Racism. The Global Operating System
Anti-blackness is a pervasive issue globally, and it seemed nowhere more than the inner workings of Haiti and Dominican Republic and it’s showing up in the New York congressional race. Adriano Espaillat’s camp called Darializa Chevalier “Haitian” like it was a slur. That’s the antihaitanismo being used in America in a policyic race not taking place in Dominican Republic. The man who made this type of racism a pillar of Dominican culture is Rafael Trujillo, which similarly to the republicans who hatethemsekves, had Haitian ancestry himself . Chevalier is also Trujillo’s mother’s last name. whose grandmother was mulatto Haitian. whose bloodline connects directly to the family of Toussaint Louverture. the architect of the Parsley Massacre was descended from the people he massacred. Antihaitianismo was never about blood. Haiti and DR share one island that Europeans colonized from both sides. Haitians have Spanish last names. Dominicans have French ones. the border is a colonial line. not an ethnic wall. it was built to separate Dominican identity from Black consciousness. from the memory of what Haiti represents the only nation founded by enslaved people who freed themselves by force. that threat has been punished ever since. by France. by America. by elites on both sides of that island. Calling her Haitian wasn’t genealogy. It was a containment strategy. She won anyway.
