I am Afro-American & have been to DR many times. It's biased in many ways, both from the non white & white poulation. I don't frequent the expensive places too often where it is more likley where the situation posted below took place. It's not the overt type of racism but it's noticable. A few non-whites told me that they have no slave history in their background & they were quick to change the conversation from that topic. bernie

Racial discrimination in the discos

Posted by Darrell Furts on Thursday, 26 March 1998, at 3:15 p.m. Hello, My name is Darrell Furts. I am a 25 year old African-American male. I remember reading a Usenet news article about racial discrimination in the discos in the Dominican Republic. I was very surprised. SO, when I was visited a friend in the Dominican Republic. I decided to check things out for myself. I was amazed at the clubs that wouldn't let me in, even though I was EXCEPTIONALLY well-dressed. The friend i was visiting is a white American. He had no problems entering the clubs, but when I tried to enter, I was told things like: "members only" (my friend was not a "member", but he got in) "we need a membership card" (my friend did not have one either, but he was let in" "You're not dressed right" (remember, I was exceprionally well-dressed and better dressed than most of the people they let in) When i spoke to a few people after that, they told me that there are many clubs that do not let Black people in. These are the clubs that discriminate: 1-Bella Blue (located on the malecon) 2-Club neon (located next to the hotel hispanola) 3-Palmetto (located in Plaza la lira) It is a shame that in a country that has a population that I consider mostly black/mixed that this kind of stuff goes on. What a shame!! Darrell