The Study of Racialism

Powell · Guru Joined: 27 Nov 2004 {Posts: 2462 }

I just read Louisiana Creoles: Cultural Recovery and Mixed-Race Native American Identity by Andrew J. Jolivette, a Creole and Assistant Professor in the American Indian Studies department of San Francisco State University. It is an excellent study of modern Creoles and their attempts to recover their mixed-race Creole ethnic identity. This is also the first work I've found to deal extensively with the American Indian ancestry of Creoles.

http://www.nativewiki.org/Andrew_Jolivette

http://hometown.aol.com/joliandres/myhomepage/index.html

is actively working with the Louisiana Creole Heritage Center on a Creole Heritage Recognition Bill to add a Louisiana Creole ethnicity category to the 2010 U.S. Census

Louisiana Creole Heritage Center
http://www.nsula.edu/creole/

Call for Papers
http://www.nsula.edu/creole/chicago/call_for_papers.htm

Andrew Jolivétte, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor

Email: ajoli@sfsu.edu

http://ipride.org/

OTHER · Posted: Sun 09 Mar 2008 17:28 Post subject:

Wow! A Louisiana Creole category on the census would be a REALLY BIG DEAL. I wonder, though, if it wouldn't be best to just encourage Creoles to "check all that apply" since their particular admixture, like most of us mixies, can vary.

Powell · Guru Joined: 27 Nov 2004 {Posts: 2462 }

Bischoff · Mentor Joined: 20 Jan 2008 {Posts: 395 }

Powell did that happen to you last time you checked all that apply ?

Powell · Guru Joined: 27 Nov 2004 {Posts: 2462 }

sagascend · Moderator-at-Large Joined: 17 Jun 2006 {Posts: 2418 }

Richard Miller

anonymouse · Wizard Joined: 09 Oct 2007 {Posts: 677 }

fwsweet

Richard Miller · Posted: Tue 22 Apr 2008 12:11 Post subject:

You've been around since October of 07. That's fully enough time see what everyone else here is talking about when they say "escape hatch" - A. D. Powell has been talking about this for nearly fifteen years - I'm sure you've seen it.

Either way, to put it in more simple terms... escape hatch refers to how Latinos and Arabs are able to escape one-drop by being considered a separate ethnicity. No one tries to impose one-drop on them - yet the rest of us are victims of it. Now, someone is trying to give Louisiana Creoles that same escape hatch. What about the rest of us? In reality, Louisiana Creoles make up such a small insignificant part of the US population, and someone wants to give THEM a block to check off before they give ALL mulattoes one? This is stupid.

And I'm not saying the Creole identity is about one's appearence, because I know full well that there will be some with a monoracial black phenotype - all I'm saying is that for every Creole with a monoracial black phenotype, there should be one with a monoracial white phenotype - with the vast majority of them being somewhere in the middle. But 85% percent of those claiming it having a monoracial black phenotype? This should raise a flag. This isn't using my "magical DNA detection" capabilities either; this is applying the law of probability. Besides, isn't there more French ancestry in the Creole gene pool than African? My "probability" is actually based on their being an equal amount... so I was just being nice. All I'm saying is this - the Creole identity has been hijacked in order to keep them from being seen as a separate racial group.

Think of the one-droppist argument, "We're all mixed, you're no different from us," i.e., if they can't make you black, they'll make themselves mixed - either way, the effect is to make them and you indistinguishable. THAT'S what I mean when I say that the Creole culture was hijacked.

In the end, I say that creating a separate Louisiana Creole category while not creating a mulatto category would be a slap in the face to those of us half Germanic/Celtic/Slavic mulattoes.

Either way, you can sit there and be content while others with the same racial make-up as you get out of one-drop, while you're left being the victim... however, I think that you deserve better, even if you don't care whether or not you get it for yourself.

fwsweet · Posted: Tue 22 Apr 2008 13:31 Post subject:

Umm, guys, this thread seems to have drifted away from discussing a book and into advocating of (or opposiing) certain census "racial" categories. Perhaps it should be moved to the "Biracial Americans" forum?

lsgh2 · Suspended Joined: 22 May 2008 {Posts: 84 }

I'll be presenting on "PASSING" at the Creole Conference...

lsgh2 · Suspended Joined: 22 May 2008 {Posts: 84 }

lsgh2 · Suspended Joined: 22 May 2008 {Posts: 84 }

"Historically Créoles in Louisiana have lived in a three tiered society (White--> Créole --> African American) where they enjoyed more rights than African-American persons. However, areas outside of LA there is mainly a two tiered society (White --> Black). Whether you're Créole or African American you're lumped together in the Black category. That's why a lot of Créoles end up marrying Blacks once they leave LA or when they move to areas within LA that aren't heavily Créole. Because there is no advantage of being Créole and society treats you as Black there is no incentive for Créoles to marry each other."
-Mme. Andrea Archie-Beauvais/Paroisse Pointe Coupée

lsgh2 · Suspended Joined: 22 May 2008 {Posts: 84 }

"Race mixture at Pointe Coupée was extensive. A rigid socioracial hierarchy was absent. A close study of the Pointe Coupée post during the eighteenth century supports the claim of Charles Rousseve, an Afro-Créole historian, that the French and Spanish colonists of Louisiana were more considerate of their mixed-blood children than were settlers in other parts of America, "accepted them as members of their families, freed them, and educated them. Eventually, the descendants of many were totally absorbed into the white Créole group." Rousseve's interpretation, indicating widespread passing of mixed-bloods into the white population, not only is accurate but also is pivotal to understanding race relations in colonial Louisiana...Although race mixture and social fluidity were perhaps more pronounced at Pointe Coupée than elsewhere in Louisiana because of the relative remoteness of the settlement and its insecure beginnings, a similar process of acculturation took place throughout lower Louisiana during the eighteenth century."
-Africans in Colonial Louisiana: The Development of Afro-Créole Culture in the Eighteenth Century by Gwendolyn Midlo Hall

lsgh2 · Suspended Joined: 22 May 2008 {Posts: 84 }

MP mulattoprince · Wizard Joined: 10 Apr 2007 {Posts: 464 }

Richard Miller: And I'm not saying the Creole identity is about one's appearence, because I know full well that there will be some with a monoracial black phenotype - all I'm saying is that for every Creole with a monoracial black phenotype, there should be one with a monoracial white phenotype - with the vast majority of them being somewhere in the middle. But 85% percent of those claiming it having a monoracial black phenotype?

MP: I have noticed that too, that a large number of people I have heard claiming creole do have a phneotype that can't pass for nothing but black. I am not saying saing they don't have some creole ancestry though.

Yet many of these black phenotype creoles I have heard call themselves creoles don't come across as but creole in culture but come across as african american in culture. But in some cases I do feel that some people aren't mixed with what they claim.

fwsweet · Posted: Mon 18 Aug 2008 13:32 Post subject:

Richard Miller · Posted: Mon 18 Aug 2008 16:06 Post subject:

fwsweet · Posted: Mon 18 Aug 2008 16:30 Post subject: