Slavery in the Dominican Republic has led to a racial
disparity on the island and it has created a tension between Haiti and itself.
Haitians continuously got the short end of the stick throughout history and
being indebted to France certainly didn’t help. It is interesting when you look
back through the window of time and realize how the different types of labor
forced upon Haitians has molded the Dominican view of them today. To put it
into simple terms; a racial hierarchy was the byproduct of slavery.
In an
interesting article, Mallon points out
that mixture has become encouraged in order to whiten the country and further
deny black and indigenous identities. African slaves that were shipped to Saint
Domingue fought to preserve their culture by sticking to their Vodou practices
and other elements of culture. With time this has changed and actually went in
the exact opposite direction. I attribute this to the different jobs that
slaves had to do, mainly because they had to identify with that occupation.
For
example, darker skin was already looked down upon during that period, and those
of darker complexions ended up doing more brutal labor. The mind would place
these slaves at the bottom of the totem pole. This is associated with Africans,
but those of lighter complexion ended up doing more domestic tasks and ended up
in a better position than their darker counterparts. Women, while some of them
were wet nurses, the majority of them labored and had to fulfill sexual needs
against their will. One might say that the fallacy of darker women being
promiscuous was actually misconstrued because these women were being forced to
do this.
Mulattos
also had it fairly bad according to Sheller, the post-slavery transitional
period did not fare well for them either. Granted, the Haitians did revolt and
did gain independence but they were left in shambles. Plus there was still
terrible tension between skin colors. Years later the Dominican dictator
grabbed the reigns and murder thousands of Haitians only to further dig the
rabbit hole of hatred.
The
negative characterization we see now is a product of the enslavement period. The
pictures, the treatment, the lies, and the suffering yielded a social stigma
that shows Haitians in a very bad light, especially to Dominicans.
Edward Telles and Stanley Bailey
Published by: The University of Chicago Press
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1086/670268
Mimi Sheller
Published by: BRILL on behalf of the KITLV, Royal
Netherlands Institute of Southeast Asian and Caribbean Studies
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/41850025
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