Dominicans and racism

NOTE: Please forgive me if this topic has been discussed before or if this site shuns controversial topics. While I am not new to the site per se, I don't post often or visit often as I am not Dominican and will often not know what is going on. I am a part of this site because a whole wing of my father's side of my family are of Dominican heritage even though I really don't know them. I am trying to learn more about them as I anticipate a trip down there in the near future. I come here to get to know a little bit more about the Dominican people on a whole.
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After 20 years in Florida, I moved back to N.Y. I lived here before on two occasions but lived in the southeastern Bronx, ha a 7-year stint on my home island of St. Thomas and then moved to Brooklyn. I never really had much contact with Dominicans until within the past 10 years or so when in trips back home (St. Thomas) I started noticing their growing numbers there as well as on other nearby islands such as Nevis where my mother was born and also on St. Kitts where my dad is from and where I was raised.

I now live in middle Harlem just a few blocks southeast of the large Dominican population. I also hang out in a few Dominican clubs with my brother in the south Bronx. He just loves him some Dominican women (lol). Interestingly enough, the Dominicans always think I am Dominican for some reason but I think I know why.

Anyway, I found this opportunity quite inviting. I want to either write a book or do a documentary about the eastern Caribbean and their contribution to the Dominican society in the Dominican Republic. When I mentioned this to my girlfriend who grew up in Harlem, she offered me a word of caution. She said that I should not be surprised if [some] Dominicans, notably the "white" ones or the more fairer ones came off as racist. At first I did not pay it too much attention because I was wondering how racist could people be about their own skin color. I wondered because most of the Dominicans I met were my complexion (caramel color) or sometimes a little darker or a little lighter.

I then met another guy who grew up in Harlem who is married to a Dominican woman. I told him I wanted to go down to the D.R and he told me he has been there a few times. We eventually got around to the people and culture and I told him I had family there and wanted to meet them. Assuming my family were "outsiders" and probably of a darker complexion, he pointed to his dark skin and told me that down there in the D.R there are issues with skin color and he went on to tell me of some stories to back up his claim.

Just yesterday I was in Bloomfield, N.J buying some things when I asked a guy for some directions. While he was talking to me an older darker skin lady came up to him talking in Spanish and he replied in Spanish. Turns out that the woman was his brother's mother in law and she was Dominican as well as her fair skinned daughter next to her. I asked the guy if he was Dominican and he told me "no." He said he was from Belize. In the course of conversation we began to talk about the Dominican Republic a place he has been to many times and will be going back to in April. We got around to my plan and he said to me, "don't be surprised if there is some reluctance when talking to Dominicans about the segment of their society that comes from Haiti or your end of the Caribbean?" While he was saying that, he began to pinch his skin as if to imply skin color/tone is an issue down there.

What caught my attention in what he said, however, was that the "indoctrination" of the Dominican psyche in relation to skin color and the subsequent racism owes its prevalence to the dictator Trujillo. This was something I never even thought about. When he mentioned Trujillo, I immediately thought of Ulises Heureaux, the Dominican president who held power in the latter 1800s. His father was Haitian and his mother was from the THEN Danish West Indian island known as St. Thomas, my own home island now under U.S control. There are rumors that he exterminated native "white" Dominicans and may have been responsible for freely allowing Haitians as well as people from his mother's end of the Caribbean (the eastern Caribbean) into the Dominican Republic which the native Dominicans resented. Was Trujillo's reign retaliatory in part?

I just want to know our thoughts on this? I'm REALLY interested in getting more knowledge on all of this. Are the claims that I have mentioned unfounded? Is there really a history of racism in the D.R?

Ok, I'm not here to start any trouble and I'm sorry I do not know the history of this site or past threads. I'm also not one who shuns open discussion about race, politricks or religion. I just prefer respect despite the views. The three aforementioned things, unfortunately, keeps the ignorance and hatred brewing in this world. Just what it needs.

I am also a student of history. I love perspective and I love to piece things together in order to gather an understanding of the "whys" of history. I love to lead up to what makes people tick; what makes them think the way they do and so on. In fact, as I type this, I am watching the History Channel for precisely these reasons. I just happened to find this matter interesting. Here I am wanting to go to the D.R to find m family there and this other bit of info comes my way. I don't want to run from it, shun it or shove it under a rug. I want to explore it. It's fascinating to me.

