One Island, Two Stories

What happens when two countries share the same island but not the same history, language or skin tone? In this episode, we dig into the complicated relationship between Haiti and the Dominican Republic -- plus, we kick things off with three random facts that'll have you staring at your phone like: wait, what?

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
What's happening to know it alls? Welcome back to another episode.
If I didn't know, maybe you didn't either. It's the
podcast where you leave smarter than you came and sometimes
a little shook. I'm your host b dot and make
sure you're following us on social media. IDK myde with
an underscore before it and behind it. Now, before we

(00:23):
dive in today's episode, let me hit you with three
of the most useless facts you'll never need, never not
a day in life that might leave you eyebrows raised.
Number one, did you know that the inventor of the
super soaker was a black man? His name was Lonnie
Johnson and he was a NASA engineer. Yeah, your childhood
water fights were powered by rocket science. Your second useless fact,

(00:48):
did you know that the Eiffel Tower was a grower? Yeah,
it grows in the summertime. About up the six inches
and a woman to let you know an added six
inches is a lot, but that's because the metals in
the heat. So Yeah, even monuments get a little swollen
when it's hot out.

Speaker 2 (01:06):
And your third useless fact.

Speaker 1 (01:08):
The shortest war in history lasted just thirty eight minutes.
That's short than the episode of Ginny and Georgia. It
was in eighteen ninety six Britain and Zanzibar. They got
into a Zanzibar said, let's fight, Britain said Bett, and
less than an hour later Zanzibar surrendered.

Speaker 2 (01:24):
Those have been your three eustless facts.

Speaker 1 (01:27):
The inventor of the super soaker was a black man
named Lonnie Johnson.

Speaker 2 (01:30):
You know we good with guns.

Speaker 1 (01:32):
The Eiffel Tower is a grower in the summer, and
the shortest war in history lasted just thirty eight minutes.

Speaker 2 (01:40):
Now.

Speaker 1 (01:40):
Last week, I told you how almost lost my life
in the dr on a scooter, but it had me
do a deep dive. No pun intended on the dr
And did you know that the Dominican Republic was one
island with two stories?

Speaker 2 (01:53):
Because I didn't. I didn't know. I didn't know.

Speaker 1 (02:00):
I didn't know. I didn't know.

Speaker 2 (02:05):
I didn't know.

Speaker 1 (02:06):
I didn't know. All right, let's talk about the Dominican
Republic and Haiti. Two countries, one island and history that's deeper,
darker and more divided than most people realize. The island
of Hispaniola. It is like the original odd couple on
the East Spain set up shop that eventually became the
Dominican Republic. On the west, France moved in. That's Haiti.

(02:30):
Different languages, different religions, different systems of slavery, but still
on the same island.

Speaker 2 (02:36):
Now Haiti got free first.

Speaker 1 (02:37):
In seventeen ninety one, Haiti started the only successful slave
revolt in history. By eighteen oh four, they were the
first black republic in the world. You know how hard
that hit the global system of white supremacy. Haiti didn't
just break free, they flipped the table, but the world
made them pay for it. France forced them to pay
reparations to their former enslavers. It crippled Haiti's economy for

(03:01):
over a century. Meanwhile, on the Dominican side, folks were
still living under Spanish rule and they was watching all
this go down with a mix of pride, fear, and
probably a little side. Now fast forward to eighteen twenty two,
that's when Haiti occupied the entire island, including the Dominican side.
To them, it was about unity protection, but to many

(03:24):
Dominicans it felt like a new colonizer in different skin.
For twenty two years, the dr was under Haitian control
until eighteen forty four, when Dominicans fought for and won
their independence. But here's the twist. Their fight wasn't just
for freedom. It was also about defining what it meant
to not be Haitian, and that shaped everything after. Even

(03:45):
though both sides of the island had African ancestry, the
DR lead into a we're not black, We're Spanish identity.
Over time, the Dominican Republic developed a national story that
rejected blackness, especially Haitian blackness, that turned into anti Haitianismo,
a deep rooted racism that's political, cultural, and illegal. Google

(04:08):
it anti haitian Nismo. In nineteen thirty seven, the Dominican
dictator True Heeo ordered the Parsley massacre. Definitely doing an
episode on this in February because over twenty thousand Haitians
were murdered. Soldiers asked people to say the word perry
Hire a Spanish for Parsley, and if they said it

(04:28):
with a Haitian accent, they were killed. Yeah, the word
Parsley decided if you lived or died. Today, Haitian workers
cross the border for jobs. Many are undocumented, some are
born in the DR but still can't get citizenship. Tensions
run high and politician use it to score points, but
they're also activists, artists, and families fighting for unity on

(04:52):
both sides, because no matter how many flags or fences
you put up, it's steal one island, steal one people,
Steal one complicated connected story. The next time you're on
a beach in Ponta ConA, we're throwing yourself twenty yards
off a scooter in Santiago. Just know, about one hundred
miles away, there's a country that shares the same dirt,

(05:14):
but not the same freedom.

Speaker 2 (05:16):
And I didn't know. Maybe you didn't either.

Speaker 1 (05:19):
I