Racism in the Dominican Republic

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Racism in the Dominican Republic exists due to the after-effects of African slavery and the subjugation of black people throughout history. In the Dominican Republic, "blackness" is often associated with Haitian migrants and a lower class status. Those who possess more African-like phenotypic features are often victims of discrimination, and are seen as foreigners. [1] An envoy of the UN in October 2007 found that there was racism against black people in general, and particularly against Haitians, which proliferate in every segment of Dominican society.

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The Dominican dictator Rafael Leonidas Trujillo, who governed between 1930 and 1961, tenaciously promoted an anti-Haitian sentiment and used racial persecution and nationalistic fervor against Haitian migrants. Presidente Rafael L. Trujillo en 1945 (cropped).jpg
The Dominican dictator Rafael Leónidas Trujillo, who governed between 1930 and 1961, tenaciously promoted an anti-Haitian sentiment and used racial persecution and nationalistic fervor against Haitian migrants.

The Dominican Republic has a right of blood law, which bases nationality on ancestral lineage rather than land of birth. The country has a large population of Haitian migrant descendants who are not seen as citizens, and are considered "stateless" by some human-rights organizations. A 2013 study concluded that Dominican Republic was the second most xenophobic country in the Americas. [2] When individuals in the country were asked who they wouldn't want as neighbors, 15-20% responded those of "another race". [2]

Socioeconomic status and racial hierarchy

The Dominican Republic, like most countries in Latin America that were colonized by Europeans, shows a strong correlation between race and wealth. The upper and upper-middle classes of the Dominican Republic are overwhelmingly of European origin. [3] [4] The middle class is the class with the broadest colour spectrum [5] and is composed mostly of mixed race individuals of varying skintones, [4] while the lower working-class is darker. The underclass is predominantly black, with many being of Haitian background. [4]

People of predominant European ancestry in Dominican Republic have an economic and social privilege, and have strong representation in politics, business and the media, while those of African ancestry are in the lowest strata of society. Thus in the country whiteness is often associated with wealth, intelligence, beauty, and cleanliness, while blackness is associated with poverty, lower education, and unattractive features. [5]

Racial classification in the Dominican Republic

Due to the influence of European colonization and the propagation of Africans or "darker people" as inferior, being of African ancestry is often not desired or acknowledged in the Dominican Republic. The mixed-race population identify as "Mestizo" or "Indio" rather than Mulatto, preferring to acknowledge only their European and Indigenous heritage, while those with darker skin and other traits associated with 'Blackness' face rejection and social exclusion. [6] In Latin America, there is more flexibility in how people racially categorize themselves: they identify themselves mostly based on skin color and facial features and not so much their ancestry, allowing for more "racial fluidity." [7] For example, a person who has some degree of Black ancestry can identify as non-Black if they can 'pass' as such.

Socioeconomic status also heavily influence race classification in Latin America and tends to be correlated with whiteness. In the Dominican Republic, those of higher social status tend to be predominately of a lighter color tone as are often labeled as 'blanco/a', 'trigueño/a', or 'indio/a', while poorer people tend to be 'moreno/a', 'negro/a, or 'prieto/a', the latter category being heavily associated with Haitian migrants. [7]

Discrimination against Haitians

Migrants crossing the Dominican-Haitian border At the Border of Haiti and the Dominican Republic (8057179936).jpg
Migrants crossing the Dominican-Haitian border

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 describe the discrimination against Haitians by Dominicans. The development of anti-Haitianism 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". [8] . 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. However, the discrimination may also be attributed to the Haitian military occupation of the now Dominican Republic from the years 1822 to 1844. barely a month after the colony of Santo Domingo became independent from Spain. During this occupation, the Haitian government forced the French language into the documentation of the dominated Spanish-speaking colony, closure of the only university of the island and first university of the Americas, restrictions on the use of Spanish by the natives (despite that being their only language), [9] and stories are also told about restriction of hours of religious festivities, brutality of the military regime, among other forms of domination. During that time most of the inhabitants of the East side of the island were white descendants of Spanish people. The Haitian Constitution banned whites from having property: "12. No whiteman of whatever nation he may be, shall put his foot on this territory with the title of master or proprietor, neither shall he in future acquire any property therein." [10] The majority of the population of the East of the island thus finding itself therefore immediately legally destitute from what had been their homes, farms, and lands, due to the white color of their skin. This favored the migration of the whites back to Europe or other places, and favored an anti-Haitian resentment in the ones who remained .

