Cesar Veras


My very first experience with racism, and being aware of it, started since my childhood days in the Dominican Republic. I remember there always being a sense of racial superiority between Dominicans and Haitians. Everywhere I used to go racist jokes where being made of this group of people and this only made me think as a little by that sometimes people are born superior to other people. Even though my family was always teaching me the right morals. Teaching me how everyone is created equal. The things that I used to see around made think otherwise. They made me think that I was better than this people.
The racial situation in the Dominican Republic is nowhere near what happened to African Americans. There is not any serious violence or segregation involved, but it is not the tangible things that hurt the psychological state of the human beings. It is the intangible ideas that make all the damage. Haitians in the Dominican Republic are growing up with some of the hatred that is expressed from native Dominicans. “Many Haitians were at times insulted just because of where they are from.” This makes the whole entire race being looked as a whole, and not as individuals like they are supposed to.
My personal experience in the Dominican Republic makes me think of the story “Uncle Toms’ Children,” by Richard Wright, when he says; “I was never under any conditions to fight white folks again.” The connection I drew back to my past is that even though it was not prohibited, playing or interacting with Haitian kids was not portrayed as the right thing to do in the society. Many stereotypes were going on, and even now that makes Haitian kids seem like an inferior race.