No offense taken, I know that the Cibao region is the most populous.
But during my one year stay in DR, I think the South is very mixed looking .
Based on a post by Cibaeno, I think the stereotype in the Cibao about Surenos is that they are all mulattos wich is not far from the truth.
I didn't travel all thru the south, but from Bani to San Juan and Las Matas De Farfan and surrounding campos, I saw alot of mixed and indio types . Bani has an ultra white area and my family there explained the historical reasons (my family is originially from San Juan)
Why is the South so poor and underdeveloped?

While his personal experience may or may not have happened the way he put it, I have one question for you:

Two people of equal in every single way (wealth/eductation etc.) go to DR on vacation.
a) Looks like a black model
b) Looks like lyle lovett

Who would the DR ladies flock to? Who's ever looks more pleasing to the ladies, or simply whoever is lighter? Think about it.


Definitely, whoever is lighter! Damn, look at some of the guys on the beach at Sosua or Costambar! Is it race...possible yes and maybe no! Maybe as someone just stated... they associate money with the lighter skin color! But my initial experiences occurred in Santiago en los Barios!

Nobody has an established explanation yet as to the why, but I fear that it's more for its relative lack of population when compared to the other two regions. More population means more votes, and more votes means more opportunities for engaging in clientelistic schemes. That's why you'll find that the majority of infrastructural projects of the country are either concentrated on la capital or in the Cibao. Although, as of lately, the rapid pace of touristic development in the east have provoked an increase of the attention paid to that region on the part of the political cliques of the country.

Then if you were in Santiago I don't understand your assuming DR=black. As to the experience itself, you have to understand that being the Cibao the most euro oriented zone of the Republic, it's a given that you'll likely see some instances of racism played here and there. I bet that if you two would have been on San Juan de la Maguana a different tale would have unraveled.

Then if you were in Santiago I don't understand your assuming DR=black. As to the experience itself, you have to understand that being the Cibao the most euro oriented zone of the Republic, it's a given that you'll likely see some instances of racism played here and there. I bet that if you two would have been on San Juan de la Maguana a different tale would have unraveled


I never said I assumed the DR=Black! But, what I saw when I first set foot in the DR was people with a darker complexion than what I expected to see! Until my boy got me on Jetblue, I really didn't know much about the country! Also, remember, in the U.S., Blacks come in different shades!

Are you willing to return? If so, please pay a visit to Bahia de las Aguilas (Eagle's Bay) on the coast of Pedernales. It has one of the most (if not THE most) spectacular beaches on the entire island. Although, it can only be accessed by SUV, cuz' the roads on that region are not properly paved.

USADR

I'm responding to your first few comments on this forum..
Please don't put all AA in the same category. Many White Americans feel the same. They just don't go out of their way to say it because they have nothing to prove being the majority.

When the slave masters, let's use the word procreated, with the Black slaves, it was an issue with property. If your mother was Black, obviously she was a slave and that would automatically make you a slave.. However, if the mother was white, then you'd be free. So in everyday terms: "To keep all the confusion down, anybody with one drop of Black blood was Black"

Another thing, Americans (White and Black alike) have a superiority attitude for the most part. And in general we think our way is the best way..Why do you think we're always meddling elsewhere?

If you're into anthropology, you should understand that the fight is over phenotypes. Phenotypes have absolutely no baring on the DNA story. It reveals the truth. But for now I won't go there.

So my question to you is this:

If a person is Native American, White and Black and they were born in the United States. What should they be considered?

It's been proven genetically that Black Americans are not pure African. I don't care what ridiculous group claims to be.

Do you realize that all Black Americans are not the same? What about the Gulla people of South Carolina. Their lineage traces back to Barbados. They are American born but speak with a heavy accent of English speak Caribbeans.

The term African American can be debated.. example:
Black African born.. made a U.S. citizen = African American
White South African born in South Africa .. made a U.S. citizen =African American.

