Yesterday, gjohnsit posted a shocking diary, detailing the plans of the Dominican government to start expelling 250,000 black Dominicans of Haitian descent on Thursday and continue until all of them have been expelled to Haiti, a grindingly impoverished country their grandparents may have known but one which most of them have never even seen. If you haven't read gjohnsit's diary, Dominican Republic to be 'Socially Cleaned' in two days, read it now. And when you're done reading the diary and associated links, sign this Avaaz petition and share it on your Facebook wall and with your friends, so we can get thousands of signatures by Wednesday, when I deliver this to the President of the Dominican Republic and the Dominican UN Delegation.
Some illustrative quotes from the diary:
In two days about a quarter of a million people will be made stateless. They will have no homes, no passports, and no civil rights. There are several reasons for this, but the primary reason is racism.
At issue is a ruling by the Constitutional Court in the Dominican Republic to strip away the citizenship of several generations of Dominicans.
"According to the decision, Dominicans born after 1929 to parents who are not of Dominican ancestry are to have their citizenship revoked. The ruling affects an estimated 250,000 Dominican people of Haitian descent, including many who have had no personal connection with Haiti for several generations."
We acted against Apartheid when South Africa had a much stronger economy than the Dominican Republic does and were able to help defeat it. Let's get the ball rolling by sending this petition, and then organize a boycott of Dominican exports and leisure travel to the Dominican Republic if (as is almost definite) they proceed, anyway. We cannot tolerate this kind of brutal racism so close to our shores; we must act! And the least (and for most of us, probably the most) we can do right now is start with
this petition.
Sign it, share it, make it go viral, and recommend this diary so that more people see it. I will deliver it to the President of the Dominican Republic and the Dominican UN Delegation on Wednesday the 17th.
Thank you for reading this diary. Our brothers and sisters in the Dominican Republic need our help; we must not ignore their plight.
Update: A helpful update from gjohnsit:
General Rubén Darío Paulino Sem, the guy in charge of the deportations, says the expulsion will start this Thursday, June 18.
So we have a few more days to put some pressure on the DR.