ELEMENTS OF A HIPPIE

Lately it seems as though our world has been in more turmoil than usual -or should I say that these horrid things are finally coming to light. I honestly don’t know where to begin. There was that one time that a police officer shot an unarmed black man. Oh wait … that happened more than once. Or how about the idiot who decided that he was going to murder 9 people in a church. No no no, how about the burning of multiple historically black churches in the south and the KKK reportedly recruiting new members. Let’s not forget a few weeks ago when a ‘stressed out’ officer wove his gun in multiple young black teens faces and continued my pinning a 15 year old girl to the ground, in Texas. I mean, this is just the tip of the iceberg.

Now, all of these are extremely disheartening. However, there is one topic that has been troubling me more-so than the rest. I would like to take a trip out of Amerikkka and talk about the despicable actions that are taking place in the Dominican Republic.

What’s there to know?

Well, if you haven’t heard, the constitutional court of the Dominican Republic declared that descendents of undocumented immigrants who settled in DR after 1929 will no longer have a citizenship (particularly targeted at Haitians and Dominicans of Haitian descent) in the Dominican Republic.

What does this mean?

This means that many Dominicans who have a Haitian background are now being overtly discriminated against (while it was done more discreetly in previous decades). Haitians who reside in the Dominican Republic are especially taking the brunt of the racial tension. I recently read that a Haitian teenage boy was hung in DR and I can most certainly bet that that isn’t the first or last time that this will happen. It’s sickening. Besides that, these people can no longer work, go to school or take care of themselves and their families. These Dominicans are being forced to go to another country (Haiti) for which most of them have no clue about the Haitian culture or even the language. This means that over 250,000 darker skinned Dominicans and Haitians living in DR are the target of brutal racism.

Here’s a video for you all to watch:
In this video, you will see a family describe the torture they have been going through and well this is one of the better stories. Some other stories depict people who have no food, shelter or way of communicating in their new home of Haiti. It’s deplorable how far racism goes. Especially within a country that (although many of them don’t want to admit it) IS BLACK by every standard.

Even better is this video below in which Juan Rodriguez describes what it’s like to be black in the Dominican Republic. He states that although it saddens him, he had to learn that his roots are not in Spain as most Dominicans are taught. He also stated that OVER 90% of the Dominican population are descendants of Africans.

While some people support what is going on in the Dominican Republic (although, I can’t see how) many others are claiming this to be a sequel to what happened in the 1930’s when Dominican dictator Rafael Trujillo commanded the killing of over 20,000 Haitians and Dominicans of Haitian descent. Upon research, I found that Trujillo believed that true Dominicans were a mix of Spaniards and native Tainos and that Haitians were inferior and repugnant descendants of Africans. The irony of the life of Rafael Trujillo stems from the fact that he himself was a Dominican of Haitian descent (as are many other Dominicans) .. talk about self hatred!

So, all these things cause me to wonder where the hate stems from. Especially, when there is so much more in common than not. Yes, Dominicans are a mix of Tainos and Spaniards (as are most of the Caribbean and West Indian islands, such as Jamaica, Cuba, Trinidad, Puerto Rico and many more) but there is NO DENYING that there are African roots as well. What’s so wrong with that? Being that many of my closest friends are Haitian, my heart bleeds for them and for our race going towards the future. It also causes me to wonder about the Dominican friends I do have; are they against this, are they for it .. do they consider themselves to be black, do they wish Haitians would stop migrating to their side of Hispaniola. It just makes me sad that during a time that we should be coming together -there is racial tension within our own race.

Sidenote: For those who don’t know – Tainos are Native American Indians – Arawaks to be specific.

Besides, if Dominicans were to go to Spain … what do they think will happen? Are those Spaniards going to welcome them with open arms? Lol, I didn’t think so either.

#BlackLivesMatter #HaitianLivesMatter #MelaninISBEAUTIFUL

xoxo Cielo.

What are your thoughts on this?