i never said race was something that didnt exist or anything like that. i said its not as important as it is here. here we seperate ourselves from other groups by our nationality.
in DR the first level of seperation is political.
then its wealth.
then its regional.
then its by regions within regions.
then it gets racial.
u will hear a dominican say "i dont like him because he is a PLD supporter", "i dont like him because he's poor", "i dont like him because he is cibaeno", "i dont like him because he is from santiago" before u hear a dominican say about a fellow dominican "i dont like him because he is darker skinned than me".
in this country, the very first level of seperation within its own citizenry is race.
it does not matter if 2 people are in the same political party, have the same amount of money, and are from the same exact town.
if one is black and the other is white, there will always exist a level of separation because of this countries history.
in DR, descendants of slaves and descendants of slave owners have been race mixing for more than 200 years. so racism, even tho it definitely DOES exist, takes on a different meaning. in america, an interracial couple still gets looks. black people and white people still dont know how to act around mixed kids. mixed people have an identity crisis sometimes.
in DR race mixing is so common that it has led to entire families with every shade under the sun in it.
again, i am NOT saying racism doesnt exist there. of course it does, even within families. but what i am saying is that race is not the first level of separation among dominican citizens the way it is among american citizens.