Race And Ethnicity In The Dominican Republic

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Colouring the Nation: Race and Ethnicity in the Dominican Republic To most Americans, the Dominican Republic is seen as a beautiful tropical island, a perfect vacation destination. In his ethnography, Colouring the Nation: Race and Ethnicity in the Dominican Republic, David Howard explores the racial and ethnic makeup of native Dominicans. To the typical social geographer, the Dominican population would be defined as mulato/a, meaning mixed. Dominicans, however, dive into a much deeper classification system. Howard delves into this classification system and the numerous terms used to define race and ethnicity in a country as diverse as the Dominican Republic. He also explores the racial fault-line between Haitians and Dominicans, despite their …show more content…
Howard defines ethnicity as shared origins, interests, and experiences among a group of people. Race is defined as physical features or colors that are attached to social and cultural significance. The Dominican Republic, as a former part of the Spanish Caribbean, has an African past in addition to European colonialism. Howard cites this as a major part of the existing racial fault lines. 77% of the population are mulatos/as, 12% are negros/as, and 11% are blancos/as according to the most recent and reliable census, 1940, since in 1960, negros/as were not included in the census. Dominicans, however, mostly define race in color-coded terms like coffee, wheat, cinnamon, chocolate, etc… Howard mentions that there are no reliable statistics for the racial makeup of the country, yet it is possible that they have one of the greatest racial mixes. In this first chapter, he brings up a very interesting take on race: is it a term that can be legitimately used? There is such a large range of human genome resulting in an everlasting amount of colors and features. He proposes the idea that race is merely a social construct, as real as one believes it to be. However, this makes racial identity even harder to define. The next chapter delves into the anti-Haitian Semitism which exists due to. When asked ‘What does it mean to be Dominican?’ a Dominican’s common answer is “not Haitian.” Many Dominicans believe that Haiti stands for all the things that the Dominican does not: Africa and non-Christian beliefs. This is odd, considering many Dominicans have ancestry leading back to Africa. He cites that many Dominicans believe their ethnic identity to be constantly evolving due to a stanza written that he believes to be a representation of Dominican ideas about
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