bob saunders said:Well, it is obvious to an objective reader that is familiar with the DR, that she has an agenda and a bias ( she is looking for racism) Her comments like the white Dominicans(the rich ones) and the black ones(the poor ones) and African (slaves) shown that her opinions were largely formed in the States before she ever went to the DR. Maybe the white girls she was with looked better that her, or maybe her attitude was all over her face.
Squat said:Well, I think what that girl wrote is true. Of course, me being white, I never experienced these things...
But it?s just the way it is down here... She should study Haitian and Dominican history to better understand why dominicans have a paranoia with darker skin people...
On the other hand, she should go to Haiti, where she would be perceived as a clear-skin mulato and have all the local men try to get her !
And, yes, wearing dreadlocked hair is not the best way to integrate in Santiago !!!!!
cobraboy said:She wears dreadlocks and Africal garb, and wonders why people treat her like she's black?
Exactly what does she expect?
I don't treat people like they are "black". I treat people like they are people.Chirimoya said:Please enlighten us on how to treat someone 'like [they] are black'. Are there any special things we need to do?
I suppose she, like everyone else, expected to be treated like everyone else.
My maternal grandmother was the first woman to apply to law school, be accepted, graduate, take the bar, pass the bar, and become a lawyer in a deep southern state...a loooong time ago, early in the 1900's .Snuffy said:Chiri, I disagree on the WASP comment. (And Chiri, I usually agree with you. You are one of the brighter lights on these threads) In the USA and here I have always attempted to treat people as just humans. Black or white...I start off assuming they are all the same. I am often disillusioned by what I see. In the USA, not every white person has the good life. So a white person applies for a job in a company where the hiring manager is black or brown. Do you think that hiring manager is not going to try their best to hire the same color as herself? For some white people this may just mean the difference between them applying for food stamps and not. Sure, right now in the USA it is not a wide spread problem but when does it become racism on an equal scale with what you consider to count. Isn't racism, racism?
Do you think women in the USA do not make an extra effort to support women? Trust me they do. I once had a recruiting company in the USA. Nothing big. But I sometimes found myself bringing in a woman to crack a company for me. I couldn't get a foot in past the female hiring manager. But my women recruiters could. So I know first hand about sexism.
It is just a fact of life in the world. You have to do your best to deal with it.
Did she experience racism and sexism. Of course she did. Everyone does at some point.
I freely admit I discriminate.Chirimoya said:Snuffy, thanks for the compliment and while I acknowledge that racism can go both ways, and that whites are not the only people who can be discriminatory, in general whites do get a better deal. I can't speak for the USA but I doubt it is any different there.
If I were to divide people according to definitions I would make the distinction between the bigots and all the rest, regardless of their colour.
cobraboy said:My maternal grandmother was the first woman to apply to law school, be accepted, graduate, take the bar, pass the bar, and become a lawyer in a deep southern state...a loooong time ago, early in the 1900's .
My mother was the first female administrator of a virtually all male engineering school in the deep south in the mid 60's.
My freshman college roommate was the first black athlete at a major southern university in 1970 (I knew him from competing against him for several years in HS)...because nobody else would.
You think I don't understand "ism's" as seen through their direct experiences?
Why is it that people say you "can't" understand "ism's" unless you experienced them first person? I say baloney. Any person with a microgram of empathy toward humanity can see it.
But for the Professional Victims, that isn't enough. They want to collect their reparations every day. And like a loan shark, the debt will never be repaid. The profit is too much, and greed overcomes.
cobraboy said:I freely admit I discriminate.
I never cut idiots any slack...:wink:
Someone said, "if you look for it, you'll find it".Chirimoya said:Are we debating whether she was imagining it, or whether she should just accept it because that's the way things are?