The Dominican Diaspora: Blackening, Whitening, and Mixture Across Borders — Notes

Key Themes and Questions

• Transnational Dominican diaspora is lived through daily exchanges across borders: newspapers, television, fashion, music, and commerce circulate between the island and the United States, shaping identities as people move, consume, and produce culture across borders. Examples include Dominican newspapers published in the U.S. and synced TV series, Dominican shops in New York carrying goods, and Merengue/ bachata sounds circulating between New York and the island. "Los Dominicanyorks" (Luis Guarnizo) is used to describe this cross-border sensibility.
• Race in the Dominican Republic (DR) is constructed through color and nationality, a system that clashes with the American racial binary. In the DR, many people view themselves as dark-skinned whites or light mulattoes; Haitians are often seen as black. In contrast, the U.S. tends to apply hypodescent (the “one-drop” rule) which often categorizes mixed-heritage migrants as black/nonwhite. This creates tension in how DR migrants are racialized when in the U.S. and how U.S. African American racial categories are encountered in the DR.
• The Dominican diaspora is commonly understood as transnational and ethnoracially hybrid, i.e., ethno-racial. Dominicans negotiate identity as they move across borders, embedding themselves in multiple social worlds while retaining ties to both home and host societies. This results in agency within globalized processes and redefinitions of belonging across contexts.
• Globalization and localization interact: Long (1996) and Basch et al. (1994) theorize re-localization and transnational links, which in turn produce in-between identities that connect people to both origin and destination societies. In the DR, globalization brings new ideas about race that mingle with established local understandings.
• Racialization across the African diaspora shows both shared histories (slavery, racial hierarchy) and diverse formations (creolization, whitening, mestiço/mulato ideas). The DR sits at a crossroads of Spanish and French colonial legacies, producing unique relational dynamics between whiteness, mestizaje, and blackness.
• The emergence of Afro-Dominican and mulato identities marks a project to reclaim the African past and redefine cultural belonging, linking DR to the wider African diaspora in the Americas.
• The DR-U.S. racial encounter becomes a space where people renegotiate who they are: Africans, Afro-Latinos, and Blacks merge, collide, or reframe identities in response to social contexts, workplace hierarchies, media representations, and education.
• Whitening and blackening are practical, everyday processes: skin-lightening products, beauty standards, and marriage choices historically aimed at improving social status are visible in both Dominican and U.S. contexts, illustrating how colorism shapes life chances.
• Political stakes in race: color and ancestry become public political currency, influencing electoral politics (e.g., mulato on the cedula) and public debates about nationalism, migration flows, and potential ethnic/religious threat narratives (e.g., Haitian descent accusations during campaigns).
• Cross-border borderlands as social laboratories: experiences at the airport, in border towns, or during study-abroad programs reveal how racial labels operate in real time and how transnational exchanges can recalibrate identities across both sides of the border.
• The study uses a mix of ethnography, personal narrative, and theoretical synthesis to map how Dominican actors—scholars, activists, and ordinary people—reconstruct Afro-Dominican identity and unbury the African past.

The Dominican Diaspora: Blackening, Whitening, and Mixture Across Borders (Overview)

• The DR diaspora moves ideas, culture, and goods across borders; media and commerce create a shared transnational imaginary of Dominican-ness.
• The DR-US racial project is shaped by how people are classified at borders, how color and nationality intersect, and how migrants’ experiences in the U.S. (and vice versa) challenge domestic racial norms.
• The author argues that Dominican identity is best understood as ethno-racial, shaped by both ethnicity and race, with agency amid global forces.

Transnational Flows and Cultural Exchange (Key Points)

• Everyday transnational exchanges:
  • Dominican newspapers circulate in the U.S. on publication days.
  • Dominican TV series air simultaneously in New York and the island.
  • Dominican media covers Dominicans abroad; Dominican fashion flows from New York to the island and back.
  • New York-based merengue bands tour the island; Dominican migration songs become hits across the U.S. and Latin America.
• The two-country exchange is not only monetary or migratory but cultural, with fashion, music, and media creating shared meanings of Dominican identity across borders.
• The New York presence (Washington Heights) has become a symbol of Dominican life abroad; the phrase “New York is America” in Dominican discourse signals the centrality of the U.S. as a host society while the DR remains the homeland for roots and identity.