Chip, I have always known of the friction between Hispanola's two peoples. That was not surprising. I guess what I found surprising was the friction I am hearing about between those Dominicans who might consider themselves ancestral Dominicans and those who might be deemed as "outsiders" from other places. Dominicans called them "Colitos?" (sp).

No need to fear or worry. I am doing research into a similar issue on St. Thomas. To give a little history and perspective this is what I am researching there.

The U.S Virgin Islands has a subtle issue going on that has not been given proper treatment. I never noticed it until I met my girlfriend. She is three generations removed from the Virgin Islands where her great grandmother was born, however, she is consumed with a love for those islands despite being born and raised in Harlem. I, on the other hand, was born in the Virgin Islands, but was a first generation Virgin Islander, as my parents came from the British West Indies. My girlfriend used to ask me about Dutch Creole which was spoken during Danish times (U.S bought our islands in 1917) which she used to hear from her great grandparents. I told her I was not even aware of this and I knew no such language. She would ask me other questions about the islands and I would have no idea what she was talking about. I would them mention some things to her about home and she would be in the dark. It became evident to me that the Virgin Islands is about two separate eras (now three).

You see, when the U.S purchased our islands, the islands, while strategically important to the U.S at the time, was extremely impoverished. As a result, many natives bolted for the states once they became citizens in 1927. This emptied the islands of natives. The vacuum was filled by Puerto Ricans (to St. Croix) and other peoples from other islands scattered here and there. However, after World War II, the tourist boom began as many U.S soldiers, stationed in St. Thomas during the war, decided to come back with their families for vacation. There was hardly a work force of natives to support to booming economy so a clarion call was put out for people to come in to work from other islands starting in the 50s. My parents came during the 60s.

What happened next was what happens everywhere. A new immigrant group came in and the locals were not fond of them for one reason or another. They settled in the poor and run down areas of Charlotte Amalie, our capital city. Fortunately, the resentment was kept to a minimum because there was still jobs and land to spare, but still, there was resentment. Locals frowned on the immigrants calling them names like "islo" and "garrot." The laughed at how they dressed. I grew up conflicted being born a Virgin Islander but to parents from "down island." On one hand I was born a "proud American" but to people from "those poor backward islands" to our southeast.

How times have changed though. My parents and their immigrant brethren eventually made enough money to move to other parts of the island. Replacing them in the old abandoned, dilapidated areas of "town" were, guess who? The Dominicans. Our islands are now crowded with Dominicans who have moved and are moving there via the island of St. Maarten/Martin and the nearby British Virgin Islands. Why? Opportunity AND the fact that any of these Dominicans have some ties to our islands by way of an ancestor who came to the D.R in the late 1800s all the way up to the mid 1900s and had children there of which they might be the grandchildren or great grandchildren. They might be Dominicans by birth but have last names like Richardson, Huggins, Tyson, Van Hennigen, Leonard, Thomas, etc. On their heels come the Haitians. As a result, we now have a new group of immigrants (Dominicans and Haitians, for example) who cannot relate to the previous group of immigrants (my parents) who in turn cannot relate to the ancestral Virgin Islanders who either remained on the island past the "transfer" from Denmark to the U.S in 1917 OR who came back from the states to reclaim their ancestry after stint in the states.

As a result of all of this mix up, there are some political leaders back home who are actually espousing the idea of making distinctions as to what contributes ancestral Virgin Islanders and just plain Virgin Islanders. This while the U.S INS make occasional purges of illegal immigrants which often nets many Dominicans and Haitians.

As you can see, I have a full plate to research. lol

Ezequiel said:

Great post chip as always.

TwentyFourSeven keep in mind that in a Dominican family you will find, white, black and brown members not just "white or Black".

In my own family you will find European white to Haitian black and i love each one of them.

My best aunt she is black and we call her "Tia Negra" nothing racist, and i have a uncle that looks Asian and we call him "Tio Chino".

What people in U.S find racist, doesn't apply in the DR.

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Hmm....interesting.

C'mon guys. I want to hear more about this stuff. No need to fear. Just come with the respect even if we disagree. You guys are my source, my light, my people. I just find this stuff interesting.

Thanks.

Chip said:

The only problem is if the moderators deem the tone is getting offensive, they will close the thread and warn if not ban the offenders. This topic has been discussed here on DR1 so take the time to use the search tool and see what you can find.

