The Place I Know

In African-Americans the concept of group identity is more related to family origin than to the place of birth and the contribution of the African-American group in American history. The United States was build by immigrants; therefore, according to Aisha Harris in her article  “Where I’m From,” it is usual to find kids saying that their grandparents “had come to America at some point from Ireland, or Italy, or Greece.” Nevertheless, we do not label those kids as Irish-Americans, Italian-Americans or Grecian-Americans, but as White. Unlike White kids with foreign descents, Black kids are labeled with their ancestral origin by calling the black kids African-Americans.

A lot of African-Americans cannot relate to their ancestry from Africa because, as stated by Harris, their ancestors “were brought here against their will and any records of their origins had long since been lost.” Therefore, most African-Americans are just Americans or Black. According to Harris, she is African, genetically speaking, because her father took an ancestry DNA test that traced his roots to Nigeria. Nevertheless, Harris does not consider herself “Nigerian-American, or even African-American. Where I’m from is America—who I am is a black American.”

African-Americans should not be identified with their ancestral origins because the culture of Blacks from Africa is different from the culture of Blacks from America. Some Black Americans do not speak the same language as Africans from the same place of their ancestors. Examples to follow are the Caribbean islands, which mostly are composed of people of ancestry from Europe and Africa; however, after mixing and lost on the track of the origin of their ancestry, everyone is called the same. For instance, Cubans are not Cubans of African decent or Cubans of European decent, but Cubans.

Nicholas Payton in his article called “I Ain’t African-American, I’m Black: Nicholas Payton,” provides his definition of an African-American. According to Payton, “Anyone who moves to America from Africa and receives U.S. citizenship is African-American.” He is black because “Black, like White, is not a skin color, it’s a term of cultural identification. It [identity] has to do with how you are perceived in this world and where you fit in. Being African-American is a label, being Black has to do with acceptance.” Additionally, Payton implies that is not necessary to be a descendant of slaves in the United States to be African-American that indeed is possible to be White and be an African-American. People who come from Africa and become citizens of The United States are the real African-Americans. Payton explains that the actress Charlize Theron is an African-American who is White but comes from Africa, Moreover, Payton makes the comparison between Charlize Theron and the Black actress Viola Davis, where Charlize is more African-American than Viola Davis because Davis is only related to the American culture.

What differentiates an African-American from a Black American, according to Payton, is that Black Americans are part of the construction of the United States and have “cultural ties to slavery and the racial oppression of pre-civil rights America.” Therefore, Payton along with Morgan Freeman find the Black History Month “ridiculous” because there is not a White History Month, which by its absence implies that Black History is not “American History,” but “African-American History.”

Others that have a hard time getting their true identity, the one they accept, are the Dominicans descendants of undocumented parents in the Dominican Republic. According to Findlaw, an innovator for solutions to law firms, “In most situations, any child that is born in the United States or one of its territories will automatically receive American citizenship.” Nonetheless, since 1929, unlike the United States the Dominican Republic does not provide the Dominican citizenship to Dominicans descendants of undocumented parents. People like Harris, who consider themselves as part of the place of birth and the only place they have been their entire life, are being denied of their identity in the Dominican Republic. In 1929 a new amendment to the Dominican Constitution was made, which stated that in order to be a Dominican at least one parent had to be Dominican regardless where the baby was born. Nonetheless, after stating who was Dominican in the constitution, the government kept giving documentation to anyone born in the country of undocumented parents. Many Dominicans of international descendent, which parents without documents thought that giving birth to them in the Dominican Republic automatically provided Dominican citizenship to their children, now are being considered “stateless” by the sentence TC 0168-13. Denationalized citizens face lack of opportunities and deportation to their ancestral native country; because by law they were never Dominicans. Now, jobs, education, health insurance, getting married, the right of ownership are privileges taken away.

The nationality of the place we were born and raised seems as a right we should all have. On the other hand, the constitution of a land should not suffer any violation as long as amendments of such constitution are not made. Fabian Del Orbe implies that, in the Dominican Republic, “ ignoring an existing law, does not free the duty and obligation to fulfill it.” However, Del Orber fails to address that the government is responsible to avoid that the constitution is neglected.

The people should not suffer the consequences when the government of a country does not follow the constitution. As an excuse, the Dominican government in 2014 came with the law 169/14, which “provides for special arrangements for people born in the country, entered illegally in the Dominican civil registration and naturalization” because “ the Constitutional Court showed a deficiency of the Dominican State that lasted over time and spread throughout the country, which caused a number of people born in the Dominican Republic received the Dominican State’s own documentation that made presume that was Dominican nationals,” after 1929, “based on which developed their civil life with certainties and specific expectations based on that condition.”

