Black, and Dominican?

They said: But I thought you wanted a Black donor?

I said: He is Dominican.

They said: Yeah Dominicans are more white.

I said: More white than whom?

This exchange was painful for me. I felt unseen and misunderstood. People have such varying opinions about Dominicans. We are mixed race. Even in 2021 it is difficult for some people to wrap their minds around it. They want to put us in a box.

I believe that the day will come when society will embrace Dominicans as a nation of people mixed with African, European, Native, and other ancestries. If you need proof, the evidence is in our DNA. Not to mention the music, food, language, art, dance, statues, books, movies, politics, history, phenotypes, etc.

Until that day comes, I am experiencing deep growing pains for myself and others.

This pain is rooted in feeling that nobody cares that my DNA test results show that I am 60 % African ancestry. I feel as if no one cares that we eat food that we still call by its African name (mangu and others). I feel as if no one cares that we have kinky hair, nappy roots, and African-influenced music. Some people are mad at us when we reclaim our African ancestry and others are upset when some deny it.

We are healing too. Be gentle. Take a deep breath.

It can be painful to be Dominican and aware of your roots. You know you are Black but also white. You know you are Latinx but also Black. You know you have Native blood but no understanding of how to get connected to the tribe. If you are dark skin then you are probably dealing with bullshit colorism, if you are light skin you are probably feeling lost and like you do not fit into the groups you know you belong to.

But you are more than any singular group. You are all the groups. You belong to all of them.

And that is not only confusing to you, it is confusing to all. It is confusing to all because it turns the idea of race upside down. How can you be brown with such light eyes? How can you be fair-skin with such kinky curls and curvy hips? What is that accent you have?

What are you? What are you? What are you? WHAT. ARE.YOU?

HUMAN!

I am human and I am all the races. And ultimately what matters is how I feel. I feel I am Latina and Black. I feel I am multiracial, multicultural and Dominican-American.

I love this quote by Dominican Singer Amara La Negra “Be proud of who you are. Be proud of the skin you’re in. You’re one in a million,” she said. “There’s no other you, and you got to embrace that shit and rock out.”