Race Relations In Dominican Republic example essay topic

In a country dedicated to promoting the concept of free and eternal equality among the cultures from within and around the world. A country that sets forth policies and supports organizations dedicated to protecting people of every race and securing a future where race is no longer an issue, concern has been made about the issue that race relations are currently being put on hold in the United States. As equality is said to be implemented in the legal system here in the United States, the reality seems to underlie the fact that instead of race relations improving, once again, minorities are forced to accept their position that most of the majority race continue to ignore. White collar workers feel superior to a blue collar worker regardless of race, so in a sense, instead of racial inequality there seems to be an even more economical inequality. Yet the social context of race is quite different from the financial context.

In America, graduating from high school and then attending college is now open to any race or culture. In the past this opportunity was only available to white males. Yet now many college recruiters in the admissions office look far more into diversifying the campus than ever before. People of every race also seek out colleges with more diversity. Still, despite the increasing number of diversified campuses, there are not reports on the inter-racial relationships that exist on campus. As our world moves towards globalization, the prevailing fact is that race relations have been improving.

According to Alison Brysk in her book "Globalization and Human Rights", globalization is the growing penetration of states, markets, communications, and ideas across borders in our contemporary world. Globalization also brought about the creation of sweatshops and poor labor standards since cost of labor in many countries can be purchased much cheaper in second and third world countries. An opportunity for education in America has become available to not only different races of Americans but also has become open to international students as well. Since the U.S. labor standards are extremely high compared to many countries many seek education and labor in the America. However, while there are increasing numbers of minorities that are graduating from colleges these minorities are still being placed at second hand when applying for jobs. Intellectuals from other countries come to the U.S., multilingual, have experienced many different cultures, and are even open to adapting to the American culture to succeed in college and in the labor force.

Yet the overriding factor still remains in America that the more unique you are from that of what we are accustomed to, the less you will be trusted. The prevailing factor will not be that you are not a good person, but instead employers will somehow see fault in your character only because of your race. Ever since the attack on America on September 11th, it seems as if we have regressed socially. Employment and discrimination against minorities in the work place has become increasingly more apparent. After photographs of the suspected terrorists were shown the immediate reaction for Americans was to associate all persons from, or descendants from Afghan or Iraqi and other related cultures, with terrorism.

A basic generalization and fear instilled that is based only upon appearance. It is sad to know that even if you are born and raised in the American culture, and you are in fact an American, that you can be separated from this culture and scrutinized for being from a different origin. Many colleges in America are flourishing with a diversified student body. However, what goes on between students on and off campus is not reported by the college or universities statistics.

Interracial relations on campus are not reported despite the promotion of a diversified campus. Many students who seem to be interested in other cultures or races will attend such colleges but still subconsciously keep their distance both physically and emotionally. I will be observing six men and women from the Dominican Republic who are attending the University of Rhode Island. These six men and women lived on campus for their first two years of attending college and have moved off campus for the third year.

I have been living amongst them for about 6 months now and will use observations from the past as well recent observations. In the past I have noticed that these students tend to limit their relationships with American students and keep those relationships only pertaining to school work. The difficulty I experienced while observing this culture was being able to distinguish between cultural and racial differences between economical differences. The students I am observing are from families who are considered upper-class financially. This seems to be a barrier to me because there are distinct differences between people's relations when there are economical differences. This means there may be times that I may believe for it to be an interracial conflict while it may instead be a conflict due to economically differences.

Yet, I have observed also relations between people of varying economical statuses and will determine when race plays the major factor in these conflicts or situations and observations. The theory that I will use in part of my research is the method of the Ethno methodologists. In the book by George Ritzer in the book "Classical Sociology Theory", Ethno methodology was founded by Harold Garfinkel. Ethno methodologists start out with the assumption that social order is illusory. They believe that social life merely appears to be orderly; in reality it is potentially chaotic. For them social order is constructed in the minds of social actors as society confronts the individual as a series of sense impressions and experiences which she or he must somehow organize into a coherent pattern.

This theory will support the particular behaviors that I will be observing among the international students from the Dominican Republic. In particular, the behavioral pattern that sparked my interest was the students' tendency to mingle outside of school only with others from the Dominican Republic. Their relationships with American students are very simple. In support of the Ethno methodologist theory, which believes that social order is illusory, the international students perhaps segregate themselves socially from American students because they are so readily use to interacting with others from their country of origin. This is the social order that is created in their minds that they have orientated to race-relations in the Dominican Republic. Perhaps also this behavior has something to do with social order in their country of origin.

