Hour long documentary comparing the DR and Haiti

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Naked_Snake

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Sep 2, 2008
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Why so bitter?
Peter did not want to hijack another thread.

Some people need to learn how to use the search function. As it is, this one will end up receiving the closed hammer, since, like the previous ones, it also touches the ever forbidden R issue on this forum.
 
May 29, 2006
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Oh please. People bring up the same topic all the time. Just happened the other day with the stupid pallet construction idea, and those threads are only a couple days apart, not 10 months. See also using soda bottles as a light source, good pizza(why it isn't here), Sosua is about to die and the REAL taboo subject: Paying a shoeshine boy 100 peso. Good or bad?
 

Tamborista

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Apr 4, 2005
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Where can I buy a Sim card for my unlocked Roger's phone in Punta Cana?
Will my number still work in 31 days if I forget to give my DDDE her allowance to recharge her new Galaxy S4?
 

bob saunders

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dr1.com

the gorgon

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I watched it several years ago and though he seemed to have approached the subject with a mindset already in place and missed the ball on Dominican race relations.
Some in the USA are not too happy with the good professor either: How Henry Louis Gates Got Ordained as the Nation's "Leading Black Intellectual" | Black Agenda Report.
Never had my shoes shined so not up to date of the price. Definitely less than 100 pesos though.

those people in the US who are "not too happy" with Gates are simply not smitten with a guy who never believed in the notion of racial profiling until it happened to him. people like him and Orlando Patterson are wastes of air.
 

BoricuaKid

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Dec 6, 2013
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I watched it several years ago and though he seemed to have approached the subject with a mindset already in place and missed the ball on Dominican race relations.
Some in the USA are not too happy with the good professor either: How Henry Louis Gates Got Ordained as the Nation's "Leading Black Intellectual" | Black Agenda Report.
Never had my shoes shined so not up to date of the price. Definitely less than 100 pesos though.
And yet, they were quite smitten with him and his "Black in Latin America" documentary or at least, to the point that everything mentioned, especially in regards to the D.R., was taken as the Gospel. ;)

Didn't this documentary leave out the Cibao and mountainous regions of the island and obsessed over the Capital and coastal areas in terms of geography. Sad to see that folks leave out the campos/pueblos/rural areas and obsess over the major cities/urban areas. San Juan, Santo Domingo and Havana might be very fascinating and rich in culture but they shouldn't be the sole representation of their respective countries. You see something similar with Rio de Janeiro with Brazil and major Latin American cities.
 

Viajero

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Dec 16, 2011
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And yet, they were quite smitten with him and his "Black in Latin America" documentary or at least, to the point that everything mentioned, especially in regards to the D.R., was taken as the Gospel. ;)
It fits the Black Like Me narrative and gives certain types of people self validation.
 
Aug 6, 2006
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Gates designed his documentaries for the average American, who knows very little about Haiti or the DR. If you watch his technique, he simply presents acknowledged experts from both countries and asks them questions. I do not think he intended this one hour program to be an exhaustive commentary on 300 years of history and two cultures. I taught college Spanish in a historically Black college in the US and most of my American students did not have any idea of Black people outside the US. other than the usual stereotypes (voodoo, dreadlocks, bongo drums).

What Gates does, he does pretty well in the time allotted, I think.
 

BoricuaKid

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What Gates does, he does pretty well in the time allotted, I think.
Yet it still doesn't change the fact it help stigmatized the Dominican Republic and spread falsehoods over a thorny and complicated subject that was simply blamed on the "R" word, even if it does play some (to a certain degree) role into the historical conflict between both nations. I remember the documentary being mentioned on a article on The Roots, a blog/news site for African Americans and their issues (literally) that gave many some sense of entitlement to disparage and attack the Dominican Republic and it inhabitants based on the same tired falsehoods, stereotypes, presumptions and caricatures. The venom, the slander, the, again, hilarous sense of entitlement and self-righteousness of the commentators was truly of out of this world.
 

the gorgon

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Gates designed his documentaries for the average American, who knows very little about Haiti or the DR. If you watch his technique, he simply presents acknowledged experts from both countries and asks them questions. I do not think he intended this one hour program to be an exhaustive commentary on 300 years of history and two cultures. I taught college Spanish in a historically Black college in the US and most of my American students did not have any idea of Black people outside the US. other than the usual stereotypes (voodoo, dreadlocks, bongo drums).

What Gates does, he does pretty well in the time allotted, I think.

Gates has always been a lazy opportunist, who has held to the belief that it is always better when someone else does the heavy lifting.
 

Gurabo444

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I love how he calls some sort of Salsa or son Merengue hahahahah, how insulting for Dominicans, he didn't even try to get the national music right. As for the rest of the documentary, he obviously has the mind set of many many foreigners which is Dominicans = Bad self haters, and Haitians are proud good people.
 
May 29, 2006
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I didn't have any issues with it, and it is a very short time to cover two countries. I was quite surprised to see the Haitian citadel built after the revolution.

I was also interested in the two industries of sugar in Haiti and cattle in the DR.

He bashed the US for trade barriers to Haiti and occupying it, France for incurring debt(and their system of slavery) and the DR for the Parsley Massacre.

As for Dominicans being racial self-haters, there's plenty of that everywhere. In Jamaica, skin bleaching is a big industry.
Caribbean Fashion Week - Dance Hall and Skin Bleaching - YouTube

And there is the multi-billion hair industry in the US. The movie Good Hair covers that very well.

Looking more white isn't just about self esteem, it's also about economic mobility. Trujillo wore his make-up to validate his presidency on an international level as much as for his own ego. Thank god we've gotten past the thought that someone of mixed race can't run a country! :)
 

bachata

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Aug 18, 2007
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Gates has always been a lazy opportunist, who has held to the belief that it is always better when someone else does the heavy lifting.

His job is very informative, I've learn a lot my self watching his documentaries about the Hispanics and American people.

JJ
 
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