To all my dominican neighbours, I would like to know why the hatred towards haitians in the aspect of they want to take over the whole island under Haitian sovereignty. We've discussed history and revised it a million times over but I feel many,haitians & dominicans, alike never really learn why the two countries took different vias which is impeding harmony among the two nation who are fortunately or unfortunately stuck at the hip. I would like to know where,when, how was this seed planted that los haitianos son malos and secretly want to have dominicans speak creole and become haitians?

To all my haitian compatriots we've been struggling since 1804 where our country was/is manipulated by foreignors and wasn't even recognised for dismantling the economic monopoly of the europeans and literally striking fear that other negros/mulattos in the USA and South America would take arms to free themselves from physical bondage. At the same time we(government) have been the haitian people worse enemy due to selfishness, greed, and lack of responsibility. The minority of haitians that have the means seem to not want to share it on a leveling field with the rest of the population which are force to migrate to where they can survive. This survival instinct has cause haitians majority from poor backgrounds and little education to migrate to the dominican republic. We must realize that the first migration was done by american business owners who had sugar companies and needed cheap labour and hard working people to meet the quotas. So the dominican government along with the haitian government had an accord to have bracercos work in what is called bateyes for the zafra azucarera. We all know what happened during 1937 where our compatriots and also dominicans of darker hue were massacred. No need to revise this terrible moment that has scarred haitians and dominicans of darker hue.

Now in all fairness, I have to ask my compatriots to explain why do we feel dominicans are bullying us? If there is a hatred there were did it derive from and how,when, where did it all started. What do we ask from the dominicans? How do we perceive the dominicans as far as race,people, and neighbors?

Let's get this off our chest and counsel ourselves. I hope something good come out of this and we can learn to understand ourselves and each other better. I hope this uplift the mind,body and souls of the two nation who will have our children hopefully live a more respectful manner than in our times and the past. All we have to look forward is the future and look at the past to correct our not so kind ways we've treated each other.

Ok, I guess I'll be the first to answer my own thread. This is from a one haitian perspective and don't speak for the 8.5 million other haitians. In haiti there isn't an institutionalise propaganda where we are taught to hate the dominicans because they are the oppressors of our compatriots. Do to the influx of dominican prostitutes which control this industry in Haiti our mis-conception have lead us to believe that all dominican women are sluts, and will sleep with you married or not. Actually many young haitian men first experience is usually with a dominican woman from the "cafe" prostibulo. There is also a judgement with haitians that speak spanish well that they've been hanging out in the cafe too much. A respectful middle class haitian man marrying a dominican woman has alot of explaining to do. Another misconception we have are that dominican men are all gay and thieves. Many of the haitian gays in the community for some reason have lived in the DR and we have form a big misconception that dominican men have been forcing haitain men into homosexuality..converting them into queers.( is that politically correct) In all the average haitian doesnt even think about the DR nor have any animosity towards our neighbours. Although we feel that dominicans are "frekan" basically fresh to think that all haitians are dark skin and are in awe when they actually see haitians lighter or plain out white. Many in our society just shake our head and say silly dominicans only if they knew that they are a majority black country(although lighter skin). Due to the massacre and hearing often that haitians are beaten robbed, killed and disrespected there is some sort of contempt. Every time we here a compatriot deported and beaten we assume that it was motivated by racism and lack of respect for the haitian national. I think that many dominicans do not respect haitians and feel superior to us that is until they get a reality check from someone that doesn't fit that stereotype. Among the middle and up classes we just brush the non sense and deal with the situation the best we can. besides, many domincan middle and up class have great relationship with our parents and own businesses in haiti. So if we decide to go to the DR to study we already have a domincan padrino/godfather that will watch out for us and make sure we stay in the right class. Besides, we learn our parents business trade in the DR and get hands on training how to run business there and enjoy life. The propaganda is seen as that and we intermarry have great friendship and always stay in contact just in case thing hit the fan on either side we have somewhere close to still pull strings. Ok this is my experience and some of the misconceptions that I know about..I am sure that there is more..but I'll let others have a chance to share. Please read this as objective as possible and understand that we have no clue of each other and we have been living on the same island for centuries. I am letting thing out on the table for all to see then will pick them up and decipher the reasons for these misconception...

