Just for my information. In Santo Domingo can you tell me whether the dominant skin color of inhabitants of wealthy neighborhoods are the same as the poor ghettoes? In other words can one observe the same proportions of light and dark skinned peoples in each?
If skin color/race/phenotype isnt an issue in the DR (its clear that there are no ethnc/cultural differences between Dominicans of different skin colors which one might argue would lead to different values thus impacting socio-economic out comes) then one wouldnt expect to see any difference? If there is why do you think so? The DR doesnt have the legacy of slavery to the extent of say Cuba or Brazil to explain this.
My understanding is that the richest people in the Dominican Republic are of Lebanese Descent. Whether they are white or brown I don't know. I can't speak for Santo Domingo but in Jarabacoa many of the rich are far from being white, although there certainly are rich white Dominicans there. In my wife's family there are plenty of poor white Dominicans and certainly there are poor white Dominicans throughout the countryside. Now since the vast majority of Dominicans are Mulatto, with brown skin of various shades and features that can be a blend, pure caucasian with dark skin, pure negroid features with light skin, and every spectrum in between it would be hard to say that a ghetto of mainly dark people is poor because of the colour of their skin. The amount of dark skinned leaders with African features throughout the history of the DR would not support this theory. To say there are no racial issues in the DR wouldn't be true because there are, but it isn't the same as the USA or many other countries, it is uniquely Dominican.