Ethno-Racial Identities in the Dominican Republic and the United States

• DR racial taxonomy blends color and nationality; US racial system is more rigidly binary (black/white) with hypodescent affecting mixed-heritage individuals.
• Dominican migrants’ self-perception often lands on an intermediate category: dark-skinned whites, light mulattoes, etc.; Haitians are commonly viewed as black.
• Hypodescent means many DR migrants with mixed ancestry are considered black/nonwhite in the U.S., highlighting a mismatch between national racial logs and global racial orders.
• The Dominican identity is described as ethno-racial, combining ethnicity with racialized categorization to reflect lived social realities beyond simple skin tone.
• The DR-U.S. racial encounter prompts renegotiation of identity terms such as indio, mulato, mestizo, and Afro-Dominican, as people try to map these labels onto different racial grammars across borders.

Emergence of In-Between-ness, Transnational Identities, and Re-Localization

• Basch et al. (1994) concept of transnational ties linking migrants to both origin and settlement societies.
• Long (1996) re-localization: globalization creates new local social forms through reinvention of identities at the local level.
• In the DR, migration and media exchange modify local understandings of race, blending traditional DR notions with new ideas encountered abroad.
• In-between-ness has practical implications for return or circular migration, migration of relatives, and the flow of goods and money across borders.
• The process of re-localization results in changing and sometimes homogenizing identities as transmigrants cross borders and situate themselves in home and host societies.

Racialization and the African Diaspora: Shared History and Local Variations

• Dr. Ruth Simms Hamilton defines the African diaspora as a global network of actors connected by a shared history under a dynamic world system.
• Slavery as a historical engine of racial hierarchy and inequality; early European colonial ideologies framed Africans as inferior to justify slavery; this logic travels across the diaspora.
• East vs. West Hispaniola: slaves in the eastern (Spanish-controlled) side saw themselves as culturally superior to those in the western (French) side due to Hispanic cultural elements.
• Racialization across the diaspora reflects both shared experiences of oppression and diverse colonial legacies that produced unique national racial formations.
• US bipolar racial logic (black/white) coexists with Latin American/Caribbean practices of mestizaje, whitening, and creolization; Latin America sought to “naturalize” nationality through racial mixture while often promoting assimilationist whitening to create national homogenates.
• The need to contextualize racial formation in each national setting to understand how DR migrants adapt and reinterpret race.

Racial Formation, Mixture, and the Emergence of Mulato/Afro-Dominican Identities

• The Dominican Republic’s race discourse intersects with US racial theories as Dominicans encounter new categories (e.g., black vs indio in the U.S.; mulato and mestizo in the DR).
• The literature notes “colorization” and “mixture” dynamics in both DR and U.S. contexts, including practices of whitening and lightening the next generation (e.g., skin-lightening creams, “marrying up”).
• The DR has increasingly documented Afro-Dominican identities and racial narratives, moving toward recognizing African ancestry and presenting Afro-Dominican narratives as part of national history.
• The emergence of mulato in the Dominican cédula (identity document) in the mid-1990s reflects a formalized recognition of mixed African and European ancestry, marking a political and sociocultural shift in Dominican identity.
• Afro-Dominican identity and mulato status link DR to broader African diaspora networks in the Caribbean and the United States, creating solidarities based on shared histories of race and colonialism.
• The chapter traces the May 1996 presidential campaign as a notable moment: the debate over Peña Gómez’s alleged Haitian descent versus Fernández’s mixed heritage—anxieties about Dominican identity, migration, and national borders.
• The New York Times coverage (July 1, 1996) quotes Fernández acknowledging Dominican majority as mulatto and arguing against racially charged politics.
• The 1996 run-off results: Fernández won with 51 ext{%} vs Peña Gómez 49 ext{%} after a two-round contest; the elections highlighted competing racial narratives in Dominican politics. The use of mulato on the cedula emerges in this period as a formal acknowledgment of mixed ancestry in official documents.