Besides, Africans aren't chasing American Blacks down to claim them. Just like the East Indians don't claim the Indians born in Suriname, Guyana, Trinidad and Tobago. They consider them different.

Technically, nobody of color in the Americas is African. People of Color have traces of African influence (music, food, language) but that's about as African as you're going to get outside of skin tone in this hemisphere.

Even from your comment you make a point to distinguish a Black American from just being American. But you want someone to respect the fact that a darker Dominican is not Black .. just Dominican.. It could be a double standard if you're not careful. Can you understand where I'm coming from.

Now this mess about being descended from Haitians and this other pure crap is ludicrous and did not come from any person with a real education.

Dominicans are not the only people in the Caribbean or Latin America that fight against terms such as being Black or African. A Jamaican will tell you QUICK they are Jamaican and not African, except Rastafarians.. but that's a different subject.

Lautaro, feel free to comment please. I'd like to hear your thoughts.

Lautaro,

If you haven't paid any attention as of yet, all AA don't deem Obama as their savior.. Many don't think he's Black enough and he wasn't even born on the mainland but in Hawaii.. Most Blacks there are from the military. He is a 1/2 Kenyan (Africa) and 1/2 White raised partially in Indonesia and has experienced the upbringing of a White American family. He doesn't even know his father.. He is not your typical "Black American".. he may experience discrimination because of his phenotype but that's about it.

and last...

What do you think of those Dominicans who are American born that embrace being "Black" yet still be Dominican.. Is that a bad thing.. People such as Zoe Saldana..

About Obama, it's not him that I'm wary about (actually, I sympathize with the guy and share most of his views). It's the Congressional Black Caucus that I'm wary about, because it's not exactly a secret that they hate our guts, so to speak. It's a fact that on every contention that arises on DR-Haiti relations they'll always take the side of the haitians and consider us as good-for-nothing colonists, so you can't blame me for being wary of the influence that this group might exercise on Obama's foreign policy regarding US relations vis-a-vis Hispaniolan matters.

As for Zoe and other domyorks assuming their blackness, I don't have any problems with that, on the contrary, I'm a democratic man, so if being black makes them happy then they can go for it. What I have an issue with is the persistence of some domyorks of imposing the acceptance of one-droppism to the rest of the dominican people, considering that this "ideology" is a foreign thing and in my opinion philosophically evil, because it necessarily implies imposing the acceptance of only one heritage to mixed peoples to the exclusion of all the others based on superficial phenotype appearance, and that, on a country with tripartite heritage, is seriously asking for trouble. So, my only aspiration is for them to exercise their prerrogative of living according to their blackness if they must, but that in doing so to let us, the ones not sharing their philosophical views, to leave us be, without pointing fingers at us and exclaimming all their political correct bs, accusing us of denying "blackness" and all other related garbage, as if one needs to live according to what our phenotype's dictates and not our hearts.

On this "political correctness" matter, I'm in full agreement with the late Charlton Heston, specially when he made the following quotation: "If Americans believed in political correctness, we'd still be King George's boys - subjects bound to the British crown." or the following: "Political correctness is tyranny with manners." That's the tyranny that I'm afraid some domyorks (and AA's) are trying to impose on this country, and that's why on this matter they'll always find in me an opponent that will always clash with them head on.

Well I can respect that. The one-drop rule is foreign to most of Latin America. Some would say it's reverse as in the one-drop White rule.. LOL...either way it's senseless.

Everyone should be proud of their lineages and should be able to claim all of them if they're aware of it. Unfortunately, that's just not the case for Blacks in America. It's changing slowly but I wouldn't hold my breath.

I can't say much about the Congressional Black Caucus just yet. I know Obama makes it public that he is mixed. His words went something like this: My father is from Kenya and my mother is White American. My wife has the blood of African slaves running through her veins.

So even he made a point in making a difference between himself and his wife.. But the truth is.. There is a difference..Doesn't make one better than the other.. You know what I mean?