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Americans classify race in a binary fashion by color one is either "black" or "white". In America one is considered "black" if he or
she has ANY amount of African blood no matter how little..it is called the "one drop rule" which originated in American slavery..
The white blood is ignored...there is no mixed race class in traditional American racial classifications...When Americans try to
apply this concept on other nationalities where nationality takes more importance over skin color they get misunderstood...
When a non-American says "I am not black.. I am Dominican" or " " I am not black I am African" The Afro-American is thinking
in terms of skin color ONLY and thinks that person does not like himself...because Americans have been brainwashed to put
skin color first...ahead of culture,language and nationality.
People coming from countries where the majority of the people are of color do not think in terms of color ONLY...Afro-Americans do because they have been classified as "black" by the white majority in America..
Americans classify race in a binary fashion by color one is either "black" or "white". In America one is considered "black" if he or
she has ANY amount of African blood no matter how little..it is called the "one drop rule" which originated in American slavery..
The white blood is ignored...there is no mixed race class in traditional American racial classifications...When Americans try to
apply this concept on other nationalities where nationality takes more importance over skin color they get misunderstood...
When a non-American says "I am not black.. I am Dominican" or " " I am not black I am African" The Afro-American is thinking
in terms of skin color ONLY and thinks that person does not like himself...because Americans have been brainwashed to put
skin color first...ahead of culture,language and nationality.
People coming from countries where the majority of the people are of color do not think in terms of color ONLY...Afro-Americans do because they have been classified as "black" by the white majority in America..
I do agree with some of your analysis but not all of it. You are right in that people from other countries put a lot more importance in nationality over skin color. People in the United States can see themselves as being 100% American while at the time can identify 100% with their race. I think many foreigners who have never been to the Unites States have a hard time understanding this type of identity, especially those from Latin American countries where nationality supersedes ancestral identity. Many of these Latin American countries with the exception of Brazil and a few others, seem to have a hard time separating racial identity from nationality. I'm not saying its right or wrong but it's just the way it is. The United States is the most racially diverse country in the world and receives more immigrants than any other nation on earth so it's not surprising why Americans would have that kind of viewpoint. Your example with Dominicans proves my point. A typical Dominican might say "I am not black.. I am Dominican" while an American if asked what is his race, he will say "I'm Black and if asked what his nationality, he will say "I'm American". That's the difference.
Last edited by gwillyfromphilly; 04-30-2014 at 10:35 PM..
Classic example..a white American friend went to Aruba she related to me she had a great time and she asked the
Arubans " Do you guys consider yourselves black or white? " They kept saying to her we are from Aruba..The question did not register to them..
I said you can't apply these American concepts overseas...That is like when some Afro-Americans go to Africa based on
Afro-Centric ideas and get shut down real quick..The Africans considered me Black American...they understood that, that
Africa was part of my heritage and we had some habits in common...ex: here we say "cp time" there they say "black man's
time" but they never considered me African and said they had the "pure black" way of doing things...
Classic example..a white American friend went to Aruba she related to me she had a great time and she asked the
Arubans " Do you guys consider yourselves black or white? " They kept saying to her we are from Aruba..The question did not register to them..
...
Aruba has its own skin color issues. Several years ago when an American girl was murdered there they tried to pin the crime on some blacks, when it turned out that wealthy local whites were guilty.
I am always amused when these people claim that they don't see color in their countries. All one has to do is go to the mansions and then to the ghettoes and compare who lives there and see that this is all nonsense.
True in Aruba, and true in the DR too! If the DR is that color blind, why does even the poster admit that the wealthy are predominantly white?
I will not debate about why the "white" classification increased from 16% in the late 1940s to 27% today, despite the fact that the only significant immigration since then has been from Haiti.
According to recent genealogical tests, the average Dominican is estimated to be 58.1% Caucasian, 35.2% African, and 6.4% Indigenous Amerindian overall
As i have been reading some posts here. I have found out the same pattern in other Web such as Yahoo answer asking about Dominican being in denial or self hate.
Am Dominican and I have been with Dominican my entire life. I was born in D.R. until the age of 12 when I move here to the U.S. I have been going back and ford to DR for 10 years. Yet I learned about us Dominicans hating ourselves or being in denial LAST YEAR(4 quarter) in a Youtube video made by African Americans.
This surprised me because I have NEVER in my life experience such thing around Dominican of the so call "self hate" and "being in denial". Topic about "race" is not something Dominican speak about since most Dominicans just don't care. Because Dominicans see a White Dominican as the same as a Black Dominican or a Mix Dominican. We are the same no matter skin color. It's also such a double standard with Dominicans. I usually found A.A. on the web saying how they always see Dominican having "self hate" issues and it's like if they find them on a daily basic yet i have NEVER spoke to those kind of Dominicans, even though all my life i been with Dominicans. Like i said there is this double standard with Dominican. I always ask people in Youtube: why don't you go ahead and ask any Dominican: ARE YOU WHITE? and see the 95% of them will tell you: NOOO AM NOT WHITE, AM DOMINICAN. Does this mean Dominicans are White Self haters?
Many darker Dominicans when they come here to the U.S often get grouped with AA. Many Dominicans don't like this or reject it. Which in many aspects is normal considering DR has a totally different culture and views race through a completely different prism than here in the U.S. An AA attacking this lacks a broader perspective.
Exactly...Americans cannot assume that the rest of the world views race as they do...When some AAs go to West Africa they get shocked when they get classified as "White" or dark White people..
Exactly...Americans cannot assume that the rest of the world views race as they do...When some AAs go to West Africa they get shocked when they get classified as "White" or dark White people..
When Africans classify AAs as "white" its with reference to their culture. They do not consider the average AA to be white. They just consider them culturally alien, and more like whites than like Africans.
The average AA does not have the slightest interest in Africa, or Africans. All one needs to do is go to places like Harlem where large numbers of both live side by side. Indeed the average AA only tolerates Caribbean blacks, despite sharing much in common with them.
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