An Ohio-based Reddit user who recently photographed a Black man holding a goose is desperately pushing back on claims being spread by the country’s biggest conservatives.
On the morning of Sunday, July 28, the redditor isitmeyourelooking4x came across an individual holding what appeared to be a dead goose near the corner of Cleveland Avenue and Taymouth Road in the city of Columbus.
A member of the r/Columbus subreddit, isitmeyourelooking4x shared the photo to the group’s more than 200,000 users that same day, totally unaware that the image would later become central to misinformation regarding Ohio’s Haitian community.
Over the past few days, conservatives have rapidly spread claims that illegal immigrants from Haiti have been eating pet cats, geese, and ducks in the town of Springfield.
Evidence for the claims came in several forms, including a Facebook post in which a woman alleged that her neighbor’s daughter’s friend had seen her lost cat being eaten by Haitians living across the street.
The post, which also accused Haitians of eating wildlife at a local park, was shared alongside the Redditor’s image on platforms such as X.
A police bodycam video of a Black woman being arrested in Ohio for allegedly eating a cat also went viral and fed into the anti-immigration narrative.
“Communities are begging city councils to address hundreds to thousands of indigent migrants living on their neighborhood streets…” one X user wrote. “This Haitian woman arrested in Ohio for allegedly eating a woman’s pet CAT!”
But all the claims have since fallen apart. The woman accused of eating the cat is not Haitian and was born in the U.S. She was also arrested in the city of Canton, which is roughly 172 miles away from Springfield.
Police in Springfield also released a statement regarding the Facebook post, noting that there “have been no credible reports or specific claims of pets being harmed, injured, or abused by individuals within the immigrant community.”
As previously stated, the picture taken by isitmeyourelooking4x was captured not in Springfield but in Columbus, nearly 50 miles away. The Haitians in Springfield were also granted temporary protected status, meaning they are not in the country illegally.
Even with every claim lacking evidence or being outright debunked, Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio), former President Donald Trump’s running mate, continued to fan the flames by citing rumors from his constituents.
“In the last several weeks, my office has received many inquiries from actual residents of Springfield who’ve said their neighbors’ pets or local wildlife were abducted by Haitian migrants,” Vance said. “It’s possible, of course, that all of these rumors will turn out to be false.”
Vance, like many other prominent conservatives, further responded by shifting the goalpost and arguing that the influx of migrants to Springfield were causing issues regardless of whether the pet-eating claims were valid.
The redditor responded with shock in an updated post that his image had become the focal point of the latest culture war talking point.
“Apparently my picture has been hijacked by right wing media,” they wrote. “This was NOT taken in Springfield. This is on Cleveland Ave in Columbus.”
In remarks to the Daily Dot, isitmeyourelooking4x, who declined to provide their real name over harassment concerns, expressed anger at his senator for adding fuel to the fire.
“I think it’s awful that right-wingers including Ohio’s Republican senator will take a random picture from the internet and use it as a weapon to further their agenda,” the redditor said. “The garbage they are spreading has been completely debunked, yet they continue to spread it.”
The redditor also noted that there’s no evidence whatsoever tying the man he photographed to Haiti, or evidence that he planned to eat the goose.
Still, the rhetoric regarding Haitians in Springfield has only amplified and, at least for the moment, has become the primary talking point among conservatives ahead of the 2024 presidential election.
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