"There is no feeling of humanity, nor political reason, nor any circumstantial convenience that can force us to look indifferently at the Haitian migration. That type is frankly undesirable. Of pure African race, they cannot represent for us any ethnic incentive. Not well nourished and worse dressed, they are weak, though very prolific due to their low living conditions. For that same reason, the Haitian that enters lives afflicted by numerous and capital vices and is necessarily affected by diseases and physiological deficiencies which are endemic at the lowest levels of that society."

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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. [12] 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. [13]

The Haitian Massacre
Date2 October 1937 - 8 October 1937
Also known as Parsley Massacre
TypeMassacre/Genocide
MotiveAnti-Haitianism/Anti-Black
ParticipantsDominican Army
Deathsapproximately 12,000-35,000

Trujillo's authoritarianism culminated in the 1937 massacre of Haitian peasants on the border with the Dominican Republic. Before the Haitian Massacre led by Trujillo, also known as the Parsley Massacre, President Lescot's had claimed Trujillo's motives behind his acts of violence towards Haitians in the Dominican border. Lescot's accusations of "material acts of violence and the continual violence of writings, practiced in the Dominican Republic against the Haitian People," challenge the idea of an economic, political, and military Pan-American solidarity that the US government had promoted since the inauguration of the "Good Neighbor" policy in the early 1930s. [14] The Good Neighbor policy was enacted by President Roosevelt in hopes of ensuring a mutual friendly relationship between the U.S. and the nations of Latin America. [15]

With Dominican civilians and local authorities participating in the massacre, many of them assisted the army by identifying and locating Haitians, while others helped Haitians hide and flee. Generally civilians who were recruited by Trujillo were prisoners from other areas of the country or local residents already tied to the regime. Local Dominican civilians were compelled by the army to burn and bury the bodies of the victims, which played a role in the growth of Anti-Hatianism. The rise of the sugar-plantation economy in the early twentieth century, as US sugar firms in the Dominican Republic imported Haitian laborers, led to opposition by the Black sub-proletariat. Anti-Haitianism has continued to grow and diffuse during the last 60 years, as Haitian migrants to Dominican sugar zones and other areas—mostly far from the frontier regions—actually increased in number after the massacre. According to Richard Lee Turits, author of the Haitian Massacre review, these migrants have been subjected to extraordinary exploitation and continual human rights abuses. [16]

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. [17] 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. [18] 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. [8]

The Aftermath Of The Haitian Massacre

Dominican dictator Rafael Leonidas Trujillo Molina in 1952 Rafael Trujillo 1952.jpg
Dominican dictator Rafael Leonidas Trujillo Molina in 1952

In October 1937, Dominican dictator Rafael Leonidas Trujillo Molina commanded his army to kill all "Haitians" living in the Dominican Republic's northwestern frontier, which borders on Haiti certain parts of the Cibao region. Many targeted Haitians were mostly small farmers, many of whom had been born in the Dominican Republic (and thus were Dominican citizens according to the Dominican constitution) and some whose families resided in the Dominican Republic for generations. The racial dimension to Dominican anti-Haitianism is shown as Haitians have been identified in the Dominican Republic as "black" in contrast to Dominicans. In the pre-massacre period, the colonization period served and gave voice to the anti-Haitian nationalism that had originally molded the concept of anti-hatianism.

Related Research Articles

Black is a racialized classification of people, usually a political and skin color-based category for specific populations with a mid- to dark brown complexion. Not all people considered "black" have dark skin; in certain countries, often in socially based systems of racial classification in the Western world, the term "black" is used to describe persons who are perceived as dark-skinned compared to other populations. It is most commonly used for people of sub-Saharan African ancestry, Indigenous Australians and Melanesians, though it has been applied in many contexts to other groups, and is no indicator of any close ancestral relationship whatsoever. Indigenous African societies do not use the term black as a racial identity outside of influences brought by Western cultures.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dominican Republic</span> Country in the Caribbean

