KOMPA! MAGAZINE

[Machiavel]

DOMINICAN REPUBLIC
U.S. puts Dominican club off limits, alleges race bias
In the Dominican Republic, the U.S. Embassy has ordered employees not to patronize a nightclub that reportedly discriminates against blacks.
Posted on Wed, Aug. 01, 2007Digg it del.icio.us reprint or license print email
BY FRANCES ROBLES
frobles@MiamiHerald.com
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Multimedia | A Rising Voice
The U.S. embassy in the Dominican Republic has barred its employees from a popular Santo Domingo disco, saying the nightclub routinely shuts its doors to blacks.

Roland Bullen, the embassy chargé d'affaires, made the announcement Monday after three black embassy employees were denied entrance to the Loft club July 22. The reason: one of the black women in the group wore braids.

''I make this decision with great reluctance,'' Bullen said in a statement. ``It is rare for an embassy to place a popular entertainment venue off-limits to its employees. But we condemn such discrimination, which violates Dominican law and U.S. norms.''

THORNY ISSUE

Nightclub admission for dark-skinned people has long been a thorny issue in the Dominican Republic, where many people are descendants of African slaves. The country has a bitter history of resentment toward neighboring Haiti, which many black people say manifests itself in discrimination against dark-skinned people.

One Dominican woman was shot and killed by a club bouncer in September after she argued with him for refusing to let her black friends enter. And an Afro-Dominican academic said he was so furious at having been refused entry at night clubs that he recently brought a camera to film bouncers as they opened their doors only for lighter-skinned patrons.

The U.S. embassy has heard the same kinds of complaints for years, as African American foreign service workers and U.S. Marines were regularly rejected.

'We'd go out in a group, black and white, and the white people would get in and they'd say to us, `Oh no, we're full,' '' said Tawnie McNeil, an African American who served as cultural attaché at the U.S. embassy 2003-2005. 'I would say, `Really? You just let 20 white people in.' And they'd say, 'well, we're full now.' ''

McNeil, now posted in Tijuana, said she wrote memos to her superiors, but no action was taken.

''It personally happened to me 10 to 15 times. I finally stopped going out,'' she said. ``I will never ever go to that country again, and I advise all the black people I know not to go there either. It's a difficult and confusing issue and hard to understand. But after two years there, I was no longer interested in understanding.''

Embassy spokesman Rex Moser said black employees have complained many times about several clubs, and the July 22 incident at Loft was ``the straw that broke the camel's back.''

Senior embassy officials met with owners of several Santo Domingo clubs as far back as two years ago, Moser said. 'They give a different excuse every time: `You are not on the guest list. You are not dressed right,' '' Moser said. ``It's an act of racial discrimination -- an overt act. At some point, the embassy felt it needed to take a stand.''

APOLOGY OFFERED

Loft owner Ray Santos told The Miami Herald he will send a letter offering the embassy ''a million apologies'' -- and will include photos of his black customers dancing and having fun.

''They are saying we are racists who discriminate against Afro-Americans, and that's not true,'' Santos said in a telephone interview from Santo Domingo.

``From what I understand, one of the girls was poorly dressed and had strange braids on her head. She wasn't dressed as well as the others in her group or the people inside.''

Santos, like chargé d'affaires Bullen, is black.

''I am black, my father is black and all the people who work here are black,'' he said. ``In the Dominican Republic, we're all people of color.''

The bouncer, he said, has been reassigned.

[gnmusic1]

-Where are you from?
-I'm from the Dominican Republic. How about you?
-I am from Haiti.
-¡Haitíííí! ¡A jaaaa!
-En heeeen!
-We're neighoooors! ¡Ja ja ja ja ja ja ja ja!
-Wooooooooy! Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha! ( Wondering: Ok, do you hate me? )

I stumbled upon the fact that my subconscious quietly started to work along that pattern. Maybe after I read too much history. But such subconscious fear of being disliked and despised by a Dominican neighbor have never materialized for me in the US of A.


You all read the Miami Herald articles a few weeks back, right?
I learned a lot. Still learning.

[LadyKreyol]

This is so sad, what's next the brown paper bag test I hate to say it but I'm not really surprised by this story, but it still sad to hear.

For those of you who don't know, here is what the "brown paper bag test" is:

An actual test, along with the so-called ruler test in common use in the the early 1900s among upper class Black American societies and families to determine if a Black person was sufficiently white to gain admittance or acceptance. If your skin was darker than a brown paper bag, you did not merit inclusion. Thousands of Black institutions including the nation's most eminent Black fraternity -- Phi Alpha Phi, Howard Univiersity, and numerous church and civic groups all practiced this discriminiation. The practice has 19th Century antecedants with the Blue Blood Society and has not totally died out.

Just thought I share this with you guys.
_________________
Music is love in search of a word.
Sidney Lanier

[jeanVALjean]

D-mn LadyK you know ur stuff chica ....don't forget about "JACK AND JILL" and the debutante balls, Martha's vineyard, etc....In fact, here's a book for ya and the board..."OUR KIND OF PEOPLE!"

Look it up
_________________
Music washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life.
~Berthold Auerbach

[Jay Brooklyn]

party animal ke je suis....
senble fok mwen eskive peyi sa'a wi...
si State Department foure bouch yo lan koze sa'a, konnin bagay yo grave...
shame, shame, shame....
map mande si sa pral afekte tourism lan peyi sa'a...
se tap yon bel opportunite si peyi nou tap mache...
_________________
BAT CHIEN AN, TANN MET LI!

[Haitianone]

This story popped in the Embassy online network but I stayed away because it was not official now we get this story. We haitians folks want to do a festival down there!!!!
_________________
Statehood or Bust

[Jay Brooklyn]

Haitianone wrote:

This story popped in the Embassy online network but I stayed away because it was not official now we get this story. We haitians folks want to do a festival down there!!!!

H1, gen ou te lobby againts bagay sa'a...
e gen mwen te joure'w pou sa...
ou te gin rezon, mon cher...
mille excuses....
_________________
BAT CHIEN AN, TANN MET LI!

[Haitianone]

Jay Brooklyn wrote:

Haitianone wrote: This story popped in the Embassy online network but I stayed away because it was not official now we get this story. We haitians folks want to do a festival down there!!!! H1, gen ou te lobby againts bagay sa'a... e gen mwen te joure'w pou sa... ou te gin rezon, mon cher... mille excuses....

Its all good monche, its not that it won't be a good idea but the situation down there right now is not that good. If you are black, its not the place to be!!!!
_________________
Statehood or Bust

[Haitianone]

Quote:

Santos, like chargé d'affaires Bullen, is black. ''I am black, my father is black and all the people who work here are black,'' he said. ``In the Dominican Republic, we're all people of color.'' The bouncer, he said, has been reassigned.

You got to be careful when Dominicans say they are black to people outside the DR. They are black but amongst their own people black means something totally different. All this braindead logic I blame the DR government for, in the hatred of Haitians, the people who freed them from slavery who invaded their country because country wanted to bring back their former slave owners Spain, them people sure hate haitian peeps to the point they even hate themselves...

I wish I could say i care right now because my Haitian peeps are messing up a mile a minute. The time will come when I attack this in more detail and why I am so familiar with all this.
_________________
Statehood or Bust

[Melokompa]

H1, Machaviel you guys from the beginning very vocal about the treatment of blacks in the DR, but some could not understand you. I won't surprise if haitian promoters want to do another festival in DR. You're talking about our people being messed up, the dominicans are in a class by themselves as the most f******ed people, this is so sad it's not even funny.
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Magnum Band: La Seule Difference