Media Representations, Whitening Ideology, and Market Practices

• Whitening campaigns appeared in Caribbean/US newspapers in the early to mid-20th century, signaling a strong social preference for lighter skin tones.
• Ads in the DR and US circulated messages linking beauty to lighter skin and hair, with explicit slogans and visuals encouraging skin lightening and hair smoothing.
• Example ads include: a 1921 Chicago Defender whitening ad promising “Beautiful women: You can be Beautiful too,” and a 1930 El Diario advertisement circulating whitening products for skin and hair.
• Images accompanying these ads show two-toned women, illustrating the idea that skin can be lightened to be considered beautiful and socially desirable.
• The marketing connected whitening with social status, attractiveness, and gendered expectations, reinforcing colorism across both DR and Black American communities.
• The whitening discourse is juxtaposed with Black beauty movements (e.g., Black is Beautiful, Afrocentric fashion) that later contested colorist norms.
• The advertisements demonstrate a historical link between market forces and the social construction of race, illustrating how consumer culture reinforced color hierarchies.
• The politics of skin color persist today, though counter-movements (e.g., Afro-Dominican pride, darker-skin advocacy) challenge previous whitening norms.

Cross-Border Encounters: Haiti, Dominican Republic, and Borderlands

• Daily border experiences reveal how racial labels are operationalized in practice: at airports, border posts, and in border towns, where people are categorized by skin color, perceived origin, and language cues.
• An illustrative anecdote: Dominican travelers are sometimes asked if they brought tropical items (plantains, coconuts) or whether they are Dominican, linking nationality with expected commodities and stereotypes.
• A poignant set of border stories discusses how Africans in the United States (e.g., Anthony, a student) faced misidentification as Haitian at the DR border when crossing into Haiti, or when returning; such misidentifications require staff intervention (faxing passport copies, etc.) to validate citizenship and avoid detainment.
• The border example in 1999 highlights how color and nationality cues shape mobility—dark-skinned individuals may be misread as Haitian, while lighter-skinned individuals may be presumed Dominican or American.
• These border experiences illustrate how transnational identity is not just cultural but materially navigated through bureaucratic processes and state controls.
• The border dynamics also reveal how Dominicans in the U.S. may be required to carry copies of passports to prove citizenship, while other groups (White, Latino/a, Asian American) do not face the same level of scrutiny.
• These experiences illuminate how racial labels become tools for social sorting and how transnational mobility intersects with race.

The CIEE Study Abroad Experience: Race, Education, and Identity Work

• The author directed a study-abroad program in Santiago (CIEE) focused on Spanish and Caribbean studies from 2000 to 2004, attracting African American, Latino/a, Dominican, and other students.
• Students often encountered racial labeling from Dominicans while abroad, e.g., Dominican host perceptions of students as “from allá” (Americanized) or “de allá” depending on skin color and hair; Afro-Dominican and mixed-identity students faced particular scrutiny.
• African American students were often mistaken for Dominican or Haitian ancestry; Dominican and other Latino/a students were read as from the U.S. and viewed as “Americanized.” White students were labeled “Americanos” or “rubios,” and Asian American students grouped as “chino” (Chinese). Indian American students labeled as “hindu,” regardless of religion.
• The program prompted African American students to reflect on race and identity, realizing that in the DR they are often read through a different racial lens than in the U.S.
• Conversations with the author helped students understand that Dominican notions of race (e.g., indio, mulato) exist alongside U.S. conceptions of Blackness; some students questioned how Dominicans can be perceived as non-black despite dark features or how Afro-Dominican identities fit into U.S. Blackness.
• The author notes a broader pedagogical aim: showing students how the historical processes of miscegenation, whitening, and color hierarchies shape contemporary identities across both countries.
• Hair politics and salons become sites of cultural socialization: hosting mothers encourage hair straightening; those with natural hair or braids sometimes perceive salon visits as pressure to conform to Dominican beauty norms; the salon is described as a rite of passage in which femininity and race are negotiated.
• The course and discussions emphasize the difference between U.S.-based Black identity and Dominican racial labeling (e.g., indio vs black); students confront the idea that self-conceived Blackness can be socially constructed differently in the DR and the U.S.
• The program produced a broadened sense of how race and ethnicity intersect with gender, class, and national belonging; it also highlighted how students’ identities shift as they live in another country and navigate new racial grammars.
• The author cites theorists and studies (e.g., Candelario) to frame these experiences: Blackness, colorism, and transnational exchange influence self-perception and social interactions.