The Dominican Republic is a country on the island of Hispaniola in the Greater Antilles archipelago of the Caribbean Sea, bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the north. It occupies the eastern five-eighths of the island, which it shares with Haiti, making Hispaniola one of only two Caribbean islands, along with Saint Martin, that is shared by two sovereign states. It is the second-largest nation in the Antilles by area at 48,671 square kilometers (18,792 sq mi), and second-largest by population, with approximately 11.4 million people in 2024, of whom approximately 3.6 million live in the metropolitan area of Santo Domingo, the capital city.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rafael Trujillo</span> Leader of the Dominican Republic from 1930 to 1961

Rafael Leónidas Trujillo Molina, nicknamed El Jefe ), was a Dominican military commander and dictator who ruled the Dominican Republic from August 1930 until his assassination in May 1961. He served as president from 1930 to 1938 and again from 1942 to 1952, ruling for the rest of his life as an unelected military strongman under figurehead presidents. His rule of 31 years, known to Dominicans as the Trujillo Era, was one of the longest for a non-royal leader in the world, and centered around a personality cult of the ruling family. It was also one of the most brutal; Trujillo's security forces, including the infamous SIM, were responsible for perhaps as many as 50,000 murders. These included between 12,000 and 30,000 Haitians in the infamous Parsley massacre in 1937, which continues to affect Dominican-Haitian relations to this day.

Racial discrimination is any discrimination against any individual on the basis of their race, ancestry, ethnicity, and/or skin color. Individuals can discriminate by refusing to do business with, socialize with, or share resources with people of a certain group. Governments can discriminate explicitly in law, for example through policies of racial segregation, disparate enforcement of laws, or disproportionate allocation of resources. Some jurisdictions have anti-discrimination laws which prohibit the government or individuals from being discriminated based on race in various circumstances. Some institutions and laws use affirmative action to attempt to overcome or compensate for the effects of racial discrimination. In some cases, this is simply enhanced recruitment of members of underrepresented groups; in other cases, there are firm racial quotas. Opponents of strong remedies like quotas characterize them as reverse discrimination, where members of a dominant or majority group are discriminated against.

Mulatto is a racial classification to refer to people of mixed African and European ancestry. Its use is considered outdated and offensive in several languages, including English and Dutch, whereas in languages such as Italian, Spanish and Portuguese it is not, and can even be a source of pride. A mulatta is a female mulatto.

Afro-Dominicans are Dominicans of predominant or full Black African ancestry. They are a minority in the country representing 7.8% of the Dominican Republic's population according to a census bureau survey in 2022. About 4.0% of the people surveyed claim an Afro-Caribbean immigrant background, while only 0.2% acknowledged Haitian descent. Currently there are many black illegal immigrants from Haiti, who are not included within the Afro-Dominican demographics as they are not legal citizens of the nation.

The Parsley massacre was a mass killing of Haitians living in the Dominican Republic's northwestern frontier and in certain parts of the contiguous Cibao region in October 1937. Dominican Army troops from different areas of the country carried out the massacre on the orders of Dominican dictator Rafael Trujillo. As a result of the massacre, virtually the entire Haitian population in the Dominican frontier was either killed or forced to flee across the border. Many died while trying to flee to Haiti across the Dajabón River that divides the two countries on the island; the troops followed them into the river to cut them down, causing the river to run with blood and corpses for several days. The massacre claimed the lives of an estimated 14,000 to 40,000 Haitian men, women, and children. Dominican troops interrogated thousands of civilians demanding that each victim say the word "parsley" (perejil). If the accused could not pronounce the word to the interrogators' satisfaction, they were deemed to be Haitians and killed.

Antihaitianismo, also called anti-Haitianism in some English sources, is prejudice or social discrimination against Haitians in the Dominican Republic.

Black Hispanic and Latino Americans, also called Afro-Hispanics, Afro-Latinos or Black Hispanics, or Black Latinos are classified by the United States Census Bureau, Office of Management and Budget, and other U.S. government agencies as Black people living in the United States with ancestry in Spain, Portugal or Latin America and/or who speak Spanish, and/or Portuguese as their first language.

The continent of South America is culturally and racially diverse. This article examines by country and region the current and historical trends in race relations and racism within South America. Racism of various forms is to be found worldwide. Racism is widely condemned throughout the world, with 170 states signatories of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination by August 8, 2006. In different countries, the forms that racism takes may be different for historic, cultural, religious, economic or demographic reasons.

