"The Miami Heat staff, like Miami itself, is a diverse and brilliant mix of vibrant cultures, including many members of our Haitian community," the basketball team wrote in a statement shared on social media. "The false narrative surrounding them is hurtful and offensive and has sadly made innocent people targets of hateful speech and physical threats."
It continued: "Our Haitian employees, fans, and friends deserve better. Ansanm nou kanpé fò," closing with a Creole phrase that means "Together we stand strong."
Trump amplified the widely debunked claims about Haitians during his September 10 televised debate against Vice President Kamala Harris.
Conservative talking heads and Republican lawmakers — including Trump's running mate, U.S. Sen. J.D. Vance of Ohio — have since repeated the baseless assertion that immigrants living in Springfield, Ohio, are eating their neighbors' pets.
After the Heat shared its statement on Instagram and other social media platforms, countless users chimed in to thank the organization for taking a stance on the issue.
"Proud Haitian raised in Miami here!! I love the solidarity so much THANK YOU", one person commented on the team's Instagram post.
"Thank you for standing with us ✊🏾🇭🇹❤️," another wrote.
Offered another" "MESI AMPIL 🇭🇹🇭🇹🇭🇹❤️❤️❤️," using a Haitian-Creole phrase that translates as "thank you."
Enter the Trolls
While many praised the Heat for speaking up, others were less receptive."Stick to basketball," one person commented.
"Here we go," another wrote, "the Miami Heat going woke again."
"Thought this was a basketball team, not a political campaign," a third made it known.
The bigoted responses led a local Reddit user to start a thread whose headline pretty much said it all: "Miami Heat Posts in Solidarity With Haitian Community, Usual Suspects in the Comments."
South Florida is home to one of the largest Haitian diasporas in the United States, with the state's Haitian-American community estimated at roughly 500,000.
In the late 1970s, hundreds of thousands of Haitians migrated to Miami and settled in the areas then known as Lemon City and Little River. In 2016, the City of Miami Commission voted to dub the area Little Haiti, officially adopting the name many had long been using.
New Times' contacted the Heat front office for comment and will update this story if and when they get back to us.