In the Dominican Republic the separations of race exists very much like the United States. By this I mean that there is an acknowledged difference between black Dominicans and every color in between all the way to white. The separation is mostly economical in the fact that darker Dominicans are the lower-class with little education opportunities, while the lighter your skin, the more power and advantages you will have. I feel as though that is similar in the United States, however, improvements in the United States have been made.

The Dominicans I am observing are all either medium dark or a lighter colored skin. None of which are black. However, in the "Politics of External Influence in the Dominican Republic", the island's indigenous inhabitants were the Taino Indians (Arawaks) group and a small settlement of Caribs around the Bah " ia de Saman'a. These Indians, who had numbered to about 1 million at the time of their initial contact with Europeans, had died off by the 1550's. And as in the United States, in the Dominican Republic, there was also an importation of slaves into the country. The importation of African slaves began in 1503.

By the nineteenth century, the population was roughly 150,000: 40,000 of Spanish descent, an equal number of black slaves, and the remainder of freed blacks or mulattoes (Politics of External Influences in the DR, 63). In the mid-1980's, approximately 16 percent of the population was considered white and 11 percent black; the remainders were mulattoes. Contemporary Dominican society and culture are overwhelmingly Spanish in origin. Taino or Indian influences are limited to cultigen's and to a few vocabulary words. African influence has been largely ignored. According to Rodman in "Quisqueya: A History of the Dominican Republic", there was a preference in Dominican society for light skin and "white" racial features.

Blackness in itself, however, did not restrict a person to a lower status position. Upward mobility was possible for the dark-skinned person who managed to acquire education or wealth. So, very much like the United States now, the more money you have the more social power you will be able to obtain. After taking a look at the history of the country, under the theory of ethno methodology, we can say that the dominant culture of Spanish heritage wanted to maintain their status in their hierarchy and therefore put Africans and Indians at the bottom. By mentally depleting Africans and Indians from the Dominican history they were able to keep morale low amongst these groups. The theory says that, although society is chaotic, members of society create in their minds their own social order in which creates the best society for them.

These racial relations are chaotic because the societal concepts makes out that a certain race is in fact superior to another. Since the Dominicans of Spanish descent consisted of lighter skin colors, therefore the darker your skin the more you would be associated with the lower-class of African or Indian descent. In my observations, the same holds true for the Dominican students attending college in the United States. Although here in the U.S. they are considered the minority and are looked upon by many as so, they still hold their social-order in their minds as they do in their own country, that is, they prefer lighter skin and "white" racial features.

This is the reasoning for their clustered groups and tendency to avoid relations with other Americans. By staying around other Dominicans they are able to keep their mind-sets as they are in their country of origin. But are they to blame? In all honesty who would take the risk of becoming a member of the lower class in America when, on the other hand, while they are at home they are at the top of the food chain in the upper-class of society. Being so accustomed to having respect from everyone and feeling superiority to those below you is the reason why there are racial conflicts and conflicts amongst people of different economical backgrounds besides racial conflicts. By separating themselves socially from Americans and maintaining interactions with other Dominicans of the same class they are able to maintain their mentality of being the superior class while attending school in a culture where they may not be thought of as so highly by some members or groups of the American society.

According to Garfinkel, a favored technique among ethno methodologists is to disrupt temporarily the world which people take for granted and see how they react. The point of this is to expose background assumptions that have been accepted as reality for a long time. In one of his experiments Garfinkel asked students to behave as visitors in their own homes, and record the bemused reactions of their parents as they struggled to comprehend the sudden disruption of their informal relationship built up over many years with their children. This example of techniques used by ethno methodologist is also one that I will use as example. I believe that since they are so accustomed to being around Dominicans, due to the fact that their friends from school are from the same country of origin, that they will feel singled out if they are within a group of American students at some gathering. I will discuss several occasions of which occurred as follows: Day 1 The first day I am observing to of my Dominican friends at a social gathering at my friend's house.

The gathering consisted of about 35% African-Americans, 15% Darker Hispanics, and the other 50% consisted of Caucasians. My initial thought would be that they would associate with the others of Hispanic descent. However, although the students shared similar cultural backgrounds with the Hispanic students at the gathering, the Dominican friends of mine were more likely to mingle and converse with the Caucasian students. Although when I was not with them they had a tendency to become very reserve, they were all together very social. I also observed that they stayed together as a group. More often when they were conversing with other American students, they would wait for the American student to come and approach the group and introduce themselves.

When the Dominican would attempt to socialize with the others they would often speak with someone who is standing alone. Day 2 The second outing was at a sandwich shop on campus. I was with only one of my friends from D.R. and we were going to eat. We purchased our food, and then my friend noticed some classmates who had also just gotten their food as well. It was a group of five Caucasian young men who just finished class with us. However, my friend did not wish to sit and eat with them.