The “Community of Consciousness” and Transnational Alliances

• Across DR and U.S. contexts, Afro-Dominican and Afro-American communities find common ground in experiences of race, color, and discrimination, generating a mutual recognition of shared history.
• The encounters described in the DR and during study-abroad experiences contribute to a growing sense of a transnational Black consciousness among people of African descent who identify with multiple national and cultural identities (Dominican, Afro-Dominican, Black, Afro-Latino, etc.).
• The cross-border exchange fosters political and cultural alliances, as people draw on shared experiences of racism and discrimination in different political contexts to advocate for inclusion and recognition of the African past in Dominican history.

Implications and Synthesis: Reconstructing Dominican Racial Identity

• The chapter maps how Dominican identity is being reconstructed around Afro-Dominican, negro/a, and mulato/a categories within the DR, as scholars and activists push to articulate and promote Afro-Dominican consciousness.
• A central analytic claim is that race is not static; it is produced and re-produced through social interaction, migration, media representations, government policies (e.g., the cedula), education reforms, and transnational exchanges.
• The emergence of mulato and Afro-Dominican identities serves to unbury the African past and connect Dominicans to the wider African diaspora, challenging earlier racial concepts rooted in whitening and color hierarchies.
• The narrative emphasizes ethical and practical implications:
  • Challenging colorism and promoting recognition of Africa's historical presence in the Dominican Republic.
  • Reconsidering national identity in a globalized world where diaspora communities blur borders.
  • Understanding how policy (cedula categories) interacts with lived identities and political legitimacy.
  • Recognizing the role of media and consumer culture in shaping racial imaginaries and social desirability.

Key Terms and Theoretical Frameworks (Glossary cues)

• Ethno-racial: identities that intertwine ethnic and racial dimensions; individuals negotiate status as racialized minorities within larger social structures, but with agency.
• In-between-ness: social position of transmigrants who connect home and host societies and maintain cross-border ties, leading to evolving identities.
• Transnationalism: the flow of people, ideas, and resources across borders that sustain cross-border social fields and identities.
• Miscegenation/ whitening: historical and ongoing processes of racial mixing and social strategies (marrying up, skin-lightening) that affect racial categorization and social status.
• Mulato/ indio/ mestizo: racial/color categories used in the DR and U.S. contexts to describe mixed ancestry, with shifting political and social implications.
• Afro-Dominican: a self-identified or externally identified subset of Dominicans who foreground African ancestry and Black identity as central to culture and history.
• Cédula: the Dominican national identity card that, in this period, begins to include mulato as an official descriptor, signaling a political acknowledgment of mixed African ancestry.
• Creolization and racial/national formation: processes by which new cultural syntheses emerge from intermixing of Africans, Europeans, and Indigenous peoples within the Caribbean.
• Community of consciousness: mutual recognition across diaspora communities of shared experiences and histories, fostering solidarity and collective memory.

Notable Data Points, Years, and References (selected cues with数字)