Also, as I can see now you defintely have a different perspective than most given your family history. The same dynamic where PR's are shunned in the VI is the same one that cause the PR's to shun Dominicans in the PR and part of the reason things Haitian in the DR are shunned. Keep in mind too that 10% of the population if not more are Haitian - this is quite a considerable percentage made worse by the fact that this is a very poor nation. Good luck.

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Thanks Chip. I will take a look around, but my perspective is interesting? Hmm...

Thanks Thandie and dcBlue.

Nal, forgive me for not checking. I'm no veteran here and I want to believe that my angle is a little different. I am not terribly concerned with Haitian and Dominicans. I know their story. I want to know about the other people whose families came from the other islands.

DOMINICANUSA said:

Since you mentioned you love history, here are a couple of historical facts that are relevant to your topic about the Dominican Republic that may help you:

1. Duarte, Sanchez and Mella are considered the founding fathers of the Dominican Republic. Sanchez himself was a Dominican of Afrodescendancy. From the beginning Dominicans of all races/colors united to overthrow the Haitian yoke.

2. Duarte, considered the leader of this group did not believe in any division of the Dominican people along racial/color lines. He was very much an idealist in his time.

3. Gregorio Luperon and Ulises Heareaux became Presidents of DR in a time when there was still slavery in neighboring islands. DR was way ahead of its time, recall that equality among all men regardless of race/color was pretty much a novelty at that time. Look how long it took S. Africa or the USA.

4. DR never had anytype of USA Jim Crow type racism, race based lynchings, race hate groups, and no racial wars/battles.

5. Look who is a multi-term president of DR now. He is not considered white.

Do not take it personal, I have nothing against you or your choice of topic, but I'm curious as to why I keep seeing this topic over and over again and usually by foreigners. What is it about DR that make them scrutinize it to the utmost? Surely there are tons of places where there are strong signs of racism, either now or historical. For example, Cuba. Or Jamaica, or Haiti, or Brazil.

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Not taking anything personal. Not sure if I mentioned it, but I have mentioned it either earlier in this thread or in another. My grandfather (father's father) and a few of his siblings left the island of St. Kitts for the Dominican Republic back in the 1930s or 1940s. He and some of those siblings ended up having children with locals. My grandfather moved back to St. Kitts, however, but he died in 1948 when my father was just 2 and obviously, long before I was born. As a result I had NO idea about this little bit of history in my family until in recent years.

Coupled with this is the fact that on trips back home to St. Thomas where I was born and both St. Kitts and Nevis where my dad and mom are from respectively, I began to notice more and more Spanish music, Spanish speaking and Dominican clubs all over the place. This drove my curiosity and in doing so, I found out that I had a link to these people who were driving my curiosity. Interestingly enough, I am often asked if I am Dominican when I am in St. Thomas because I am often in their company asking information. Folks walk up to me yapping in Spanish. LOL

After I moved back to New York 4 months ago to a place up against the large Dominican population here, I began to interact with them a little more. Of course I never sense any problems or have any problems with them other than some language problems here and there but it was just told to me by three people who either live with them and visit the islands or have lived around them all their lives. They just happen to mention to me that the issue of skin color is a big matter to them (generally speaking).

This was never my mission in my search for my family. It just came up as a "by the way" side note. I am sure this is not an issue with EVERY Dominican and I am not suggesting these people were saying that it was. I also realize off the top, Dominicans do NOT have a monopoly on holding grudges or skin color issues. It happens in Haiti, even resulting in wars over there and I have been to Jamaica 20 times to see it there also. We all know it happens here (in the U.S) and all throughout of the Caribbean. My purpose of this thread was just to hear the views from Dominicans themselves because I am sure there is a story, a reason.

I am not afraid to talk about it or know about it. I don't have my grandfather to tell me what it was like down there nor do I know any of his siblings to ask them. His whole generation has died out even though rumor has it that a sister and a brother are still alive down there. The family name is "Tyson" and one of his female siblings gave birth to a "Pastor Sams" from either La Romana or San Pedro de Macoris. Pastor Sams passed away a few years ago just after I met him for the first time by sheer chance. He was not well when I met him and only had but so much time to ask questions before he died. All I know is that he pastored some [Dominican] church in the Bronx before retiring to North Carolina and the info dries up there. I need to find that church. He was a towering, imposing dark man.

I know race, politics and religion are sensitive subjects to many. I'm just looking for info. I'm not here to point fingers or **** off anyone. If the subject might be too sensitive for you, maybe it might be best if you avoid it, no?


Thanks to all and you DominicanUSA for the info.