US Political Cartoon of the Occupation of Haiti

1917 cartoon by a US Marine exemplifying the culture of paternalism during US Occupation of Haiti (1915-1934), found in Renda's admirable "Taking Haiti." US Marine forces occupying Haiti looked down upon Haitians as children in need of a strong, stable, civilizing parent during that period (which, as Renda explains in her book, coincides with the growth of the American Empire and new meanings of what it means to be American, white, and male). And though most Americans today probably don't know Haiti was ever occupied by the US for so long in the 20th century, it was during those years that all the stereotypes of Vodou, zombies, and exoticized nearby Caribbean, Latin American, and Pacific societies became common tropes in film, radio, travel literature, and art.