Are you Dominican? - Being Black in the Dominican Republic

WOW! Really! You mean no one in your family is Dominican!  You don't look Black! 😠 

What does looking Black even mean?  Other comments I hear are (please remember I am translating this):

1. Don't you want to straighten your 💇hair? 

2. You should bring your daughter to the salon💈.
3. Don't go in the sun🌞, your skin is getting darker.
4. Bring your umbrella☂, the sun is damaging.
5. Your daughter is playing in the rain🌧, hurry tell her to come inside. She will mess up her hair.

When people first meet me for the first time they ask me if I'm Dominican.  If you know me and you are reading this, you know that I proudly say, "No, I am Black." Then they are really confused. How can I be Black yet look exactly like them.  My acknowledgment of my Blackness seems to make Dominicans uncomfortable even the 'educated traveled' Dominicans. Why, is this? Someone please tell me!

After they ask me if I am Dominican and I say no, there is an awkward 10 second pause that seems like an eternity.  After the pause passes there are always two scenarios that occur:

1.  People start talking about how non-racist they are. How it doesn't matter how people look, it's the inside that counts. OR 

2.They change the topic

To add salt to the wound, I am giving the PSAT exam with the assistant director and the question comes up on the test about race.  "Oh goodness" I think to myself. 💭Here we go!  The administer looks around the room and says "Of course, all of you should write White." WHAT!😲 Out of the 23  students that took the test, I would have considered maybe 6 White and even that's pushing it. I kept quiet in that moment because it was neither the time nor place during a timed standardized exam, but I made a mental note of it. 

At this point I am completely bewildered what does it mean to be White or Black in the Dominican Republic?  I create a lesson for my class called 'Who am I?' I ask every student what they considered themselves. These are the results before the lesson.
                   
                      White               Black               Mixed
7th grade =      11                      1
9th grade =      16                      1                         3
10th grade=     12
11th grade=      23
12 grade=         15                      1                         1

89% of my students seriously considered themselves white. WHAT!

After the lesson all but 13 students considered themselves mixed.  To be clear they didn't admit they were 🙅Black, they just said they were mixed.  A few admitted that they had Black blood. Others said that they were mixed with Native American. On a positive note, those that stated that they were Black were proud of it.  Who ever you are, you should be proud of it! We are all unique and beautiful, especially me😜!

Now I would like to open this discussion up to my readers. If you have a theory, information or a comment about this topic, please post them below.