THE ISSUEs
FOR GENERATIONS, DOMINICANS HAVE BEEN TRAINED TO UNSEE, EXPLOIT MISTREAT AND FEAR HAITIANS AND DARKER-SKINNED BLACK DOMINICANS IN ORDER TO MAINTAIN THE RACIAL AND CULTURAL PROJECT OF DOMINICAN NATIONALITY. DOMINICAN ELITES, LIKE OTHER SPANISH-SPEAKING AND EUROPEAN DESCENDANT MEMBERS OF THE LATINX AND CARIBBEAN WORLD, HAVE BENEFITED FROM AN ASSOCIATION WITH U.S. IMPERIALISM AND WHITE SUPREMACY. THEY HAVE SHAPED A NATION STEEPED IN THE CASUAL CRUELTY OF ANTI-BLACKNESS AND ANTI-HAITIANISM. THESE TWIN EVILS FUEL AND ARE FUELED BY ECONOMIC INEQUALITY, GENDER DISCRIMINATION, SEXUAL VIOLENCE AND STATE VIOLENCE. THE DENATIONALIZATION OF DOMINICANS OF HAITIAN DESCENT IN 2013, FOR EXAMPLE, WAS ONE ACT OF STRUCTURAL VIOLENCE AMONG MANY. These social harms have only become worse with the rise of a far-right militia movement attacking Haitians migrants in the DR and critics of the Dominican government in the diaspora.
IN HAITI, NATIONAL ELITES AND THE MEMBERS OF THE CORE GROUP HAVE SIMILARLY ABUSED THE NATION AND ITS POPULATION. FOR GENERATIONS, BUT IN PARTICULAR AFTER THE 2004 COUP AGAINST THEN-PRESIDENT JEAN-BERTRAND ARISTIDE, THESE ENTITIES HAVE CREATED A CYCLE OF POLITICAL INSTABILITY, CORRUPTION AND STRUCTURAL VIOLENCE THAT IS KEEPING MOST HAITIANS LIVING IN FINANCIAL MISERY and physical INSECURITy. HAITIAN IDENTITY EMBRACES BLACK NATIONALISM WITH AUTHORITARIAN LEANINGS, BUT HAS LEFT LITTLE ROOM TO CONSTRUCTIVELY ADDRESS ITS WHITE AND LIGHT-SKINNED OLIGARCHY OR allow for all CONTEST STATE POWER DEMOCRATICALLY. THIS TOO HAS LED TO PERIODS OF EXTREME VIOLENCE, IDENTITY POLITICS and exclusion WITHIN HAITI. Todays’s security crisis is the result of these histories and the continued international trampling of Haitian sovereignty.
BOTH of our PEOPLES CONTINUE TO BE HAUNTED BY THIS TRAUMATIC HISTORY OF STATE SANCTIONED structural VIOLENCE. THE FAILURES OF LEADERS TO RECONCILE THIS PAST IMPACTS POLITICS TODAY. this history HAS ALLOWED THE NORMALIZATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS ABUSES, OPPRESSION, AND the kind of INEQUALITY that is fueling international migration. IT CONTINUES TO REINFORCE RACIAL-ETHNIC BOUNDARIES THAT PREVENT THESE GROUPS FROM COMBINING THEIR ECONOMIC, SOCIAL, AND POLITICAL POWER TO ADVANCE THEIR SHARED, island-wide and PAN-ETHNIC INTERESTS.
As a people in diaspora in the United States, there are also vast ideological and racial divisions among “Caribbean” and “Latinx” people. Afro-Latinx and Afro-Caribbean educators and organizational leaders have been saying this for decades. However, the debates about our identities and our political behavior have been co-opted and removed from people’s everyday experiences of labor and economic oppression.
Despite these challenges, we believe there is untapped potential to organize this Black Latinx and Black Caribbean population of 4 million people for a progressive, inclusive and just future, both here and there.
