Afro-Latin Americans & Black Denial

So this morning while I should have been working, I was instead reading Nikki's article on Tanika Ray. When I saw her fabulous results from a Dominican Rollerset I decided to do some research in the form of googling. In my searching I came upon this site, http://55secretstreet.typepad.com/55secretstreet/2007/07/the-dominican-b.html which led me to this article http://www.miamiherald.com/multimedia/news/afrolatin/part2/index.html. I was completely shocked by what I read!!! OMG!
Some of you have probably read this before since it was published in 2007, but I'd never seen the article before and it made me completely sad. I can't believe that this kind of, well let me back up, I can believe that this kind of mindset exists. I guess I just don't want to believe it. It makes me not want to ever straighten my hair again. It makes me proud to be black with all of my curly kinky hair!

For some reason the link to the actual article is not working, so go to the first link and in the second paragraph hit the link that says Miami Herald and it will take you to the article.

Thank you so much for posting this article. It was fascinating!

I'm a researcher at heart and I'm a student. Much of my research focuses on African-Americans embracing and accepting our African heritage, including our hair. So to read this about Dominicans (who share an African heritage) is just...astonishing. There should definitely be more research done in this area.

I'm thankful that we (African-Americans) seem to be progressing more smoothly in this area. But this article shows just how deep and complicated breaking the cycle of oppression can be!

Excellent article!

Wow! Yes, thank you for posting this article; I hadn't read it.

To feel that way about your own looks must be a terrible feeling. So it's easier to deny it, than to embrace YOU? SMH

That's really sad that people have been brainwashed like that. My aunt is from the DR and she always makes ignorant comments about hair and our children's complexions and things like that. I thought she was just a #%$^% , but this explains a lot. Now I just feel sorry for her. People deserve to be fully informed about their WHOLE heritage, in a positive way. Great article, very interesting.

I'm half dominican and haitian i didn't see the article i would like to read it though how do i find it ?

I saw the article WOW that's crazy i knew they were tension out there and dominicans do not consider themselves black officially they consider themselves latin witch they are to a certain extent but i didn't know they hated black people but haitians and dominicans do not get along mostly because Haitians are mostly blacks and Dominicans don't want to be associated with Blacks i guess it's pretty sad smh

Can you imagine the self-hate that must be going on? And lets be real Dominicans are not the only ones that have this problem, we see it in America too. I kept thinking what about the men? Remember Sammy Sosa and how he bleached his skin white, now I know why he did it.

I was just talking about this to my sis. (well kinda sorta)

I always wondered why some black people do not consider themselves african-amercian. I didn't realize that self hate goes that deep. Good read, but extremely sad.

This was a very interesting story and like some of the other ladies mentioned I never knew that such hatred existed there especially against "black" ppl or any people that acknowledge their African hereitage. **I put black in quotations b/c from what I read it seems that to them a black person is not just a person with brown skin but hair that is not straight.

Just read the article. I had no idea ...