Antihaitianism In The Dominican Republic

Introduction In 2010, a popular Dominican newspaper, El Listin Diario, posted a series of racist cartoon depictions of Haitian refugees in their “funnies” section related to the aftermath of the horrifying earthquake that struck the French-speaking side of the island of Hispaniola. These comics negatively depicted Haitian refugees in the Dominican Republic, portraying clear and distinct lines of racial discrimination against Haitians within the drawings reminiscent of anti-Haitian ideologies established in the nation more than 200 years ago. While the negative representation of Haitians in the newspaper is disheartening, the subject of prejudice and racism against this particular group is nothing unfamiliar to the Dominican Republic. The complex

Issues in defining race and ethnicity, specifically in the Dominican Republic, have historically been built around the country’s relationship with its neighbor on the other side of the island. Notions of “dominicanness” and Dominican nationalism presented by elitist groups in the country post-independence during the late 19th century relied on racial ideologies such as antihaitianismo (translation: “anti-Haitianism”) to illuminate the supposed negative “African” characteristics that existed in Dominican society. According to author Ernesto Sagás, antihaitianismo is defined as a set of socially reproduced anti-Haitian prejudices, myths, and stereotypes prevalent in the cultural makeup of the Dominican Republic based on presumed racial, social, economic, and national-cultural differences between Dominicans and Haitians (Sagás, 7). Essentially, blackness was associated with being Haitian. In 20th century Dominican Republic, the most violent representation of this racist ideology in the history of the country would be the Haitian massacre of

Its limitations are based upon an extremely patriarchal perspective of Dominican culture. The exclusion of women from this study was not intentional. In reviewing sources from this particular time period, I did not find instances of women largely involved in establishing nationalist views in the country, nor did I encounter instances of intellectual or elite women promoting antihaitianismo. In addition, this essay also focuses solely on a Dominican perspective of race, nation, notions of blackness, antihaitianismo, and the Haitian massacre. While there exist multiple works today which examine a Haitian perspective of these themes, this essay is based upon how Dominican elites envisioned race relations in relationship to Haiti in Dominican society post-emancipation through the 20th