Racism in the Dominican Republic

The mixed-race population identify as "Mestizo" or "Indio" rather than Mulatto, preferring to acknowledge only their European and Native heritage, while those with darker skin and other traits associated with 'Blackness' face rejection and social exclusion.

The development of anti-Haitianism ideology can be attributed to the years of the Spanish racist mentality, racial stereotypes, and the historical propagation of dark-skinned people as the "inferior".

However, the discrimination may also be attributed to the Haitian military occupation of the now Dominican Republic from the years 1822 to 1844. barely a month after the colony of Santo Domingo became independent from Spain.

"[10] The majority of the population of the East of the island thus finding itself therefore immediately legally destitute from what had been their homes, farms, and lands, due to the white color of their skin.

For that same reason, the Haitian that enters lives afflicted by numerous and capital vices and is necessarily affected by diseases and physiological deficiencies which are endemic at the lowest levels of that society.

"[11][page needed] Approximately 10–20,000 men, women, children, babies and elderly, who were selected by their skin color, were massacred using machetes, guns or were thrown to sharks.

[14] The Good Neighbor policy was enacted by President Roosevelt in hopes of ensuring a mutual friendly relationship between the U.S. and the nations of Latin America.

Local Dominican civilians were compelled by the army to burn and bury the bodies of the victims, which played a role in the growth of Anti-Hatianism.

The rise of the sugar-plantation economy in the early twentieth century, as US sugar firms in the Dominican Republic imported Haitian laborers, led to opposition by the Black sub-proletariat.

Anti-Haitianism has continued to grow and diffuse during the last 60 years, as Haitian migrants to Dominican sugar zones and other areas—mostly far from the frontier regions—actually increased in number after the massacre.

According to Richard Lee Turits, author of the Haitian Massacre review, these migrants have been subjected to extraordinary exploitation and continual human rights abuses.

Despite this lack of representation, Haitians represent a large section of labor in the Dominican Republic and are subjected to slavery-like work conditions on sugar plantation.