me becoming a Madame la Doctoresse and majored in a hard-to-get-a-job field, but I still have that complex Haitian mentality that pursuing anything else than Medical, Law etc are not considered intelligent work. I still struggle trying to figure out what I should get my Masters in and how I can incorporate art with something intelligent. I am pretty sure that NO culture is perfect, but why is it that countries that are considered "3rd world" have these complex issues? Yes it is true that we have dealt with some of the more socially destructive aspects of the great lie, that all humans have a potential equality, but why are we as Black people trapped by the limitation of our imagination by believing that our ability is limited. It's time we start listening to our hearts and being true ourselves. It's time we start taking risk and stop playing it safe. It's time for a change within; it's time to let our creative speak for itself and be heard.