This article focuses on categorizations produced in the Guadeloupean social imaginary about Haitian immigration. Discursive practices show that the Haitian presence in the French department alternatively acts as a racialized foil representing a form of enslavement or as a symbol of black brotherhood. This fluctuating relationship with otherness takes place in a configuration where racial conflicts inherited from the colonial era erupt quite unexpectedly. Using Haitian immigration as a case study, this article aims at questioning the racialization of identities in Guadeloupe, as well as the strategies implemented to renegotiate hierarchies passed on by the plantation society.