Black Genealogy Between Haiti And The Dominican Republic

White supremacy is not a social issue that only affects the United States. In all parts of the world, people of color are seen as inferior compared to those with more standard European, “white” features. A place where this ideology takes a rather ironic twist is in the Dominican Republic. Although a grand majority of the Dominican people can be considered mulatto or of a mixed European and Black genealogy, many rejected their African descendants. Being “negro” is frowned upon in the Dominican Republic because it is a characteristic associated with the country’s neighbor on Hispañola, Haiti. The feud between Haiti and the Dominican Republic can be traced back to the 19th century and can be seen in modern times in the Dominican Republic’s attempt

In 1930, by form of political lobbying and torture, Rafael Leónidas Trujillo Molina became the president of the Dominican Republic and started the most despotic regime in the Dominican Republic’s history. Trujillo concerned himself heavily in the conservation of a white, pure Dominican race and the eradication of the Haitians in the Dominican part of Hispañola, an ideology comparable to Hitler’s. El generalissimo actually had Haitian descent again making him like the fuhrer who is believed to have been part Jewish. Trujillo even attempted to conceal his ancestry by wearing makeup to seem whiter. In 1937, Trujillo ordered soldiers to go to the borders of Haiti, hold up a sprig of parsley, and ask the people there what it was. Anyone unable to properly pronounce the “r” in the Spanish word for parsley, “perejil”, was considered Haitian and killed. The Dajabón River, which is at the border of the two countries, is fabled to have been replaced entirely with

A country that had already suffered economically and politically, was further devastated by the disaster. Haitians have migrated to the Dominican Republic long before the earthquake, but even more workers came to work in sugarcane and rice plantations in the Dominican Republic. This migration is economically beneficial to both countries, especially the Dominican Republic which desperately needs workers for plantations. Unfortunately, those who do come to the Dominican Republic in search of a better life are severely discriminated against. Most Dominican refuses such laborious jobs since they are educated and can pursue less strenuous occupations. However, the poorer, less educated Dominicans are resentful of the Haitians for taking what they think are their jobs. The influx of Haitians are also blamed for cholera outbreaks that happened in the Eastern part of Hispañola after the migration. Dominicans avoid buying things from Haitian vendors, fearing they will contract some form of disease. Haitians are victims of slurs and violence. Crimes against them are rarely reported. Many migrant workers feel powerless and refer to themselves as “ti malere”, little miserable ones, and “ti jwèt”, little