Although my friend and I conversed in class with the five young men in class, it seemed as if my friend wished to have nothing to do with them outside of class. I also had gotten the feeling that he felt intimidated by them. In the beginning I mentioned that the Dominicans maintained only simple relationships and did not develop relationships with very many Americans. This supports the idea and perhaps suggests that the reason for it is because of intimidation.

Day 3 The third day of observations was at an on campus apartment of other Dominicans. There were approximately eight Dominicans and 2 American Caucasian students. I observed the two Americans were together and often waiting for others to approach them to converse. The conversations between the Americans and Dominican students were manly school related and current news. However, the conversations between the Dominicans varied from recent events or outings they went on or other activities they enjoyed with each other. This outing supported my idea that the Dominicans tended to maintain only platonic relations and did not develop serious relationships with many Americans.

I observed this idea frequently. Day 4 The fourth day of observations was at my apartment in Providence. I live with three of the Dominicans in Providence, and three of the other Dominicans live in the apartment above ours. We had a gathering of three Dominican men, and three friends of mine who are American students, all Caucasians. The first observation I noticed was the initial intimidation that I felt from the Dominican men towards the women.

Every thing seemed to go smoothly and there was very little tension in the conversations. This day of observations is where I ran into trouble because it seemed as if the ideas that I had be thinking before did not apply to women. The four days that I have just discussed are not the only days I made observations; however, they were the days that my observations were written down. I also made observations throughout my time living amongst this culture. My observations seemed to lead to the conclusion that due to the social order of the Dominican Republic being similar to the United States, the Dominicans would have the same idea of race-relations when they are in America. However, to maintain their social order they would have to surround themselves by other Dominicans.

They also have observed that being Caucasian in America has many advantages, especially when it comes to obtaining a decent job. They eliminate most scrutiny and discrimination if they group together and avoid serious relationships with too many Americans. They are very social, however, and maintain business contacts and contacts between classmates that they feel they will benefit from being associated with. The technique that I used was to observe the Dominican students away from their social class and put them into another group. This is where I observed the confusion and estrangement that Garfinkel had also observed and discussed.

However, as the economies are changing, new race-relations will begin to exist. In the past, many international students would come from the Dominican Republic and then return home. A degree from a United States college was a sure way to success in the country. However, there also was a time when the currency exchange for the U.S. Dollar and the Dominican Peso was 1: 1.

Now it is 1: 44, meaning you must use 44 pesos in order to buy one American dollar. As more and more international students will seek jobs in the United States, race relations will certainly change significantly. In the book "Improving Intercultural Interactions", the authors Richard Brislin and Tomoko Yoshida discuss the following seven points for good intercultural interaction: First, is for the host country to interact socially with everyone, despite race or origin; Second, is to become accustomed to the other cultures language, at least such modes as greetings and salutations; Third is to understand the other cultures nonverbal modes of communication; Fourth is to obtain factual knowledge of the culture; Fifth is to express concern with developing social relationships; Sixth, is to gain tolerance of differences in customs; and finally, seventh, is to maintain attitudes of cooperation. These techniques discussed would help greatly improve the relations between the Dominican students and the American students. Through my research, it is clear that race-relations in Dominican Republic are very similar to those that exist in the United States.

My observations suggested that the Dominican students in America feel intimidated by most Caucasian American students, who most likely to them represent those who exist at the top of the racial structure in America. Although females may be preferred because of white-features that seemed to also be preferred by their culture, Dominicans are not intimidated by the women because they are seen as inferior in their country, regardless of race unless they are being compared to an African or Indian man. The equality that exists for women in the United States does not exist in many other places in the world. If more kinds of research were to be done, it would be interesting to see the relationships between women in different countries and how these women of different races would feel in America. As more and more interaction occurs between different races the more need we have to improve inter-racial relations. College campuses continue to promote diversity and attract students from all different types of backgrounds.

But will this approach actually improve these relationships, or will it only bring about more tension amongst the races? While some believe that race-relations are improved, this may be true. However, it is still very clear that race-relations are not perfect. Although it seems to be taken such a long time, I do believe that one day racial tensions will not exist and people will live together peacefully regardless of race. Brislin, Richard.

Improving Intercultural Interactions Sage Publications, California. 1994. Brysk, Alison. Globalization and Human Rights. University of California Press, 2002 D eagan, Thomas. The Politics of External Influence in the Dominican Republic.

(Politics in Latin America: A Hoover Institution Series.) New York: Praeger / Hoover Institution Press, 1988. Ritzer, George, Classical Sociology Theory, McGraw-Hill Education - Europe; November 1, 1999 Rodman, Selden. Quisqueya: A History of the Dominican Republic. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1964.