"Paternalism" and "Economic Equality"

Throughout "Taking Haiti" the term "paternalism" is thrown around as a way of justifying "international racism" (Renda, 51). Upon invoking the term "paternalism" America is creating a sense of compassion, "care, guidance, protection, and affection of the father for the child" (Renda, 104). However, in accepting the positioning of the US as the paternal caregiver over a marginalized and orphaned son, one cannot forget the "father's proprietary claims to, and mastery over, the child" (Renda, 104). By implying a sense of mastery over the "American Africa" marines such as Butler were able to distance themselves from the nation highly publicized for its density of black citizenry  (Renda, 36). However,  Renda constantly reminds us that paternalism is merely the understanding of a relation of power.

In highlighting the way in which Haiti was internationally marginalized, Renda points to the "forced dependency" of Haiti upon France (Renda, 51). In doing so, Renda illustrates the narrative of the majority black nation, forced to rely upon its historical owner to regain status and a false sense of independence in the international community. With the rest of the world abandoning any idea of solidarity with alongside the nation, without the blessing nation that historically enslaved them, the country is left to debt and an economy that is cut off at the knees with an agrarian market that cannot expand and must collapse in on itself.

In relation to last class, Woodrow Wilson was seen as the lead orator for the US in universalizing the entire Haitian population in an attempt to reject the idea of racism as promulgating throughout the Caribbean (Renda, 109). Though, this is when the ideal that this "liberal" democracy was putting an end to any racist sentiments, broke down. By unifying the identity of all citizens within Haiti, coupled with employing the idea that Haitians must prove their "economic equality" to be that of the white man, that Wilson ultimately conceded that the heart of the political philosophy lie in racist sentiment. Therefore, this goes back to the graph of progress that delineates the standard of the privileged white, imperialist nation, as the measure of "progress" away from an uncivilized "black" to the movement toward a more "modern" and "white" society.  There is a creation of sensationalist rhetoric in the whole idea of America as the caring father of a struggling, adolescent, Haiti that lends itself well to the idea not to the future of America as an imperialist nation, but a giver of aid to those struggling non-democracies (Renda, 15).