Posted: Tue 09 Aug 2005 16:48 Post subject: Canada's New Governor Genl Michele Jean YOU MUST READ THIS
WOW - WHAT AN INTERESTING LADY
My Canadian friend sent me this. I did not know what she looked like or anything about her - had never heard of her.
When I clicked on the article and saw the pic I saw that she is "one of us" you might say.
Journalist Michaëlle Jean to be new Governor General
Last Updated Thu, 04 Aug 2005 21:41:33 EDT
CBC News
Prime Minister Paul Martin will officially name journalist Michaëlle Jean as Canada's next governor general on Thursday.
Michaëlle Jean (CBC Photo)
The official announcement is expected to come at 11 a.m. EDT in Ottawa.
Jean will be installed as Canada's 27th governor general Oct. 1.
At 48 years old, the award-winning journalist will become one of the youngest governors general ever, the third woman in the job and the first black person to call Rideau Hall home.
Jean's name surfaced after weeks of rumours about who would be replacing the current Gov. Gen. Adrienne Clarkson, who took up the post in 1999 and who is stepping down this fall.
Jean is probably best known to English-Canadians as the host of The Passionate Eye and Rough Cuts on CBC Newsworld.
She was born in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. She left in 1968, her family fleeing the oppressive regime of François "Papa Doc" Duvalier, settling in Quebec with her family.
She has a six-year-old daughter whom she adopted from Haiti, and she is married to filmmaker Jean-Daniel Lafond. As well, she is fluent in five languages: French, English, Spanish, Italian and Haitian Creole.
Her television career began in Quebec, where she has worked as a journalist, producer and host for the CBC's French language services, SRC and RDI, since 1988.
She has worked as a correspondent for Le Point, hosted Le Monde ce soir, L'Edition quebecoise, Horizons francophones, le Journal RDI and RDI à l'écoute. Currently she is host of the French-language documentary series Grands Reportages.
In an interview with CBC Radio in 2001, Jean spoke of how she sees her role in the public eye, especially as a role model for children.
"Being a black journalist on TV – for many black children and Asian children and, I say, even native children – it's a symbol because when they see me they say, 'OK, something is possible,'" she said.
Jean has received many awards for her own documentary work, including the Amnesty International Journalism Award, the Anik Prize and the Galaxi Award for best information program host.
"It's obviously a very exciting appointment. Here's someone who's quite young, very dynamic, has a rapport with a lot of younger audience," said Paul Benoit of the Monarchist League of Canada.
Historian David Mitchell says Jean will play an important role, at a critical time in Canada's history.
"She will be a voice for Canada in Quebec and she will represent the new Quebec to the rest of Canada very effectively. She has that potential and that sense, this is an inspired choice."
Posted: Tue 09 Aug 2005 20:08 Post subject: Re: Canada's New Governor Genl Michele Jean YOU MUST READ THIS
Perhaps-like many non-Spanish-speaking Caribbean people-she simply adopted a black identity when she grew up in Canada. Her appearance isn't too far removed from what we would consider black in the U.S.. But she probably is a member of Haiti's mulatto elite, many of whom are not all that light-skinned. Anyway, a remarkable woman. Some more information about her:
Picture of Michaelle Jean and Jean-Daniel Lafond (her husband)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Micha%C3%ABlle_Jean
Biography
Jean fled Haiti with her family from dictator François Duvalier's regime in 1968. Her father, with whom she has recently reconciled, was a philosopher who was tortured under Duvalier's regime and separated from the family for 30 years. The Jean family settled at Thetford Mines, Quebec.
Besides French and English, Jean is fluent in Spanish, Italian and Haitian Creole and can read Portuguese.
As a student at the University of Montreal, Jean received a Bachelor of Arts in Italian and Hispanic languages and literature and, from 1984 until 1986, taught Italian Studies while completing a Master of Arts in comparative literature. Jean attended the universities of Florence, Perugia and the Catholic University of Milan to continue her studies in language and literature.
While attending university, Jean worked at a shelter for battered women from 1979 until 1987. She later helped establish a network of shelters for women and children across Quebec and Canada. Jean also worked in organizations that helped immigrants who came to Canada and then later worked for Employment and Immigration Canada and at the Conseil des Communautés culturelles du Québec. Jean began writing about the experiences of immigrant women.
