POLITICIZING PREJUDICE An Investigation into the Historic use of Anti-Haitian Prejudice and Antagonism as a Political Tool in the Dominican Republic

Abstract: In the Dominican Republic, residing Haitians and their descendants, emigrated from the neighboring country Haiti, occupy the lowest societal strata. A societal position ascribed to the long and fraught history between the two countries. Their presence has for decades caused great aversion and has officially been labeled anti-Haitianism. Described as a viable political tool for conservatives and nationalists, its early origin, anti-Haitian prejudice and antagonism, is said to go back to colonialism. This thesis investigates the politicization of anti-Haitian prejudice and antagonism in two distinct periods of the Dominican Republic’s history. The thesis is carried out as a research overview. As such, existing literature has been subjected to a secondary analysis, where an eclectic theoretical framework encompassing multiple theories and concepts that all approach the research area from different perspectives, have been applied. The thesis finds that politicization of anti-Haitian prejudice and antagonism originated during the inception of the Dominican national identity, when Haiti was conceptualized as the necessary different ‘Other’ from which Dominicans could define their difference. This was among other things done through narratives encompassing representational strategies of stereotyping and naturalization which would later be reproduced and exaggerated by the dictatorial regime of Rafael L. Trujillo, who further institutionalized these as a state ideology. The thesis further finds that in both time periods, the politicization of anti-Haitian prejudice and antagonism was a means to reach the objective of two distinct racial projects.