But the gathering at Mt. Calvary Baptist Church occasionally grew heated. One speaker said Haitians “have smells to them. They’re not like us. They’re not here to be Americanized. They don’t care about schools. They’re scary, folks.”
Other comments dealt with city police, which some said don’t have enough officers or funding to deal with issues caused by immigration and proper code enforcement.
If the city was able to adequately enforce housing codes, some said, it would cause a homelessness problem.
I was bullied relentlessly in school, but not by black kids. Maybe they understood being different, or the experiences of casual racism made them more empathetic, but it left a lasting mark.