John Legend spoke out on Thursday about the unfounded pet-eating conspiracies being spread about the Haitian immigrants of the musician’s hometown of Springfield, Ohio, calling them “hateful, xenophobic, racist lies.”
“Nobody’s eating cats. Nobody’s eating dogs,” Legend said in a video message on Instagram.
False claims about Haitian immigrants eating local pets in Springfield, Ohio have been going viral since Donald Trump insisted that the bizarre conspiracy theory was true during Tuesday’s debate—even after a debate moderator fact-checked him. The claim has been repeatedly debunked by Springfield officials and law enforcement.
Legend, an EGOT-winning singer and songwriter, grew up in Springfield, Ohio, living there with his family until he left for the University of Pennsylvania at the age of 16. He performed at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago last month and has been a longtime out-spoken critic of Trump, who Legend called a “tried and true, dyed-in-the-wool racist.”
In his video, Legend addressed the challenges and “growing pains” that his hometown has been experiencing with a recent influx of Haitian immigrants. He explained that the city’s population had been steadily shrinking over the past few decades because of a lack of opportunity and jobs—U.S. Census Data confirmed that the number of residents dropped from 70,718 in 1990 to 58,106 in 2020. But job creation has created a demand for a larger labor force that immigrants fleeing turmoil in Haiti are seeking to meet.
City officials have estimated that there are as many as 15,000 Haitians living in Springfield. Legend acknowledged the challenges that come with a 25 percent increase of immigrants to a city’s population, with differences in language, culture and dietary preferences, as well as an increased demand on municipal services.
“There are plenty of reasons why this might be a challenge for my hometown, but the bottom line is these people came to Springfield because there were jobs for them and they wanted to work,” Legend said. “They wanted to live the American dream, just like your German ancestors, your Irish ancestors, your Italian ancestors, your Jewish ancestors, your Jamaican ancestors, your Polish ancestors.”
The singer continued: “All your ancestors who moved to this country, maybe not speaking the language that everyone else spoke, maybe not eating the same foods, maybe having to adjust, maybe having to integrate—but all coming because they saw opportunity for themselves and their families in the American dream.”
Legend called immigrants “hard-working” and “ambitious,” and pointed out that they are less likely to commit crimes than native-born Americans—a 2023 Stanford University study found that immigrants are 30 percent less likely to be incarcerated than white U.S.-born individuals.
“They will assimilate and integrate in time, but it takes time,” Legend said. “So I think all of us need to have the same kind of grace that we would want our ancestors to have when they moved here with our Haitian brothers and sisters.”
Legend ended his video message by invoking the Christian tradition in which he was raised: “We said to love our neighbor as we love ourselves and treat strangers as though they might be Christ.”
“So, how about we adopt that ethos when we talk about immigrants moving to our communities and don’t spread hateful, xenophobic, racist lies about them?” Legend said.