Career
Jean went on to become an award-winning reporter, filmmaker, and broadcaster. Jean married documentary film-maker Jean-Daniel Lafond and together they made several films including the award-winning film, Haïti dans tous nos rêves (Haiti in all Our Dreams). In the film, she meets her uncle, the poet and essayist René Depestre, who went into exile in France from the Duvalier dictatorship and wrote about his dreams for Haiti, to tell him Haiti awaits his return. She has won many prizes, such as the Amnesty International journalism award. She has hosted and produced news and documentary programming for television on both the English and French services of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. She was most recently the host of CBC Newsworld's The Passionate Eye and RDI's Grands Reportages, as well as an occasional anchor of Radio-Canada's Le Téléjournal.
Posted: Tue 16 Aug 2005 13:53 Post subject: Re: Canada's New Governor Genl Michele Jean YOU MUST READ THIS
G-Man wrote:
Perhaps-like many non-Spanish-speaking Caribbean people-she simply adopted a black identity when she grew up in Canada. Her appearance isn't too far removed from what we would consider black in the U.S.. But she probably is a member of Haiti's mulatto elite, many of whom are not all that light-skinned. Anyway, a remarkable woman. Some more information about her:
Picture of Michaelle Jean and Jean-Daniel Lafond (her husband)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Micha%C3%ABlle_Jean
Biography
Jean fled Haiti with her family from dictator François Duvalier's regime in 1968. Her father, with whom she has recently reconciled, was a philosopher who was tortured under Duvalier's regime and separated from the family for 30 years. The Jean family settled at Thetford Mines, Quebec.
Besides French and English, Jean is fluent in Spanish, Italian and Haitian Creole and can read Portuguese.
As a student at the University of Montreal, Jean received a Bachelor of Arts in Italian and Hispanic languages and literature and, from 1984 until 1986, taught Italian Studies while completing a Master of Arts in comparative literature. Jean attended the universities of Florence, Perugia and the Catholic University of Milan to continue her studies in language and literature.
While attending university, Jean worked at a shelter for battered women from 1979 until 1987. She later helped establish a network of shelters for women and children across Quebec and Canada. Jean also worked in organizations that helped immigrants who came to Canada and then later worked for Employment and Immigration Canada and at the Conseil des Communautés culturelles du Québec. Jean began writing about the experiences of immigrant women.
Career
Jean went on to become an award-winning reporter, filmmaker, and broadcaster. Jean married documentary film-maker Jean-Daniel Lafond and together they made several films including the award-winning film, Haïti dans tous nos rêves (Haiti in all Our Dreams). In the film, she meets her uncle, the poet and essayist René Depestre, who went into exile in France from the Duvalier dictatorship and wrote about his dreams for Haiti, to tell him Haiti awaits his return. She has won many prizes, such as the Amnesty International journalism award. She has hosted and produced news and documentary programming for television on both the English and French services of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. She was most recently the host of CBC Newsworld's The Passionate Eye and RDI's Grands Reportages, as well as an occasional anchor of Radio-Canada's Le Téléjournal.
Yeah, she looks completely different in these pictures
You know someone else sent me an email about a week ago about this light skinned Hiatian woman that was just elected to one of Canada's high government positions. When I actually saw a picture of her (which Tryone posted), I thought to myself "this woman isn't light skinned at all".
Anyway, Mulattos and other non-Blacks comprise less than 5% of the TOTAL population. So who's to say this woman is a real Haitian Mulatto? Mulattos in Haiti are RARE and it makes her being one highly unlikely! I think it would be a safer assumption to say that she was a Haitian with somewhat lighter skin than the general dark brown/black skinned population! I have seen not a shread of PROOF that this woman is Mixed Raced from her appearence or articles about her.
Posted: Tue 16 Aug 2005 16:06 Post subject: Re: Canada's New Governor Genl Michele Jean YOU MUST READ THIS
G-Man wrote:
The concept of mulattoness in Haiti and elsewhere isn't strictly tied to being light, so she could in fact be a real Haitian mulatto.
In any case, her family's background makes her part of Haiti's middle class at least, if not the elite, complexion notwithstanding.
My REAL issue was not her complexion (although I DID find it strange that board members would force a "mulatto" label on such an African looking woman)! My problem was actually knowing that Mulattos in Haiti are almost nonexistent! It does not matter if you're defining "mulatto" by culture or race!
Posted: Tue 16 Aug 2005 16:35 Post subject: Re: Canada's New Governor Genl Michele Jean YOU MUST READ THIS
girlfromthenc wrote:
...Mulattos in Haiti are almost nonexistent!