• US Immigration Act: $1965$.
• The Dominican presidential election and mulato on the cedula: $1996$ (first appearance of mulato on official documents); runoff on June 30, $1996$ with Fernández winning $51\%$ to Peña Gómez $49\%$.
• The 1920 census reference: first national census in $1920$; whitening narratives predate this period.
• Media and advertising milestones:
  • 1921: Chicago Defender whitening ad with slogan "Beautiful women: You can be Beautiful too"; a numerical ad dated $1921$.
  • 1930: El Diario whitening advertisement; visuals indicating lightness as beauty.
• Fieldwork and program timelines: director of a study-abroad program in Santiago from 2000–2004; discussions and reflections with students (e.g., 2000, 2003, 2004) and later analyses.
• Notable quotes and references:
  • Quotation of Fernández in the New York Times (July 1, 1996): highlighting mixed heritage and denouncing racist campaigns.
  • References to baselines and frameworks from Basch, Glick Schiller, and Szanton Blanc (1994); Long (1996); Sagás (2000); Candelario (2001, 2007); Aparicio (2006); Levitt (2001); Wade (1997, 1993); Smedley (1993); Baker (1998).
• Case examples and anecdotes:
  • Focus group in Librería Cuesta (Santiago) about race, color, and identity across DR-US.
  • Airport customs experiences with indio on passports and assumptions about produce and Dominican identity.
  • The Museo del Hombre Dominicano’s US-life wing; murals depicting life in New York City.
  • Cross-border experiences with Haiti (e.g., Anthony’s border detention in 1999 and the 1998 DR-Haiti border crossing with family) to illustrate border-labeling and citizenship issues.
• Theoretical aims: to map how Dominican actors actively reconstruct Afro-Dominican and mulato identities and to show that the DR’s African past is being reclaimed and reinterpreted through diaspora connections.

Connections to Foundational Work and Real-World Relevance

• Links to foundational diaspora theory (Basch, Schiller, Szanton Blanc; Basch et al. 1994) on transnationalism and the social spaces created by migration.
• Engagement with race formation theory (Davis; Smedley; Harrison) and the concept of racialized categories across contexts.
• Cross-references to scholars who analyze race in the Dominican Republic and the diaspora (Howard; Sagás; Torres-Saillant; Candelario; Aparicio; Levitt), enabling a dialog between Dominican race politics and broader Afro-diasporic scholarship.
• Real-world implications for policy and education: the cedula’s mulato designation; public historiography and school curriculums incorporating African ancestry; media representations shaping cultural memory; and the role of study-abroad programs in producing intercultural understandings.

Practical Implications for Exam Preparation

• Understand how transnational flows shape racial identities in both DR and the U.S., and how these flows produce overlapping yet divergent racial logics.
• Be able to explain the term ethno-racial and why it matters for analyzing Dominican identity across borders.
• Describe how whitening and blackening processes have historically operated in both the Dominican Republic and the United States, with concrete examples (ads, beauty products, social practices).
• Analyze the significance of the 1996 cedula and the political use of mulato as a category in Dominican nationalism and diaspora politics.
• Discuss how border experiences (Dominican–Haitian border) illustrate how race and nationality become life-or-death classificatory tools in everyday life.
• Relate the study-abroad experiences to broader themes of racial consciousness, identity negotiation, and the potential for cross-community solidarities in diaspora settings.

Quick Summary Takeaways

• Dominican identity is actively reconstructed through transnational flows, racial discourse, and new political realities like the mulato designation on the cedula.
• The DR-US binary racial system creates different readings of race for Dominicans abroad vs at home, driving new forms of mixed identities (Afro-Dominican, mulato).
• Whitening ads and colorism illustrate how social desirability has long governed beauty norms and social status across the diaspora.
• Cross-border experiences reveal how race is operationalized in everyday life, influencing mobility and social interaction.
• The emergent “community of consciousness” links Afro-Dominicans with Afro-Americans, creating a broader diasporic political and cultural project to remember and reclaim Africa’s past in the Caribbean.

References to Foundational Works Mentioned

• Basch, Schiller, and Blanc (1994): Transnationalism and the in-between-ness of migrants.
• Long (1996): Re-localization and globalization’s local social forms.
• Sagás (2000); Candelario (2001, 2007); Aparicio (2006); Levitt (2001): Race, ethnicity, and diaspora in the Dominican context.
• Wade (1997, 1993); Yelvington (2001); Safa (1998): The politics and anthropology of mixture, whitening, and creolization in Latin America and the Caribbean.
• Smedley (1993); Harrison (1995); Baker (1998): Historical racialization and slavery narratives in the African diaspora.
• Rivera and related authors referenced in the chapter’s broader literature (as cited in the text).

Final Note

• The chapter maps how Dominican racial identity is being reconstructed in light of diasporic experiences, the African past, and global entanglements. Afro-Dominican and mulato identities are foregrounded as legitimate and meaningful in contemporary debates about race, history, and nation.