Racism in the Dominican Republic

Racism in the Dominican Republic exists due to the after-effects of slavery and the African Diaspora. Today, many Dominicans have African ancestry, as most slaves were transported to South America and the Caribbean islands. Due to the influence of European colonization and European propagation of Africans or "dark-people" as lesser, being of African ancestry is often not desired or acknowledged in the Dominican Republic. Approximately 90% of Dominicans have some extent of African descent, however, few people self-identify as being black. According to Gates, only 4.13% of Dominicans identified themselves as black while the majority, 82% identified as "Indio".[1] "Indio" is a term to mean in-between "whiteness" and "blackness", so not explicitly black despite the facts that many Dominicans possess physical features much more similar to Africans. In the Dominican Republic, "blackness" is often associated with being Haitian and those who possess more African-like phenotypic features are often victims of discrimination.[2] The discrimination Haitians and Dominicans of darker skin tone endure led to the trend of Dominicans denying their African ancestry.[3]

Racial classification in the Dominican Republic

In Latin America, the mechanism used for racial categorization differs quite significantly from that in North America. In North America, the one-drop rule applies in such that if a person has even the slightest degree of African blood in them then they are considered black. However, in Latin America including the Dominican Republic, there is a bit more flexibility in how people racially categorize themselves. In Latin America people identify themselves mostly based on skin color and not so much their ancestry, hence this allows for more "racial fluidity".[4] For example, a person who has one black can identify as non-black if appearance wise they can pass of as being another racial category or racially ambiguous. Socio-economic status also heavily influences race classification in Latin America and tends to be associated with whiteness. In the Dominican Republic, those of higher social status tend to use lighter color terminology such as 'blanco/a', 'trigueño/a', indio/a, and claro/a to classify themselves.[4]

Discrimination against Haitians

An example of racism in the Dominican Republic and the prejudice against darker-skinned people is the relations between Haitian and Dominicans. The term “anti-Haitianism” has been coined to described the discrimination against Haitians by Dominicans. The development of anti-Hatianism ideology can be attributed to the years of the Spanish racist mentality, racial stereotypes, and the historical propagation of dark-skinned people as the "inferior".[5] Many Haitians have lost their lives as a result of this discrimination. The most notorious event that occurred was the massacres of Haitians in the Dominican Republic border region in 1937 under the order of former president, Rafael Trujillo. Approximately 10-20,000 men, women, children, babies and elderly, who were selected by their skin color, were massacred using machetes, guns or were thrown to sharks.[6] While many of the people who lost their lives were Haitians who immigrated to the Dominican Republic, some were Haitians born in the Dominican Republic and those of Haitian-Dominican descent.[7]

Contemporary incidences of Dominican discrimination against individuals of Haitian descent included the mass deportation of Haitians under the premise of purifying the racial state of the Dominican Republic. Following the earthquake that impacted Haiti in 2010, two weeks after the earthquake, the Dominican Government revoked citizenship by birth from the Constitution, thereby affecting the more than 800,000 Haitians who resided in Dominican Republic at the time.[8] As a result of the withdrawal, Dominicans of Haitian descent are denied the issuance of birth certificates at birth which is need to acquire the national ID card. Without a national ID card, these individuals are not allowed to get government documents such as passports and drivers licenses, and they are not allowed to vote or hold political presence in the country.[9] This is a systematic way to prevent Dominicans of Haitian descent from naturalizing or integrating into the society, especially politically. Despite this lack of representation, Haitians represent a large section of labor in the Dominican Republic and are subjected to slavery-like work conditions on sugar plantation.[5]

References

1. Gates, Henry (2011). Black in Latin America. New York and London: New York University Press.
2. Quinn, Rachael Afi (2015). ""No tienes que entenderlo": Xiomara Fortuna, Racism, Feminism, and Other Forces in the Dominican Republic". Black Scholar. 45 (3): 54–66. doi:10.1080/00064246.2015.1060690.
3. Jr, Henry Louis Gates (2012-08-01). Black in Latin America. NYU Press. p. 131. ISBN 9780814738184.
4. Rodrigues Pinto, Simone (2018). "Racismo de Estado e Anti-Haitianismo na Construção do Nacionalismo Dominicano". Meridional: Revista Chilena de Estudios Latinoamericanos (10): 45–70. doi:10.5354/0719-4862.2018.50855.
5. Telles, Edward; Paschel, Tianna (2014). "Who Is Black, White, or Mixed Race? How Skin Color, Status, and Nation Shape Racial Classification in Latin America". American Journal of Sociology. 120 (3): 864–907. doi:10.1086/679252.
6. Tarbox, Jeremy (2012). "Racist massacre in the Dominican pigmentocracy". Eureka Street. 22 (19): 20–21. Retrieved 14 December 2018.
7. "80 Years On, Dominicans And Haitians Revisit Painful Memories Of Parsley Massacre". NPR.org.
8. Tavernier, Latoya A. (n.d.). "The Stigma of Blackness: Anti-Haitianism in the Dominican Republic". Socialism and Democracy. 22 (3): 96–104.
9. Paulino, Edward (2006). "Anti-Haitianism, Historical Memory, and the Potential for Genocidal Violence in the Dominican Republic". Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal. 1 (3): 265–288. Retrieved 14 October 2018.