It depends upon what you mean by "mulatto." If you mean the first-generation offspring of a White American and a Black American, then you are probably correct. But if you mean someone of mixed Afro-European ancestry, say between 20-80 and 80-20, then virtually all Haitians are mulattoes. The thing to remember is that Haiti has a three-caste system with two color lines. Colored (mixed-looking) are the uppermost or elite group. Blacks (African-looking) are the laboring caste, but they have all rights of citizenship. Finally, White residents are not allowed to own property and so are not allowed to vote and thus, among native-born Haitians, they form the lowest-status caste.
Frank, I am NOT speaking of the US's definition of Mulatto. I am getting my information about Haiti straight from the Census fact sheet! I would believe your definition of Mulatto as anyone with significant Afro-European admixture if Haiti itself claimed most of its population was Mulatto. But they don't! The census on Haiti clearly makes a distinction between Blacks and Mulattos. And they clearly define very FEW HAITIANS as meeting the requirements for being "Mulatto", which lessens the chance of this lady ever being Mulatto (racially or culturally) greatly.
Posted: Tue 16 Aug 2005 18:18 Post subject: Re: Canada's New Governor Genl Michele Jean YOU MUST READ THIS
girlfromthenc wrote:
G-Man wrote:
The concept of mulattoness in Haiti and elsewhere isn't strictly tied to being light, so she could in fact be a real Haitian mulatto.
In any case, her family's background makes her part of Haiti's middle class at least, if not the elite, complexion notwithstanding.
My REAL issue was not her complexion (although I DID find it strange that board members would force a "mulatto" label on such an African looking woman)! My problem was actually knowing that Mulattos in Haiti are almost nonexistent! It does not matter if you're defining "mulatto" by culture or race!
You know someone else sent me an email about a week ago about this light skinned Hiatian woman that was just elected to one of Canada's high government positions. When I actually saw a picture of her (which Tryone posted), I thought to myself "this woman isn't light skinned at all".
Anyway, Mulattos and other non-Blacks comprise less than 5% of the TOTAL population. So who's to say this woman is a real Haitian Mulatto? Mulattos in Haiti are RARE and it makes her being one highly unlikely! I think it would be a safer assumption to say that she was a Haitian with somewhat lighter skin than the general dark brown/black skinned population! I have seen not a shread of PROOF that this woman is Mixed Raced from her appearence or articles about her.
I was responding to two things: the logic that because mulattos are rare in Haiti (5%) she couldn't be a real mulatto and the notion by many that mulattos and or mixed-race people of Afro-European origin are necessarily light skinned. What constitutes light-skinned is obviously subjective as your reference to an e-mail from someone stating that a light-skinned woman elected to a post in the Canadian gov't illustrates. You responded to that by saying she wasn't light-skinned at all.
One could infer, from your quoted statement above, that in your opinion, she wasn't mixed based both on her appearance-complexion and Haitian mulattos being rare. Though I don't know what their rarity has to do with whether or not she is a member of Haiti's mulatto elite.
No one here was forcing a mulatto label on her. A.D. Powell labeled her a mulatto based on her subjective eye-balling. Just like your subjective eye-balling led you to see her as not light-skinned and African-looking.
What this exchange and the e-mail you referenced underscore is the fact that the concept of being mixed, light-skinned, mulatto, etc., is often subjective and varies from culture to culture. It can also be tied to such things as social class and education.
Frank, I am NOT speaking of the US's definition of Mulatto. I am getting my information about Haiti straight from the Census fact sheet.
Sorry. I misunderstood. I thought that you were talking about physical appearance to an observer, rather than about ethnic self-identity by the individual himself/herself.
If you were talking about ethnic self-identity (rather than appearance), then your number (5 percent) looks like it may have come from the CIA fact-book of ethnicities, and not from any Haitian census. You may want to check your source (or the source of your source). If the number comes from the CIA fact-book, as I suspect, then I suggest that it is not based on how the people of the foreign nation self-identify, but on CIA analysts' opinions of how USAmericans would eyeball the people of the nation.
Ultimately, any USAmerican estimate of how people in other nations self-identify ethnically is suspect unless it is taken from self-description by the people themselves (as in the U.S. and Brazilian censuses, for instance). This is because USAmericans have a much lighter phenotype cutoff than anyone else. That is, Americans tend to see people like Halle Berry, for example, as Black-looking, while people in other lands see her as a well-tanned White woman.
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