If you think Mexicans (Or Latin Americans) have it bad in the US - check out Haiti.http://www.laht.com/article.asp?ArticleId=336087&CategoryId=14092
While Haiti is one of the poorest ($1,300 per capita in 2008) and least educated (47.1% illiteracy rate) counties in the Western Hemisphere - it's island neighbor The Dominican Republic is much better off ($9,209 per capita in 2008).
Haiti's racial majority is Black (90%) - while the Dominican Republic's lists "Mixed" (70%) as their racial majority, followed by White (16%) and Black (11%).
So even in a country with about an 80% Black majority (The Dominican Republic) - they still think that they're better than those "other" Blacks from across the border.
is this just a case study on the affects of affective leadership/governance?
ReplyDeleteI think people are under the dissallusionment that black people outside of the U.S. are just "happy-go-lucky", in a "we all get along without the white guy to oppress us" state of mind. Isn't so. People of all colors will find a way to hate their neighbor for being less-than or even slightly different. I don't really think it has anything to do with race. Race, ethnicity and skin color are just tools to justify the irrational hatred and desire for power and wealth.
ReplyDeleteHaiti has been at the heart of my beef with the push for imigration reform. It seems (to me anyway) that the fight for the rights of illegal imigrants only concerns the rights of a particular type of imigrant. Haitians have been trying to come to the Us since the 80's only to be turned away.
ReplyDeleteHere's the kicker though, they aren't trying to get here to "tek urr jubs". A majority of them are political refugees trying to to escape the ravages of what is essentially a failed state, but still they get turned away.
The DR/Haiti beef is a deep and long running one, which I believe stems from a bit of self hatred on the part of many in the DR. American is not the only country in the western hemisphere still dealing with the effects of slavery and colonialism in terms of racism, colorism, and self hatred.