Racializing Ethnicity in the Spanish-Speaking Caribbean

Abstract

After reviewing recent writing on the process of racialization, this essay examines the causes and consequences of the long-standing anti-Haitian prejudice in the Dominican Republic and the more recent anti-Dominican attitudes in Puerto Rico. Identifying the basic similarities and differences between the two cases of inter-group conflict, this article analyzes the social structures and cultural practices that marginalize ethnic minorities in the Spanish-speaking Caribbean. The author's thesis is that the precarious status of Haitians in the Dominican Republic and Dominicans in Puerto Rico is primarily due to their racialization. The public perception of both groups as black, hampers their full socioeconomic incorporation and externalizes racial prejudice and discrimination against foreign Others that are largely excluded from dominant discourses of national identity.

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