Well, from what I know, a part of the misconceptions that the people here on the DR have against haitians comes from a sector of the upper classes (specially the ones associated with the upper echelons of the Catholic Church) that fears that, were the haitian community to have some sort of political power, they would try to apply all those economic measures that were the reason behind the DR independence from Haiti in the first place, such as:

a) Extreme fragmentation of the land holdings. After Haiti independenced itself from France, a process of fragmentation of the biggest plantations of that country began in earnest, due to the fact that the new regime lacked the monetary resources to pay the soldiers that fought in the war for their toilings. So the generals of the native army (Petion in particular) decided to pay their soldiers with land. You can only imagine the shock experienced by the eastern hateros when suddenly they found themselves having to relinquish some of their best lands to the haitian gov in order for it to pay its soldiery with something.

b) Economic racism. Before the americans occupied Haiti on 1915, there was a clause on the Haitian Constitution (I don't remember which) that established a perpetual ban against the whites having any kind of land property on that country. During Boyer's regime over the whole island, this would be one of the measures that hurt the must the economical powerbase of the hatero land elites, because many of them found themselves having their land titles annuled for the simple fact of their skin tone. The Catholic Church was the other party affected by the measures, because the haitian gov. believed (and justly so) that it was a big waste of resources to let the Church have all the lands that it had if it would not cultivate them for the good of the country. Some people in the upper classes believe that if a dominican of haitian descent were to be elected as president of the republic, he would start a program of land redistribution that would hurt their interest just like the one implemented by Zimbabwe's dictator Mugabe have diminished greatly the power once held by the european descended elite. If there's one pernicious trait that those sectors of the dominican upper classes have copied from their american overlords, it is the extreme fear that they have of a black oriented political power.

Sorry to have given you this long and boring account, but I felt that I had to tell you something of what is on the head of these classy morons.

What do Dominicans think about haitians? I think that's been enunciated enough on some of the threads on this site so I won't go into a list. Jabao, very interesting on how our neighbors view us for the most part (the one about dominican men being gay was a first. The funny thing is that I hear a similiar stereotypes enunciated by Dominicans in reference to Puerto Rican men. LOL. It's just a silly circle)). It just shows that there are indeed serious misconceptions and it all boils down to an overall lack of general education on both sides of the island, that's why this nonsense has been perpetuated longer than it should.
You asked me what made me anti-haitian at one point. That's hard to answer because I can't pin-point a single event. It's all upbringing and things you here in certain circles. Also, looking at the world through first world eyes (I was raised in New York) haiti represented all that was bleak in the third world to someone that grew up with an American ethnocentric view of things. It bothered me that what I percieved to be such a dismal people and state shared an island from where I myself came from (In that sense some of my anti-haitianism definitely had north american roots). Subconsciuosly I probably felt that by Haiti being on the island with DR it somehow brang down the stature of DR in the eyes of the world. I'm sure it's still a perception held by many but what the world thinks or does not think of my people, or even the haitians for that matter, are no longer of any concern to me. I know who I am and who my people are. I think that's one aspect of the problem, Dominicans need to stop worrying about what the world thinks about them and worry about how they feel about themselves as a people.
I'm a big fan of history. When I first started doing research on my own history as a younger man I was incensed when I came across the dark chapter that involved massacres visited upon the ancestors of the modern Dominican people by individuals now held sacred by the Haitians. That didn't help matters too much for some time. With time, though, I've come to respect the Haitian Revolution and what it represents to humanity, though I still abhor some of the excesses that were committed back then but then I guess no radical revolution can be executed perfectly. Unfortunately some of the miscalculations and bad decisions of yesteryear are still having repercussions today. Some individuals held up as heros by both sides of the island need to be de-mystified so as to discuss and view these prominent figures as the individuals and fallable human beings that they indeed were but that's getting off tangent a little.
Another thing that changed my perception is this: I live in New York and I'm in constant contact with individuals from other cultures. Some of the other latin-speaking peoples here have negative stereotypes that are pretty much similiar to how Dominicans themselves view Haitians. I've heard other latins say that Dominicans are all a bunch of semi-naked illiterate blacks who live in squalor and can't speak correctly. If you change the word "Dominican" for "haitian" in the previous sentence you'll see no difference in how Dominicans view Haitians for the most part. I just decided one day that I wasn't going to live in hipocrisy anymore. I just didn't want to be part of the ridiclous and asinine circle of ignorance and hate that others perpetuate precisely because they are ignorant.

