DOMINICAN COLLOQUIAL RACIST LANGUAGE
The government discourse is promoted through the various policies supported by the government, however there is also a broader colloquial racist language that also plays into this broader racist discourse within the Dominican society.
SOME OF THE COLLOQUIAL LANGUAGE
These quotes are just a few of the quotes I pulled from a personal interview with a friend born and raised in the Dominican Republic. Their testimony is very interesting because it provides insight into an underlying racism in their colloquial language. As I have a personal connection, I know their statements were not meant to be racist. In the testimony, this person acknowledges that there is discrimination. A lot of this can be attributed to their education in the DR and what their history classes chose to tell them as kids. This person mentioned their colonial history and how the Haitians occupied the entire island, but since the Dominican side gained sovereignty, the Haitians still hold that against them. In addition to this, they mention that the island was empty when the Spanish colonized it and the French later brought the Africans, which represent the present day Haitians. They also make a claim that the Dominicans have always been Spanish. There are a lot of discrepancies in this recounting compared to the truth of the colonial history, especially in respect to the ethnicity of the population of Hispaniola as a whole.
The false discourse of the origin of Dominicans is directly related to the Trujillo regime and his discourse that all Dominicans are European and white, with no relation to Africa whatsoever.
“There are good ones, there are bad ones. There are a lot that unfortunately because of their way of life they don’t have a good education”
Dominican Resident
“So, their rites, they make rites like, satanic in their country. So they need to be in their country, not in our country because with us it is not the same. But at least they respect our religion”
Dominican Resident
"Here, the government is very flexible, in other parts because the majority don’t have papers and they have been accepted here without papers”
Dominican Resident
“The kids are not accepting in the same way”
Dominican Resident
It is my belief that my Dominican friend is not discriminatory, but has instead been influenced by the narratives supported by the government over the years. These discourses have been created in order to promote a homogenized society on the Eastern side of the island. Yet, the production of this colloquial racist language perpetuates the government discourses and ultimately supports their end game.