The Dominican Republic and Haiti share the Island of Hispaniola in the Caribbean, jointly occupying a space of less than 30,000 square miles. Despite their close proximity, the differences between the two are abundant: whereas Haitians take strong pride in their African roots and speak Creole, Dominicans pay homage to Spain as their motherland, and speak Spanish. The list of differences between the peoples of the two peoples is large, yet the roots of these cultural dissimilarities lie in self-conceived notions of race, national pride, and ethnicity. In academia the concept of race is often defined as the unsubstantiated belief that some societally-chosen phenotypic characteristics are inherent to a specific group of people, and thus distinguish
…show more content…
In fact, not only do citizens of the Dominican Republic refuse to recognize their African heritage, in many ways they actively fight it. For instance, though many Dominicans would be considered black in the United States, most Dominicans use the term “indio” to refer to the ambiguous swatch of skin colors between black and white. Like Haiti, colonial Dominican Republic relied on the sugar plantations as the primary source of economic gain, though under Spanish rule. The first step in the formation of the present-day view of race and ethnicity in the Dominican Republic began when the capital of the sugar industry moved to Brazil. Sugar farmers were faced with the need for change in order to survive. Thus, the Spanish colonists of the Dominican switched to cattle ranching, thus setting the foundation for the unique, hybridized racial identity in contemporary society. With the onset of cattle ranching came the loss of the strict distinction between master slave, as was present in Haiti’s society during the time. “There was very little difference between the master and the slave, they were both riding horses, they were both wearing machetes…” Just as vudou formed a sense of shared nationality amongst the Haitian peoples, cattle ranching was the beginning of an imagined community for the people of the Dominican …show more content…
What followed was part two of the three-part transformation of the Dominican Republic. The death of the sugar industry allowed the existing black population of the Dominican Republic to occupy a higher socioeconomic class, one that was once limited to white people. As Sanabria describes, this socioeconomic shift allowed individual black people to undergo racial passing as “whites,” and over time this prompted a new ascribed identity as white people. Along with this change in race label, a self-ascribed sentiment of Hispanicity had also occurred. And so, the final part of formation of the racial fluidity present in modern day began during the United States’ occupation of the Dominican Republic. Americans had occupied much of the Dominican land to capitalize on the sugar industry, but offered wages so low that only imported Haitian workers were willing to do the work. The native Dominican population thus formed a sentiment of superiority towards the Haitian workers, or as Sanabria would describe, the birth of the hegemonic racism that persists in the country. As Gates describes, “[the Haitians] became a new class…Because they were so homogenous in terms of their hue…their blackness became a type of blackness which was different from that of Dominicans.” The resulting
In fact, not only do citizens of the Dominican Republic refuse to recognize their African heritage, in many ways they actively fight it. For instance, though many Dominicans would be considered black in the United States, most Dominicans use the term “indio” to refer to the ambiguous swatch of skin colors between black and white. Like Haiti, colonial Dominican Republic relied on the sugar plantations as the primary source of economic gain, though under Spanish rule. The first step in the formation of the present-day view of race and ethnicity in the Dominican Republic began when the capital of the sugar industry moved to Brazil. Sugar farmers were faced with the need for change in order to survive. Thus, the Spanish colonists of the Dominican switched to cattle ranching, thus setting the foundation for the unique, hybridized racial identity in contemporary society. With the onset of cattle ranching came the loss of the strict distinction between master slave, as was present in Haiti’s society during the time. “There was very little difference between the master and the slave, they were both riding horses, they were both wearing machetes…” Just as vudou formed a sense of shared nationality amongst the Haitian peoples, cattle ranching was the beginning of an imagined community for the people of the Dominican …show more content…
What followed was part two of the three-part transformation of the Dominican Republic. The death of the sugar industry allowed the existing black population of the Dominican Republic to occupy a higher socioeconomic class, one that was once limited to white people. As Sanabria describes, this socioeconomic shift allowed individual black people to undergo racial passing as “whites,” and over time this prompted a new ascribed identity as white people. Along with this change in race label, a self-ascribed sentiment of Hispanicity had also occurred. And so, the final part of formation of the racial fluidity present in modern day began during the United States’ occupation of the Dominican Republic. Americans had occupied much of the Dominican land to capitalize on the sugar industry, but offered wages so low that only imported Haitian workers were willing to do the work. The native Dominican population thus formed a sentiment of superiority towards the Haitian workers, or as Sanabria would describe, the birth of the hegemonic racism that persists in the country. As Gates describes, “[the Haitians] became a new class…Because they were so homogenous in terms of their hue…their blackness became a type of blackness which was different from that of Dominicans.” The resulting