If the Dominican government had initially followed the Dominican constitution, now the children and grandchildren of any undocumented parents, who migrated to the Dominican Republic after 1929, would not be facing deportation and lost of their Dominican nationality. Del Orbe brings a good argument by implying that the ignorance of the law does not justify its violation. Nonetheless, if who are responsible to maintain the law failed, we cannot make people who were victims of the negligence of the Dominican government pay. A law like the 169/14 is not the way of fixing the life of the victims, time to fix the nationality is not needed, but the nationality that was once given by the government.

The most prejudiced citizens by the sentence are the Dominican of Haitian descent, who without knowing anyone in Haiti, many don’t even speak the Haitian creole, are going to be deported. With the sentence TC 168-13, thousands of Haitians are being deprived of Dominican citizenship. According to the anthropologist doctor Jorge Duany, the sentence is not designed to discriminate anyone; however, its practice does have a major effect in the Haitian population in the Dominican Republic. As in the Dominican Republic the concept that “Haitian immigration affects the wages of the Dominican workers and contributes to increasing levels of poverty in the Dominican Republic” has always been the most used excuse why the Dominican population supports the sentence. However, Caribbean nations react negatively to Dominican Republic’s actions, and so are the Haitians in Haiti.

Caribbean Community (CariCom), which is an organization that provides a partnership with Community institutions and groups in the Caribbean “toward the attainment of a viable, internationally competitive and sustainable Community, with improved quality of life for all,” establishes that only 6.937 Dominicans with Haitians descent could take benefit from the extra time to apply for the Dominican nationality that the Dominican Republic provided to Dominicans descendants of undocumented parents with the law 169-14. Therefore, more than 100, 000 people are in danger of deportation to Haiti with the Sentence TC 168-13. As a result, CariCom had decided not to incorporate the Dominican Republic because of the violation of the human rights that the sentence TC 168-13 makes.

More forward the National Federation of Dominican Transportation (Fenatrado) is experiencing the frustration of the Haitian community towards the sentence. The truck drivers who import products from the Dominican Republic to Haiti have been attacked by Haitian citizens with stones and hard objects thrown to the trucks. The groups of Haitian rebels have overpowered the Haitian soldiers who are responsible for the safety of the truck drivers. Therefore, the truck drivers “will be forced to suspend cargo transport to the neighboring country, until the Haitian and Dominican authorities to agree to guarantee the safety of vehicles, drivers and loads transported;” as a result, Fenatrado is now experiencing the results of the mass- hysteria caused by the sentence.

The Sentence is not only affecting the Dominican Republic internationally, but is also opening more doors to corruption in the country. According to Fabian Del Orbe, the sentence also contributes to the reinforcement of Companies who break the Dominican Laws. According to the labor Code Article 135 ” 80%, at least, the total number of workers in an enterprise must consist of Dominicans.” However, “ Illegal immigration promotes large and small construction companies, agricultural enterprises, tourism, hotel companies and many other companies that consistently violate Dominican laws by engaging the services of foreigners without work permits and employing foreigners in greater percentage of 20 % of its payroll employees.”

The director of migration of the Dominican Republic, Jose Ricardo Taveras, says that everything is ready to initiate the deportation process, after the completion of the National Plan of Regularization of Foreigners, in June. Taveras expressed that the process deportation expects to deport:

“First the foreigners of other nationality in the country to leave voluntarily; then, who does not leave voluntarily, through various mechanisms established by law, will be referred to their country of origin.”

The International Court of Human Rights (IACHR) is an organ of the Organization of American States (OAS), whose mandate is of the OAS Charter and the American Convention on Human Rights. The IACHR had found the Dominican Republic as “guilty to alleged violations of foreigners and Dominicans of Haitian descent were deported to Haiti without guaranteeing their rights,” in 1999-2000. Now ask the Dominican Republic to,

“Take steps to rescind any rules of any kind action, constitutional, legal, regulatory, administrative, or any practice or decision or interpretation that establishes or has the effect that the illegal residence of parents foreign motivate the denial of Dominican nationality to girls and boys born in the territory of Dominican Republic.”

“Adopt domestic legal measures necessary to prevent the Constitutional Court TC / 0168-13 of September 23, 2013 and the provisions of Articles 6, 8 and 11 of Law 169-14, issued on 23 May 2014, continue to produce legal effects.” In other words, everyone born in the Dominican Republic will be a Dominican.

