In the Dominican Republic, the memory of the Haitian conquest and annexation of the nation from 1822 until independence on February 27, 1844, along with the solidification of the anti-Haitian nationalist rhetoric of the 1920s and 30s, have fueled deep-seated animosity toward Haitians. Many Dominicans continue to hold strong anti-Haitian attitudes, and negative views of blackness pervade much of Dominican popular discourse, as well as ideas of beauty and social propriety. Lamentably, these negative attitudes toward Haitianness, which has become synonymous with blackness and vice versa, have spread far beyond informal conversations in private households, permeating the political realm as well. Anti-Haitian attitudes have long guided government action and unofficial policy in the spheres of immigration, citizenship, and labor. Though the Dominican Constitution, prior to a 2010 reform, explicitly granted citizenship to all persons born on Dominican soil, persons of Haitian descent were routinely denied the right to citizenship, as well as the right to any forms of government-issued identification. As a result, even those born in the Dominican Republic endure the looming threat of being deported to a nation that, in some cases, they have never known. Though the common occurrence of such grave injustice is well-known within the nation, most Dominicans are apathetic. The minority of Dominicans who oppose such immoral treatment are overpowered by the vociferous anti-Haitian majority who argue that those who fail to sympathize with their views are not only un-Dominican but anti-Dominican as well. With the majority of Dominicans holding such strong, vehemently-defended views on Haitian immigration, the minority opposition is often overlooked. In this study, I will analyze information obtained from field observation and interviews with Haitian sugar cane cutters and Dominican intellectuals, as well as citizenship and immigration legislation, to provide readers with a more comprehensive view of the political, economic, and socio-cultural impact of racism and anti-Haitianism. As part of my analysis, I will examine the motivations behind and causes of contradictory citizenship and immigration policy and discriminatory interpretations of the law as it applies to Haitian-descended persons. Through this thesis, I aim to construct a new, more complex analysis of anti-Haitianism and racism to generate a more thorough understanding of contradictory Dominican immigration and citizenship policy and its impact within the Haitian-Dominican community.

The Dominican Republic (DR) and Haiti are two Caribbean countries that share the same island, Hispaniola, and a tumultuous history. Both countries' historical relationship is ridden with geopolitical conflict stemming from the DR creating an unwelcoming environment for Haitian immigrants. This dissertation is a interdisciplinary study that investigates how Dominican thinkers play a significant role in creating the intellectual impetus that encourages anti-Haitian sentiment throughout Dominican society in the aftermath of the 2010 earthquake. In this dissertation I examine how Dominican anti-Haitian ideals, as delineated by Dominican nationalist intellectuals, that I refer to as Defensive Dominican Nationalists (DDN), continue to resonate amongst "everyday" Dominicans and within the recently amended 2010 Dominican constitution that denies citizenship to Dominicans of Haitian descent in the aftermath of the earthquake. I conclude that although the new constitution reinforces the anti-Haitian ideals espoused by conservative Dominican elite thinkers, "everyday" Dominicans, in the post 2010 earthquake timeframe, rejected some of the DDN's beliefs concerning the true definition of Dominican-ness and how the Dominican government had recently amended its constitution. My methodology, consists of literary analysis, a survey, and focus group interviews conducted on both Dominicans and Haitians residing in the DR. Unexpectedly, I found that documented Haitians and second generation Dominicans of Haitian descent actually oppose the new influx of Haitian immigrants adopting some of the anti-Haitian attitudes of the DDN. In essence, this dissertation diagnoses a racial problem emanating from geopolitical conflict and the tumultuous history between Dominican and Haitian society. / African American Studies

[pt] Esta tese investiga os modos em que o Haiti é evocado no discurso político brasileiro em diferentes contextos. Usufruindo de enquadramentos analíticos pós-coloniais e foucaultianos, foca-se em duas grandes emergências desta prática discursiva: primeiro, com o inovador léxico do Haitianismo, durante os debates políticos do Império Brasileiro, no século XIX; depois, no âmbito do envolvimento brasileiro com a Missão das Nações Unidas para Estabilização do Haiti (MINUSTAH), de 2004 a 2017. O estudo mostra que as atuais narrativas que celebram o sucesso de um Jeito Brasileiro de construção da paz falham em notar como noções problemáticas de hierarquias raciais e tecnologias mais eficientes de poder governamental são desenvolvidas e exercidas sobre as populações-alvo. Argumenta-se que, sob o prisma do Haitianismo, tais discursos celebratórios das intervenções militares Sul-Sul perdem seu apelo político e consistência teórica, já que a colonialidade e o biopoder que os informam são expostos e sua originalidade questionada. Conclui-se notando que o estudo do Haitianismo permite seguir descolonizando e resistindo à autoridade dos modos emergentes de complexos de poder-saber humanitários, incluindo aqueles que estão além do modelo tradicional da Paz Liberal. / [en] This doctoral dissertation investigates the modes in which Haiti is invoked in Brazilian political discourse in different contexts. Drawing on post-colonial and Foucauldian frameworks of analysis, it focuses on two major emergences of such discursive practice: first, with the innovative lexicon of Haitianism, during 19th century Brazilian Imperial political debates; then, alongside Brazilian involvement with the United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH), from 2004 to 2017. The study shows that current narratives that celebrate a Brazilian way of peacebuilding fail to notice how problematic accounts of racial hierarchies and more efficient governmental technologies of power are developed and exercised upon target populations. It argues that through the prism of Haitianism such celebratory discourses regarding South-South military interventions lose their political appeal, as the coloniality and biopower that inform them are exposed and their originality questioned. It concludes by noticing that the study of Haitianism permits to further decolonize and resist the authority of emerging humanitarian power-knowledge complexes beyond the traditional Liberal Peace model.