Fear of being black. The situation of black Haitian people in the Dominican Republic

Résumé du document

I don't have personal fears but like many of you I'm deeply afraid of extreme human behaviours. I was in Haiti and several times I heard people talk about their neighbour state, the Dominican Republic. Haiti and the Dominican Republic share the same island, Hispaniola, but they seem to live in a totally opposite way. In reality, I was really shocked when I read in the Haitian newspaper Haiti progrès the Dominican Vice-President's speech. He had said that everybody needed to find a solution to put a stop to Haitian immigration because they were invading the Dominican Republic. He added that the problem was that the Haitians were overpopulating their country because Haitian women are "giving birth like animals in our hospitals". When I read those horrible words I wanted to do more research about the relations between the two sides of the island.

Extraits

[...] The level of blackness determines the degree of beauty. That is to say that the racial question is so rooted in the Dominican mindset that the colour of the skin has become a beauty criterion. - The norms to determine how black a person is are the colour of the skin; but in fact this is a subjective factor in a country where the majority of the population is of mixed origin. So they also consider the nose's flatness, the hair's texture but also the weight of the wallet: if you are poor you're necessarily darker than another person, and if you are a black man you can't be rich! [...]

[...] But in reality it is not really a geographical problem: the wish of Dominican heads of state was not to separate two countries but to separate two peoples, two races. - Later on, from October 2nd to October 4th of 1937, the Dominican Republic dictator Trujillo ordered the mass murder, by knife, of approximately 20.000 Haitians. This horrible act of fear is still present in the memory of many. It was just a way, in his opinion, to stop the low profile racial invasion of the black Haitians in the country. [...]

[...] - On the other side, the Dominican policy is very strict with those migrants: Haitian people are often violently expelled from the Dominican Republic. For example, it is common for gangs to descend upon immigrant camps and kill most of its occupants: "Where there are two Haitians, kill one; where there are three Haitians, kill two," say the leaders of the mobs. always let one go so that he can run back to his country and tell them what happened." And not only mobs and gangs abuse of the Haitians: "By keeping Haitians in a limbo of illegality, the government can do whatever they want with them," said the Rev. [...]

[...] I'm convinced that it is a sensation we can and we must control: it is partly the role of education but it also needs personal work. - Finally fear can become a terrible weapon because a man who is scared is like an animal: he becomes aggressive and sometimes crazy, as a way to protect himself. - In the case of Haiti and the Dominican Republic I really believe that prejudices are so deeply rooted that it has became the norm to be xenophobic and racist against black people. [...]

[...] Conclusion - To conclude we can say that it is an aberration that such a high degree of racism still exists in the world and I'm really afraid to see just how far men are capable of going just because of the fear of difference. To my mind it is totally amazing to observe those kinds of acts and words against a people who are so close in so many aspects. - But I think this is the result of amalgams and ignorance. Fear is a subjective and an irrational feeling which can lead to extremist positions. [...]