A recent ESPN article decided to touch upon the tired and overly exaggerated allegations of ethnic cleansing going on down in the Dominican Republic, this time with a baseball twist.
There is some good writing mixed into the whole media-fueled Dominican/Haitian debacle. The open border agenda has decided to resurface just as the World Baseball Classic tournament started to heat up... talk about impeccable timing, it's like a broken record, regurgitating the same lie repeated by more than 20 other hacks. And here we are to obliterate it, once again.
In the ESPN article, Mr. Schoenfeld stands on his soap box and proclaims that many great Haitian baseball players will never leave the Island due to discrimination and a violent history of racism attributed to the legacy of Rafael Leonidas Trujillo, former dictator of the Republic.
In reality, the ESPN writer's whole argument has more to do with negligence and lack of documentation than with Trujillo's influence. Mr. Schoenfeld alleges that the number of ethnic Haitians playing as Dominicans would be a shocker to many, and that may be the case in his mind, but I'm sure Dominicans are well aware of this debacle.
Like many are well aware, San Pedro De Macoris, which the author mentions, is where many immigrants from the West Indies came to work in the sugar fields prior to the Haitians in the early 1900's; and they were known as "cocolos."
If Mr. Schoenfeld was a thorough journalist, he would have done some more research. Instead, he claims it was the Cubans who came to work the sugar fields and brought baseball to the country. In reality, there was an immense number of immigrants who came to D.R. back then, not just Cubans.
While some of what Mr. Schoenfeld says holds some truth, he withholds many truths at the same time: like the fact that the Dominicans did offer a regularization plan for Haitians born in the Dominican Republic, while at the same time trying to combat a massive non-stop wave of illegal Haitians not born in the Dominican Republic from overwhelming the country's resources.
All the while a supposedly vicious ethnic cleansing campaign is ongoing, what is in fact created is a giant, unorganized quagmire for the Dominicans to have to sort through, and writers like this man feel entitled to say what it is and how it is.
If an individual is up to bat on writing about something like this, then at least put everything on the table, don't bring Trujillo into this like every other unoriginal writer who touches the topic. Dominicans had to deal with racist, genocidal maniacs like Trujillo from the other side of the island as well.
However, that might be too far back in history for the ESPN writer, if he was thorough he would have noted that and not been biased by painting Dominicans as the aggressors, when in reality Dominicans we're always on guard due to the many attempted invasions from the Haitian side.
Also, just because Mr. Schoenfeld tried to personalize a situation like the one on the island, using athletes as his power point, it still doesn't change the fact that the problem is a lot bigger than 30,000 "ethnic Haitians," while Dominicans suspect there may be more than 2 million "non-ethnic Haitians" mixing in and creating a chaotic environment.
For instance, Dominican hospitals are being devastated by illegal Haitians, not ethnic Haitians, and with such gems in his article like, "you can get papers from somebody," or birth certificates at the age of 10 one has to ponder if this man is so naive that he doesn't see that there is a fake documents crisis on the island?
There is no doubt that Mr. Schoenfeld sees the document crisis, however the copy and paste victim narrative is far more seductive click bait.
As far as baseball goes, it is a big thing in the Dominican Republic, like soccer is a big thing in Haiti. The Haitians themselves have never properly documented their migrants, however, and the blame usually goes to the Dominican government. And what about the U.N after the earthquake and many other so-called foundations and NGO's who were there to relieve so much suffering, only leaving behind more broken dreams and cholera.
It's easy to justify and blame Dominicans since it surely takes away attention from all the "heroic" American efforts to help rebuild Haiti which never really manifested. The way many Dominicans see it, Haitians and Haiti are not their responsibility and there is only so much they can do. Sometimes the truth is stranger than fiction and even with all the bad blood, Dominicans have done way more for Haiti than any self-righteous writer who left his ivory tower to visit the Island and interview baseball players.
By: El Conde
