Cardi B has been making headlines for speaking out against president Donald Trump, with her most recent criticism relating to the government shutdown and its impact on various communities. Azealia Banks has commented on her fellow rapper's efforts following the praise they have attracted from democratic figures. From her perspective, Cardi's focus on American issues without paying equal attention to those of the Dominican Republic is slightly disingenuous considering her pride in her Dominican/Trinidadian heritage.
Banks took to social media to express her grievance. "This is a bit performative. I'd love to see Cardi say something to the leaders of the Dominican Republic about its ethnic cleansing and deportation of Haitians," she wrote. "Going after Trump is just an easy way to get press."
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"The Dominican Republic literally does the same thing to Haitians that (America been doing,) Trump is doing with Latin American immigrants and migrant workers," Banks continued. "I think she's influential enough to really make some changes there. Would help a lot of poor Haitians and Dominicans of Haitian descent have access to jobs, healthcare, housing, etc."
Ernesto Sagas, associate professor in the Ethnic Studies department of Colorado State University and author of Race and Politics in the Dominican Republic, explained this predicament at the height of its media storm ahead of the 2016 DR elections. "Haitians are utilized by the Dominican Republic as cheap labor, and as such, they happen to be the scapegoats of Dominican society," Sagas said, in line with Azealia's current critique. “When the economy is doing well, Haitians are tolerated. When the economy is not doing well, they need to be deported.”
Amnesty International described the country's political move 2016 when its residuals were still flagrant: "In September 2013, the Constitutional Court of the Dominican Republic ruled that children born in the country to undocumented foreign parents since 1929 had never been entitled to Dominican nationality." Since the stipulated timeframe spanned over 80 years, multiple generations were affected. Someone could have been born to parents whose own parents were DR citizens and still be ousted. Many were left without a home country as a result. The racism Azealia Banks mentions even escalated to lynchings, adding horrific violence to the tenuous relations. Years later, the subjects of this massive deportation still live in a state of institutionalized terror.