A married couple who fled Haiti for Virginia achieved their American dream when they opened a variety market on the Eastern Shore, selling hard-to-find spices, sodas and rice to the region’s growing Haitian community.
When they added a Haitian food truck, people drove from an hour away for freshly cooked oxtail, fried plantains and marinated pork.
But Clemene Bastien and Theslet Benoir are now suing the town of Parksley, alleging that it forced their food truck to close. The couple also say a town council member cut the mobile kitchen’s water line and screamed, “Go back to your own country!”
“When we first opened, there were a lot of people” ordering food, Bastien said, speaking through an interpreter. “And the day after, there were a lot of people. And then … they started harassing us.”
If someone screamed go back to my own country at me I’d have a really hard time not punching them. And yes, I live in a country that I wasn’t born in so I can totally see this happening. Luckily my second home country is full of kind people and not assholes so in the 7 years I’ve lived here I’ve never experienced something like that. The worst I ever dealt with was someone laughing when my pronunciation sucked. I just asked him in his native language how many languages he could speak. Shut him up right quick.
I’m a foreigner where I live but I’m white like they are and speak the local dialect so I “don’t count”
I also live in a country where I was not born, and it is full of kind people. I am very visibly different from most of the population, so people usually assume I’m a tourist. They always seem pleasantly surprised to learn that I live here.
I’ve been here almost three years, and I haven’t mastered the language yet, but people are usually really kind about my limited vocabulary.