ambre said:
NALS, I agree with you to some degree on the fact that this article is very biased and doesn't begin to show all the complexities of Dominican culture, but to say that the DR doesn't not have it's fair share of racial conflict or a rejection of "black heritage" is out and out denial. In my short time here I have already encountered numerious situations that show the contrary.
I never said "the Dr doesn't have its fair share of racial conflict", that's something YOU assume based on... well I don't know what its based on since I never said or alluded to such.
People, please don't read beyond what's presented.
ambre said:
I am not an expert, but where my boyfriend lives, in the last 3 months 4 Haitains have been murdered and everyday there are instances of racial slurs against those who are more "black." People are constantly referring to "pelo malo" and how black is bad, etc...
Such example alludes to a completely different topic.
Racism, classism, sexism, and all the other "-isms" exist in the DR as well.
Again, I fail to see WHERE have I mentioned that those types of injustices don't exist in the DR.
ambre said:
Then I have my own personal experience. I work in a over-privilaged rich kids school in the capital, where the majority of students are "white" Dominicans. All I hear day in and out is "I'm not black" - many ignorant and negative references to being darker skinned, etc... I can't even begin to list exact quotes. All I can really say is that they as a group look down on being what the author termed "black." One student at my school who had "bad" long hair, was made to cut it all off, while the male students with soft, flowing hair are allowed to keep it long.
"Over-priviliged rich kids" also bully many of the sons/daughters of foreign dignitaries, foreign embassy workers, NGO members, etc. You should see how much those expatriate communities complain of their kids being ridiculed and mocked by the sons/daughters of the upper classes and most of the kids being ridiculed are white themselves.
Is that a case of "disliking blackness"?
Of course not!
Those are cases of classism and classism is often confused under the US race/ethnicity filter with racism.
I guarantee you that those kids will say xyz of what may appear to be racism, but if they have a "black" friend or classmate, they will often exclude such person from such comments. They will often say "I don't mean you, its
those people the problem" with the
"those" often being the poor.
Often times, the same will occur when they bully the sons/daughters of foreigners in those schools, which is a problem given the high number of complaints from such community in Santo Domingo.
Go ahead and do a little experiment and you will see what I am saying.
Its classism more than anything else, unlike in the US where a racial slur applies to the entire "race" regardless if the person is upper, middle, or lower class.
It is a fine line of classism and racism, but classism has the upper hand in that and many other aspects concerning this.
ambre said:
This is a culture of "gray" as you said - a melting pot, but as in the US which you said tries to impose it's theories on race, etc.... there are problems here. I don't know if you are denying that or are just not in agreement with the slant of the article.
Actually, neither.
The only problem here is that you are seeing beyond what is written, you are seeing things that I never alluded to or mentioned.
Please show me where did I said that the DR is problem free because I frankly don't see it anywhere in my response.
ambre said:
In any case, I think your quote below is inaccurate. I agree that the culture, actions way of thinking are "being Dominican, but to say being Dominican doesn't include a HUGE emphasis on the physical as well, well then your in denial too.
"Its true, being Dominican has little to do with the physical and more to do with the cultural, the actions, a way of thinking, a way of life, a way of living. "
I, as a Dominican, have NEVER entered a room and attempted to judge whose Dominican by mere looks and quite frankly I don't care and I have never met another Dominican who has done that.
ALL Dominicans, particularly Dominican expatriates, know whose Dominican the moment a person opens their mouth and THEN will the two - in a room where all the other peoples are not Dominican - approach each other and develop some rapport. How far such rapport goes depends on the socio-economic standing of each other, which won't take long to be demonstrated by the vocabulary, body posture, etc of each other.
Skin color and physical appearance is never an issue in those circumstances.
Sure, sometimes there might be a chino who might say he's Dominican and people might look at him funny... until he opens his mouth and all those Dominicanism comes out. At that point forward, the fact that he's chino means nothing... he's one us, a Dominican.
That is a completely different scenerio of what many African-Americans and European-Americans do when they enter a room.
If an AA enters a room, the first thing they look for is physical appearance to see if someone who looks like them is there and if someone is, they will gravitate to such. Based on that factor alone, the two develop rapport and maintain such rapport - unless one of the two happens to be Hispanic and at that moment the AA will get the vibe that the two "are not on the same page" as far as kinship and rapport goes.
Americans (not all) look for the physical to feel "secure, accepted, and at ease" in a setting where the other AMERICANS look radically different from the "minority".
Dominicans look for the cultural and the linguistic to feel "secure, accepted, and at ease" in a setting where the other people are not Dominican, and if the other people happen to be Hispanic and no other Dominicans are there, the Dominican will feel at ease with them -- regardless of looks!
Within the DR a similar thing occurs, with the exception that there no one is searching for another Dominican since most people are Dominican and that's obvious. What Dominicans in the DR do search for is socio-economic status and they seek those who are at their same level.
But again, the way such is decided is based on the cultural and not merely on the physical.
So I don't see this "denial" that you claim to see, I don't see where I stated that the DR is problem-free, and I don't see why you are seeing beyond the point.
Hopefully we can clear this misunderstanding which, to me at least, is typical of foreigner or even Dominicans who have been accepting of the US or Western views on race and fail to remove such "filter" from their observance of Dominicans and Dominican culture at work before their very own eyes.
-NALs