Racism

cleobc99

New member
Jun 23, 2003
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I am truly glad I found your web site. I have been researching moving out out the US for some time and my major sources of infomation have not been as open and honest and this forum appears to be. Below is a query I sent to Ascot Advisory...and the answer....
You veiw are a real wake up...Thank you for your honesty.

John, I have been looking for a place to escape the many issues I have with
living in America. As a person of French Canadian, Indian, decent, with bi
racial children and grandchildren of a rainbow of colors, racism is high up on
my list of things I would like to leave behind. Of course economics and
political agenda are high up on my list also. I have been researching The D.R.,
Panama for a couple of years and one of the things I noticed was that on most
websites the people of the country on display tend to reflex only the Hispanic/
Euro population. I haven't found the truly negative articles about Panama only
economic disparities. But the articles about the DR are truly sad. You heavily
promote the DR and I guess I can assume your target group is mainly upper class
people of European decent. Where does that leave educated people of color who
realize that they are still limited by the racism here and want to find a place
on this planet where they can live and be accepted?

EDITORS REPLY: My experience has been that ironically enough, racism is more of
a problem and an issue in the so-called most democratic and free country on
earth (USA) than almost any other place on the planet. I do not know why it is
so, but such is one of the great mysteries of life. With that said, you do have
some forms of racism or more correctly discrimination throughout Latin America,
but I would tend to say it more economic than due to color or race. Meaning, in
many Latin-American countries it is very true that much of the wealth, land
ownership and large businesses are or were owned by descendants of the Europeans
(Spanish mostly of course). So, the upper crust of society and elite social
circles tend to consist of this group. Ironically enough, the Panamanians call
this group the Robbie-Blancos (or white robbers loosely translated) where as you
do not have such a terminology in the Dominican Republic. In addition, if you
look at the actual statistics, there is a higher degree of the population in the
Dominican Republic of mixed races than in Panama. So, it is difficult to
imagine race issues in a country where the majority of the population might be a
combination of Europeans, slaves brought over from Africa to work the
plantations and the native Taino Indian population. In other words, in the DR,
you have this combination that has resulted in numerous skin colors (ranging the
full spectrum) and some very beautiful looking people as well. I myself do not
consider myself to be white (as in the color of white paint) even though I
suppose that is how I am classified, although I do gravitate towards the pink or
red side of the color spectrum after two hours in the sun (I wish I were
tringueno or olive skinned color so I would not burn like a pot of cooked
shrimp), but such is what god gave me.

In any event, the point is, you have more of economic and social class
disparities than anything else, so it is not a case of racism as much (there are
poor white people too, and very wealthy not so white people as well I might
add). However, on the issue of Haiti (there are so-called white blond haired
blued Haitians there too, believe it or not) the Dominicans have a problem with
the Haitians trying to cross into the DR illegally and it just so happens that
the vast majority of Haitians are dark skinned. But this is not racism, it is
economics, just as the US has a problem with Mexicans trying to cross into the
US illegally (and I suppose most Mexicans can be called a shade of Trigueno
also) - who might be working illegally and taking away jobs from local citizens,
although that is another story altogether. In short, I do not know what you
read, but I have to say, considering all the different people and groups that
have settled in the country (Europeans, Africans, Arabs, Jews, Chinese,
Japanese, etc., etc.) the DR is one of the most tolerant places on earth that I
am aware of. Everyone has a chance to improve them-selves (if they want to),
and if you cannot get a job for some reason - create one. In other words,
start your business, which is most new immigrants have to do anywhere (who
always face discrimination) in the world due to a number of factors (language
being just one). The people from China and Korea know this all too well, and
they tend to succeed no matter where they go (most own the small grocery stores
in Panama, and many have the same kind of businesses in the Dominican Republic
as well). And this is something much easier to do (starting a business) in a
country that does not burden you with extensive regulations and other
bureaucratic nonsense. In my opinion, injustice and discrimination does indeed
exist throughout the world in different degrees and in different forms.
However, if you make your religion, your prior citizenship, your race, your face
or anything else as an excuse for not succeeding, you are only fooling (and
hindering) your-self. The ultimate last laugh is to succeed, and become
financially (and emotionally) well off, whereby the people that perhaps put you
down did not or could not do the same. :confused: :confused:
 

Timex

Bronze
May 9, 2002
726
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Hola cleobc99!!!!!!

I am moving this to the DEBATE FORUM.


DR1 has---
Members: 4,054, Threads: 22,691, Posts: 134,999


Do your homework (Search, Search, and Search again!)
Ask your questions.
And Good Luck!


By the way---
Welcome to DR1!!! :cool::cool::cool::cool:

Thanks
Tim H.

Help, and be Helped.
That?s why were here!!!
 
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