“Adopt legislative measures, including, if necessary, constitutional, administrative and other measures necessary to regulate a procedure for birth registration should be accessible and simple, so as to ensure that all persons born on its territory they can be registered immediately after birth, regardless of their ancestry or origin and immigration status of their parents.”

“pay the compensation for pecuniary and non-pecuniary damages, reimbursement of expense and expenses.”

With the process of deportation the Dominican Republic will not follow the petitions made by the IACHR, which stated that in the case of not following such petitions “undermine the protection that persons subject to the jurisdiction of the Dominican State have before international bodies for the protection of human rights.”

With the deportations the Dominican economy is also being thrown into the game. According to former Haitian diplomat and government official, Edwin Paraison, “Dominican Republic is the most caring in the world to his neighbor, Haiti, for the contributions in health and education, while Haiti is a country on the planet that most contributes to the economic life of its counterpart.” Paraison implies that the Dominican Republic is attempting against its own benefit with the anti-Haitian concept. Dominican markets on the border benefit from the food dependency of Haiti, more important, these trades are crucial for producers and Dominican families. Haiti not only represents a market of about 2 billion annually to the Dominican Republic but it provides substantial capital whose amount, according to the Science and Arts Foundation, since 2007 over one billion. At the moment, according to Paraison, with the “new projects in the hotel, catering, real estate land and air transport, free zone and distribution of petroleum products among others” the capital should be doubled for the Dominican Republic.

Of course the Dominican Republic is an independent country that can make its own decisions. Nonetheless, the protection of human rights should be a priority for the country. Trades with its major consumer should be secured because in the case that the Haitian country makes treated with other producers a lot of Dominican families and businesses will be in danger. The Dominican Republic has to look for solutions to fix the legal status of those Dominicans descendants of undocumented parents who once were considered as Dominicans. Otherwise, the Dominican Republic will keep suffering by the decisions of the international opposition to the sentence TC 168-13, which violates the human rights of the citizens and produces a mass-hysteria at a national level.

Work Cited

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CariCom. “CSME.” CARICOM Secretariat Mission Statement. N.p., 2011. Web. 04 Apr. 2015. 

“CIDH Condena Sentencia Del Tribunal Constitucional De República Dominicana.” CIDH Condena Sentencia Del Tribunal Constitucional De República Dominicana. Ed. OEA. N.p., 6 Nov. 2014. Web. 19 Apr. 2015.

Del Orbe, Fabian. “Re: Mi Opinión Resumida En El Caso De La Sentencia 168-13, Del Tribunal Constitucional.” Web log comment. Francomacorisanos, 23 Oct. 2013. Web. 28 Mar. 2014.

Guzman Molina, Ubaldo. “La Inmigración Haitiana Afecta Salarios Locales.” Hoy.com.do. Hoy, 04 May 2012. Web. 05 Apr. 2015.

Harris, Aisha. “Why I’d Rather Be Called a Black American Than an African-American.”Slate.com. Slate, 29 July 2014. Web. 01 Mar. 2015.

Leclerc, Isabel Leticia. “Migración Está Lista Para Deportaciones Cuando Concluya El Plan De Regularización.” Listindiario.com. Listin Diario, 15 Apr. 2015. Web. 19 Apr. 2015.

Listin Diario. “Fenatrado Denuncia Nuevas Agresiones a Camioneros En Haití.”Listindiario.com. Listin Diario, 25 Mar. 2015. Web. 05 Apr. 2015.

Paraison, Edwin. “La Realidad Insular.” Acento. N.p., 11 Mar. 2015. Web. 19 Apr. 2015.

Payton, Nicholas. “I Ain’t African-American, I’m Black : Nicholas Payton.” Nicholas Payton. WordPress.com, 26 Feb. 2012. Web. 01 Mar. 2015.

Telemundo. “Fallo Dominicano Afecta a Haitianos — Telemundo 47.” Fallo Dominicano Afecta a Haitianos — Telemundo 47. N.p., 29 July 2014. Web. 05 Apr. 2015.

“U.S. Citizenship Through Parents or by Birth – FindLaw.” Findlaw. Thomson Reuters, 2014. Web. 26 Apr. 2015.

Vargas, Lauterio. “La CIDH Condena a RD Y Le Ordena Anular Sentencia.” El Caribe. N.p., 23 Oct. 2014. Web. 19 Apr. 2015.