Racism in Cuba refers to racial discrimination in Cuba. In Cuba, dark skinned Afro-Cubans are the only group on the island referred to as black while lighter skinned, mixed race, Afro-Cuban mulattos are often not characterized as fully black or fully white. Race conceptions in Cuba are unique because of its long history of racial mixing and appeals to a "raceless" society. The Cuban census reports that 65% of the population is white while foreign figures report an estimate of the number of whites at anywhere from 40 to 45 percent. This is likely due to the self-identifying mulattos who are sometimes designated officially as white. A common myth in Cuba is that every Cuban has at least some African ancestry, influenced by historical mestizaje nationalism. Given the high number of immigrants from Europe in the 20th century, this is far from true. Several pivotal events have impacted race relations on the island. Using the historic race-blind nationalism first established around the time of independence, Cuba has navigated the abolition of slavery, the suppression of black clubs and political parties, the revolution and its aftermath, and the special period.

<i>Blanqueamiento</i> "Whitening" of a race, such as marrying a white person so as to have lighter-skinned children

Blanqueamiento in Spanish, or branqueamento in Portuguese, is a social, political, and economic practice used in many post-colonial countries in the Americas and Oceania to "improve the race" towards a supposed ideal of whiteness. The term blanqueamiento is rooted in Latin America and is used more or less synonymously with racial whitening. However, blanqueamiento can be considered in both the symbolic and biological sense. Symbolically, blanqueamiento represents an ideology that emerged from legacies of European colonialism, described by Anibal Quijano's theory of coloniality of power, which caters to white dominance in social hierarchies. Biologically, blanqueamiento is the process of whitening by marrying a lighter-skinned individual to produce lighter-skinned offspring.

Racism has been present in Brazil since its colonial period and is pointed as one of the major and most widespread types of discrimination, if not the most, in the country by several anthropologists, sociologists, jurists, historians and others. The myth of a racial democracy, a term originally coined by Brazilian sociologist Gilberto Freyre in his 1933 work Casa-Grande & Senzala, is used by many people in the country to deny or downplay the existence and the broad extension of racism in Brazil.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dominican Republic–Haiti relations</span> Diplomatic relations between the Dominican Republic and the Republic of Haiti

Dominican Republic–Haiti relations are the diplomatic relations between the Dominican Republic and Haiti. Relations have long been hostile due to substantial ethnic and cultural differences between the two nations, historic conflicts, territorial disputes, and sharing the island of Hispaniola, part of the Greater Antilles archipelago in the Caribbean region. The living standards in the Dominican Republic are considerably higher than those in Haiti. The economy of the Dominican Republic is ten times larger than that of Haiti. The migration of impoverished Haitians and historical differences have contributed to long-standing conflicts.

The Haitian minority of the Dominican Republic is the largest ethnic minority in the Dominican Republic since the early 20th century.

Colorism in the Caribbean describes discrimination based on skin tone, or colorism, in the Caribbean.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Human rights in the Dominican Republic</span>

Human rights in the Dominican Republic constitute the civil and political rights and freedoms legally protected under the Constitution of the Dominican Republic and enforced by the government through common and statutory law. The majority of human rights disputes are presided over by the highest court of constitutional appeal, the Dominican Constitutional Tribunal. These rights and freedoms have developed over time in accordance with the Dominican Republic's expansion from the former Spanish colony of the Captaincy General of Santo Domingo to its modern state formation. The history of human rights in the state have also been marked by the oscillation between democratic administrations, such as the current presidency of Danilo Medina, and authoritarian administrations, most significantly the dictatorial regime of Rafael Trujillo between 16 August 1930 and 16 August 1938. As a member of the Organization of American States and the United Nations, the Dominican Republic is party to myriad legal treaties and covenants which propagate the human rights standards of the international community and have integrated the majority of these human rights directives into their domestic legislation.

