Видео

Not all whites, some of them Older Cajuns don't even like the term Cajun. Some of them identify as Creole

I know "creoles" who swore up and down that you had the be lightskinned with "good" hair to be creole, and that they themselves were the only version of it. These lightskinned creoles couldn't speak the language, never rode a horse, and the closest they ever came to a farm was a farmer's market. I know darkskinned creoles who still speak the language, ride horses, and work the farm, but the lightskins would say they was too black to be creole. So, even among black people, there are people who want to exclude people from being creole based on THEIR definition of what a creole is. I was raised in a time where a creole had to be some version of black. The animosity between whites and black, especially in Louisiana, solidified that perception in me. Like you, that was the only way I could see it. But there was a time, long before any of us were even born, that creole did not mean just black people. The historical records are there! It's undeniable. There has been a lot of racial division, stife, and violence in Louisiana. You got slavery, Jim Crow segregation, and the civil rights movement that transpired. There have been a lot of drastic changes over the years. The meaning of the word creole is one of those things that has changed drastically for some people over time through all of this strife. But if the creole culture is to survive, somebody had to go in the archives and set the record straight and this "Creole Controversy" documentary did a good job in trying to achieve that. We can't get mad because the historical record shows that things are different from the way we were raised to believe them. We've got to look back and say, "Hey, we have destroyed the creole culture through all this racial strife and division." So, let me just say, "Bon swa! Mo swèt vouzòt passé un bon journée!"