Cibaeno75, That was one heck of a post. And I commend you for overcoming ignorance and basically feeling comfortable of who you are without having to put down anyone. That's confidence my friend. Now I am going to give you some feedback about what I've read from you. I feel there is alot of dominicans like you mentioned upbringing and hearing so much negative things about their neighbour and the reality is that haiti is poorer had further fueled the anomoysity. I mean it is so easy to say let's not like the haitians. That's the easiest scapegoat and there is a time in history that also fuels the dominican pysche. As a haitians I always felt dominicans were atrevidos but with my father having always to go there for business I knew it wasn't that bad as he is a very proud haitian. I remember my first visit alone as a teenager to the DR it was a blast. I already knew spanish before going there so I did not have a hard time communicating rather I had a hard time understanding the local lingo but after six months I was mastering dominicanism I can't say I ever had a bad experience because of my nationality although I have had stupid comments on a periodic bases..Tu ere haitiano de velda'. The dominicans that live in Haiti are usually treated well and like royalty although if a certain type of dominican is doing illegal activities he/she is treated like a common criminal and nationality has nothing to do with it. I do recall a friend of mine darker hue haitian looking for an apartment and was having a hard time getting one. Dude was/is loaded with money but the places he wanted to stay I recall a landlord telling him he doesn't rent to haitians. I mean we are always going to find bigots racist in any society. It had worked out for him any way he find a better place in a nicer neighbourhood. I say for the most part dominicans aren't what the media makes them out to be oppressing the haitians for being darker although discrimination does take place but in many cases it doesn't. Actually one thing that we share in common is we judge by appearance..If a white colour individual is wearing a football jersey and white fresh nikes using slang he will be looked down upon and as oppose to a moreno with a polo t-shirt and nice pumas that speaks eloquently and uses the conditional tense. Dominicans in haiti are actually always hassled by a haitian to speak spanish so they can practice..that's the most I've seen a dominican get harassed. I've also seen a dominican lady asked a young boy if he was haitians and bought him a plate of food and gave him the change. I mean there are some good dominicans & haitians out here that don't feed into this propaganda. I think we need to break these misconceptions and heal our wounds that we've been carrying for over a century. We live on the damn same island and whether we like it or not we are all we have. And we must respect each other and have better economic relationships and intercultural ones so we can appreciate our differences..I can walk across the border and speak spanish and a dominican can come across the border and speak french/creole. We have something good man..yes the french/spanish oppressed both nations but we've become a sancocho respectively with our own spices. I too have heard hispanics make remarks about dominicans as black monkies or white(cibao) hillbillies that are ignorant and good for nothing but in bed. Ignorance is something that we can't control but we can try to uplift our wave length and show the world that we dont need intermediataries handling what we haitians and dominicans should resolve.

First off! I would like to say; that this was a ballsy move, Mr. Jabao, and hopefully u will get some insight into the Dominican psyche.
My family has been very anti-Haitian for generations, this is because of some of the atrocities that were committed by Haitians long ago. In fact some of my ancestors were directly affected by some of these unfortunate events, and their stories(and hate)have been passed from generation to generation. But I can say that things have considerably changed within the last two-generations and that’s because my family has gotten to know Haitians of a similar social class on a more personal level(I have been traveling to Haiti my whole life) . I like Mr. Cibaeño75, will not get into what Dominicans think of Haitians(because sadly this forum would be too small to contain such a list). I ‘m puzzle by Haitians abroad and the international communities current assault into the Dominicans Rep. when Haiti for the most part has the same problems with race.

It's all so silly when one take a look back at it all. As I understand things, the only thing that dominicans and haitians have been doing is ruining the chance of making a potentially better alliance between themselves than the humilliating ones that they have with other countries (specially the US).

The historical factory I guess. One thing I have noticed that I didn't realize is that some Haitians still believe DR belongs to them. There is an entitlement to a land that has been declared DR for numerous years. I guess another thing that is bothersome is that Haitians demand rights in DR as they should but I don't feel they do the same in Haiti. It's okay for Haiti to mistreat their citizens without a big protest or international campaign but if DR does it's a big deal and it gets overexploited by the media. I mean, honestly, I ask Haitians what is holding back Haiti??? I think its corruption which disregards and disrespects the people in the country. I mean, Haitians have been reported as to eating mud-cookies, what is the gov't doiing for you?? Any plans to change it around?? So the outcome is having poor Haitians poor, hungry, and in hopes of living better in DR. They do in part but at the same time I understand certain things need to change and will change. The language is also difficult for Dominicans. Not many Dominicans speak creole and they find it to be jibberish.

I've also never heard of this LOL

I agree with you FranktheTank. I think the international campaign waged abroad on the Dominican due to the discrimination of skin color is still a problem in Haiti. I don't get that double standard neither. FranktheTank and Cibaeno you should share some of the misconceptions of Haitians on this forum as we are all mature and are dealing in a civilized manner. I believe the only way to understand the issue is by stating some misconceptions.