Racial fluidity is the idea that race is not permanent and fixed, but rather imprecise and variable. The interpretation of someone's race, including their self-identification and identification by others, can change over the course of a lifetime, including in response to social situations. The racial identity of groups can change over time as well.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dominican Republic–Haiti border</span> International border

The Dominican Republic–Haiti border is an international border between the Dominican Republic and the Republic of Haiti on the island of Hispaniola. Extending from the Caribbean Sea in the south to the Atlantic Ocean in the north, the 391 km border was agreed upon in the 1929 Dominican–Haitian border treaty.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mixed Dominicans</span> Dominicans of mixed racial origins

Mixed Dominicans, also referred to as mulatto, mestizo or historically quadroon, are Dominicans who are of mixed racial ancestry. Representing 73.9% of the Dominican Republic's population, they are by far the single largest racial grouping of the country.

References

  1. ↑ 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. S2CID   143035833.
  2. 1 2 Fisher, Max (May 15, 2013). "Map shows world's 'most racist' countries". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on April 30, 2017. Retrieved April 30, 2017.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
  3. ↑ Foley, Erin; Jermyn, Leslie (2005). Dominican Republic . Tarrytown, NY: Marshall Cavendish. pp.  60–61. ISBN   0-7614-1966-7 . Retrieved 26 June 2015.
  4. 1 2 3 Howard, David (2001). Coloring the Nation: Race and Ethnicity in the Dominican Republic. Oxford, United Kingdom: Signal Books. pp. 50, 69. ISBN   1-902669-11-8 . Retrieved 26 June 2015.
  5. 1 2 Bell, Ian (1981). The Dominican Republic. Westview Press. p. 121. ISBN   9780510390426 . Retrieved 26 June 2015.
  6. ↑ Gates, Henry (2011). Black in Latin America. New York and London: New York University Press.
  7. 1 2 Rodrigues Pinto, Simone (2018). "Racismo de Estado e Anti-Haitianismo na Construção do Nacionalismo Dominicano" (PDF). Meridional: Revista Chilena de Estudios Latinoamericanos (10): 45–70. doi:10.5354/0719-4862.2018.50855 (inactive 31 January 2024).{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: DOI inactive as of January 2024 (link)
  8. 1 2 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. PMID   25848671. S2CID   29726288.
  9. ↑ de Granada, German. "Un caso de planeamiento lingüístico frustrado en el Caribe hispánico: Santo Domingo, 1822- 1844". University of Vallaloid.
  10. ↑ Dessalines, Jacques. "THE 1805 CONSTITUTION OF HAITI SECOND CONSTITUTION OF HAITI (HAYTI) MAY 20, 1805" . Retrieved June 27, 2023.
  11. ↑ Law, I.; Tate, S. (2015-05-19). Caribbean Racisms: Connections and Complexities in the Racialization of the Caribbean Region. Springer. ISBN   9781137287281. Archived from the original on 3 October 2020. Retrieved 2 October 2020.
  12. ↑ Tarbox, Jeremy (2012). "Racist massacre in the Dominican pigmentocracy". Eureka Street. 22 (19): 20–21. Retrieved 14 December 2018.
  13. ↑ "80 Years On, Dominicans And Haitians Revisit Painful Memories Of Parsley Massacre". NPR.org.
  14. ↑ Veldwachter, Nadège (2020). "How to Kill with Words: The Convergence of Dominican and German Rhetoric in the 1937 Haitian Massacre". Journal of Haitian Studies. 26 (1): 74–103. doi:10.1353/jhs.2020.0001. ISSN   2333-7311. S2CID   235056670.
  15. ↑ Longley, Robert. "The Good Neighbor Policy: History and Impact". ThoughtCo. Retrieved 2021-10-03.
  16. ↑ Turits, Richard Lee (2002). "A World Destroyed, A Nation Imposed: The 1937 Haitian Massacre in the Dominican Republic". Hispanic American Historical Review. 82 (3): 589–635. doi:10.1215/00182168-82-3-589. ISSN   1527-1900. S2CID   143872486.
  17. ↑ Tavernier, Latoya A. (n.d.). "The Stigma of Blackness: Anti-Haitianism in the Dominican Republic". Socialism and Democracy. 22 (3): 96–104. doi:10.1080/08854300802361554. S2CID   145602025.
  18. ↑ Paulino, Edward (2006). "Anti-Haitianism, Historical Memory, and the Potential for Genocidal Violence in the Dominican Republic". Genocide Studies and Prevention. 1 (3): 265–288. doi:10.3138/7864-3362-3R24-6231 . Retrieved 14 October 2018.
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