The Dominican Republic Hates Black People | Black Agenda Report

To borrow the phrasing of Frantz Fanon, in the Dominican Republic the cause is the consequence: you are Black because you are Haitian; you are Haitian because you are Black. This reasoning, circular though it appears, undergirds the logic of Dominican anti-Black anti-Haitianism. Carmen Mojica describes anti-Haitianism as the “present manifestation of the long-term evolution of racial prejudice, the selective interpretation of historical facts, and the creation of a nationalist Dominican consciousness.” This anti-Haitian and anti-Black racial prejudice emerged at the beginning of the European colonization of what they dubbed “Hispaniola,” the island shared by the Dominican Republic and Haiti. The Spanish inhabitants of the eastern side of the island were adamantly against the Blacks of the western side of the island who had defeated Napoleon’s armies in 1804 to form the first Black Republic—Haiti. When the newly formed Haitian state occupied the entire island to prevent the return of European rule and slavery, Spanish animosity towards Haiti increased. The push back against Haitian control of the island was accompanied by anti-Black propaganda; the Dominican elite—who always aligned themselves with the “whiteness” of Spain—talked of Haitians as heathens, savages, and African voodoo worshipers who were not fit for civilization. Because the Dominican Republic also had large numbers of Blacks and mulattos, they needed to create a sense of Dominican identity that had nothing to do with Blackness. To be Dominican, then, was to be Hispanic and Catholic, and anything but Black. To be Haitian was to be Black. In fact, despite its history of slavery, most Dominicans are loathed to describe themselves as “Black.”

via The Dominican Republic Hates Black People | Black Agenda Report.