Slavery In The Dominican Republic

In America today, there is a large and diverse African-American population. Within this population, there are several ethnic groups. The other ethnic group similar to Afro-Americans is Dominicans. Not only are they both minorities, but they also look similar as well. Both Dominicans and Afro-Americans are originally from Africa, but their slave masters separated them into two different cultures. African-Americans was African slaves of Americans, and Dominicans were African slaves of the Spanish. Hevesi of the New York Times says, "Dominican and Afro-Americans culture was formed from one ethnicity, Africans" (Hevesi 86). As a person of these two ethnic groups, I have two perceptions of my dual ethnicity. Among Afro-Americans’ and

Race and ethnicity is another important aspect in the nationalism of a nation. In the United States, racial differences are usually based on one’s skin color and physical characteristics as well as one’s origin, and they do not change due to varying classes or cultures (Marger 212). Before the twenty first century, the racial minority were highly discriminated, both socially and economically. But currently, there exist several races in America like the Asians, African Americans, Native Americans and the European Americans. On the other hand, Hispanics are racially assorted and are therefore an ethnic group rather than a race (Marger 133). Language is argued as the sole binder of the Hispanics other than skin color or other physical characteristics. They are in fact of mixed racial ancestry (Arreola 19).

Much to my own embarrassment, my Hispanic heritage had been a thing I hardly thought of. My Father left my family when I was young, and with him went the hopeful wisps I had of learning about myself. It’s not to say that I wasn’t aware that I was Hispanic, but rather, growing up in a mainly white household I didn’t think I had any right to claim my ethnicity. However, the more I look around me and learn about the community Hispanics have grown accustomed to, the more I find that I understand where I came from. To me, being Hispanic isn’t about what you were told when you were younger, or the traditions you grew up with. Rather, being Hispanic is about learning where you come from, and learning about those who share your same heritage. ‘Hispanic’

In Richard Rodriguez’s essay “Blaxicans and other Reinvented Americans,” Rodriguez supports his main idea that a person can choose their own identity by giving an example from his own life experience. Rodriguez shares that he met a mixed girl in San Diego at a convention of mixed-race where they have to identify themselves as one race. He says, “This girl said that her mother was Mexican and her father was African, [but the girl considers herself as “Blaxican”]” (lines 188-189). By calling herself “Blaxican,” she reinvented her identity by creating a new word, just like how Rodriguez said, “ by reinventing language, she is reinventing America.” (line 189)

Racial identification is harder than ethnic identification for most people to avoid. To explain this, in “Racial Identities” in the

James McBride can tell you firsthand about man verse racial identity. Journalizing his experience in his New York Times Bestseller novel the Color of Water simply outlined his struggles of finding who he was. His upbringing included a black father and a Jewish white mother. His background made it hard for him to understand why his home was different than others on the street. Although McBride experience shows an older outtake of racial identity, some may say this still is a problem today. Offspring feels the need to pick a race in society to succeed in the generation and it may be the step to understands them more. Notice in the subtitle of the book "A black Men tribute to his white mother" he label himself as just black as if there was a barrier between his mother and himself because the so different. Today we need to not let racial identity become a big part of our lives.

Within the Mexican community, competing notions of racial identity has long existed. Aware to gradations of color in race and their shading of white and non white identity, Haney Lopez introduces the

The first instance of colonialism forced upon the inhabitants of the Dominican Republic was the “discovery” by Christopher Columbus on October 12, 1492. Ernesto Sagas and Orlando Inoa presented the interaction in their book The Dominican People: A Documentary History. The confrontation between these two diametrically opposed cultures proved to be “far from equal; the Amerindians’ Stone Age culture was no match for European military technology. The initial encounter took place on the Caribbean island of Hispaniola, part of which is now the Dominican Republic” (Inoa pg. 1). This was the first step in a trek through five and a half centuries of Dominican Republic history, and unfortunately much of it was filled with

     Through our readings of the Mexicans in the U.S. and the African-American experience modules, we begin to understand the formation of identity through the hardships minorities faced from discrimination. In this paper, I am going to compare and contrast the ideas of identity shown through the readings. These two modules exemplify the theme of identity. We see how Blacks and Latinos tried to find their identity both personally and as a culture through the forced lifestyles they had to live.

“No te quede en el sol por mucho tiempo te va poner negro” Don't stay in the sun for too long you’ll get black.Those are words that I have heard while growing up. Growing up in a Dominican household the culture and beliefs are really strong. A culture that has been passed down through generations. A culture that has been accepted, however just because it's my culture doesn't mean that I have to accept it. In my family, lighter is better, more beautiful. It's not only my family, in Dominican culture being light skin tone is usually related to beauty and success. However, I don't agree with that, the color of your skin doesn't decide if you will be successful. It is who you are that decides that. It is hard to try to talk to the family about

Baseball was first brought over to the Dominican Republic in the 1870's, when thousands of Cubans came fleeing to the island nation in refuge from the Ten Years' War. Along with baseball, Cubans also brought with sugar producing expertise that had made them the largest sugar producer in the Caribbean. Sugar immediately became the Dominican Republic's key money-making export, but baseball took a little longer to come around. At the turn of the century, many British of African descent came to the Dominican Republic from St. Martin, Nevis, Tortola and other islands whose sugar industry was collapsing as the Dominican cane fields were expanding. These Cocolos brought with them cricket and more

The relationship between Haiti and the Dominican Republic isn’t exceptional and never has been since they come from completely different roots. Haiti mostly consists of African-Caribbean people that come from French colonies while the Dominican Republic mostly consists of people from Afro-European mixed blood from Spanish colonies. Before December 4, 1492, the Taino/ Arawak people lived in Haiti. During this time, the Taino/ Arawak people became allies with the Spanish and gave them gold as a gift. Little did the Spanish know that there wasn’t much gold in Hispaniola.

This means people should marry light skin people to improve their race and not marry dark skin individual because according to them darker people are not something to aspire to. Dominican Republican celebrate being Spaniard, however Haitian celebrate being African and their culture. Hatian are proud of being black yet they still confront racism from people who does not accept this. Racism is so permanent sometimes people would marry their own family in order to keep their race clean. Extreme actions like that are common in the Caribian due to the need of feeling like they are not black because according to them thats the worse thing

This tolerant attitude led to a wide range of “race classification.” According to how much “white” a slave had, their value in the eyes of society increased. Slaves could be black, octaroon or mulatto to name a few. Thus this led to a classification based on one’s degree of white blood. In the United States no such classes existed. If a slave was born to a black mother, that slave was black. In essence, Latin America judged based upon the degree of “blackness” while the South saw only two races, black or white. Outward appearance, the color of the father or anything else deviated the classification in the United States. It has been said, half-facetiously, that Southerners are color blind, in the sense that individuals, despite their racial composition, are considered to be either white or black, while Latin Americans recognized degrees of blackness and whiteness.

It has been centuries since slavery ended across Latin America and the United States, yet racial issues continue to plague these countries. Since manumission, the concept of race has evolved through the meaning societies have given it. While the idea of race is merely conceptual it has significant social and political effects. More specifically, through racial politics, these countries have been able to incorporate race in their agendas and implement racial politics in their laws and policies in such a way that perpetuates racial ideologies. One of the methods used to understand the role of racial politics and its effect on racial ideologies and vice versa is the race cycle model. The purpose of the race cycle model is to demonstrate how racial ideologies are improved, worsened, or maintained, but fails to explain how the cycle can lead to multiple, asymmetrical outcomes as depicted by the racial politics of Haiti and the responses of other Latin American and the United States following the Haitian Revolution.