Masaman, May 28, 2017
Many people often use the terms Cajun and Louisiana Creole interchangeably, and although there are many historical, linguistic, and cultural similarities between the two groups, they are very distinct in other ways. In this video we are going to be delving into the history of the Cajuns and Creole people that live in the modern American state of Louisiana, and why and how they both came to be. **** Edited by Azizi Powell
This is Part II of a two part pancocojams series on the ethnic and cultural differences between contemporary Louisiana Creoles and Cajuns.
This post showcases two YouTube videos that address the subject of Creoles And Cajuns ethnicities and cultures. Selected comments from the discussion threads of those videos are also included in that post
Click https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2023/08/what-are-ethnic-cultural-differences.html for Part I of this pancocojams series. That post presents one complete reprinted article and excerpts from two online articles about Louisiana Louisiana Creoles and Louisiana Cajuns.
The content of this post is presented for historical, socio-cultural, and educational purposes.
All copyrights remain with their owners.
Thanks to the producers and publishers of these videos and thanks to all those who are featured in that video. Thanks also to all those who are quoted in this post.
1. @robertdennis550,2021
"My Father's family is Creole and I was always amazed at the
diversity within it. My Father and I are brown skinned and have slightly more
prominent Native American features such as cheeks and nose. His father was very
dark with more African features, but his mother could pass for white all day
long and they were French Creole speakers. All this within 3 generations. Go
figure. :)"
**
Reply
2. @goldeneyebby7477, 2023
"Same as me my creole father was dark as chocolate his mom
was ghost pale I remember being with her in this general store and this white
man yells angrily at me saying I couldn't shop alone I said my grandmother is
at the register he looked all over the store tryin to see where my black granny
was lol once she called me to go,, the look on his face but I will say he was
always so nice to me after..my mom parents (mom)native American and(
dad)African..my mom has an soft peanut butter skintone with soft straight hair
it's crazy my little sister has freckles and sandy reddish hair I'm my parents
darkest child my little girl is pale light skin with straight hair it's really
crazy cuz I'm an dark skin dread head black American woman lol"
**
Reply
3. @tonyc.7538, 2023
"@goldeneyebby7477
Most New Orleans Creoles are White. It's not a racial quality, it's a
French quality. That being said, there are mixed race Creoles in New Orleans,
that are known as Creoles of color. I'm only sharing because a lot of people
make the mistake that New Orleans Creole has something to do with being mixed
race, when it has nothing at all to do with that, as you may already know. Even
people that live in New Orleans don't know their own culture and history a lot
of the time.
Reply
4.
"@tonyc.7538 Creole has a couple definitions, so it’s
understandable that everyone would think it means something different. One is
“a group of mixed race black people with French ancestry in relation to
Louisiana”, and another is “descendant of Louisiana” that’s why there are
labels such as Spanish creole, French creole, African creole, etc. Both are
true, but I agree with you that it’s not accurate to think creole are only
“mixed race” when that’s not the only definition of creole."
**
Reply
5. @mellandy87, 2023
"@tonyc.7538 I don't know where you got all this
misinformation but it's a shame on your part. I'm Louisiana Creole. Its not
only in New Orleans dear. lol Creole is a French term given to anyone
descendants of Colonial French settlers before the Louisiana Purchase. Its also
a culture and ethnic group of people throughout the south and former French
Colonies. MOST CREOLE PEOPLE ARE MIXED RACE. You need to get over that fact.
Cajuns are the only Canadian French descendants who sometimes claim to be of Only
the "White" race. And most of
us in the culture know that's a fantasy. They have a separate culture from
Creoles and ethnic Identity. Before term "Cajun" came about everyone
in the former French colony was called Creole. The English took over and started
to separate the White presenting creoles from the People of Color presenting
Creoles. Hence the Cajun term took over. My people only claim Creole as our
ethnic group. This is America and I have never met a "pure" ethnic
group in this county ever. lol google it if you need a reference."
**
Reply
6. @tonyc.7538, 2023
"@mellandy87 With all due respect, you're making contradictory statements. You
said, correctly, that everyone in the state was called Creole aka French
descendants in Louisiana, until the Cajuns arrived from Acadiana. But then you
said that the Cajun terminology "took over" when the English arrived
(I guess you meant Americans) and arbitrarily divided the White Creoles and the
Creoles of color. To me, that sounds like you're basing your understanding of
the Louisiana Creole culture on the arbitrary, binary division of the race
obsessed Americans. When you say the
Cajun terminology took over, it sort of sounds like you're agreeing with the
incorrect misunderstanding of the French culture of Louisiana by the English
speakers/Americans.
Because, yes, in a bad way, the Cajun misunderstanding did take over. There are people in Louisiana right now with traditional Louisiana French Creole names, who identify themselves as "Cajuns" when their own surnames betray the fact that their Louisiana Creole lineage predates the Acadian migrations following the Seven Years War. Some of them even know this, but they identify themselves as "Cajun" because it's easier and less confusing to people who have been so thoroughly mislead and are completely ignorant of our Creole history and culture. It's crazy that there are so many people that have surnames that go back generations in Louisiana and they're still ignorant or willingly being misleading about the difference between Cajun and Creole.
Most Louisiana Creoles are not "mixed race" as you
said. And not all Cajuns are one race. There are black Cajuns just like there
are black Creoles. They're not the majority,
of course, just like the majority of Louisiana Creoles are not black or
mixed race.
The majority of Creoles are one "race", which would be Caucasian, but that's not all that meaningful when the race is made up of hundreds if not thousands of specific tribes and cultures, which eventually formed into the various European nation states that we all know today.
There are mixed race (black, French) Louisiana Creoles and black Louisiana Creoles which are commonly referred to in modern times as "Creoles of color". During French (and later Spanish) colonial rule in the Louisiana territory, there were numerous separate terms to refer to Creoles of color in Louisiana that all had to do with the various shades of skin, from darkest to lightest. Once the Americans and English speakers took over, following the Louisiana purchase and especially statehood in 1812 when more English speaking Americans of mostly Anglo heritage starting arriving in New Orleans and Louisiana in large numbers, these terms fell out of favor because they were French and Spanish words, but more importantly, because they didn't fit the less nuanced, binary American understanding of race, where there was only black or white.
You mentioned how in America most people are "mixed" and while this may be true in the sense that the country has a large population of Europeans that come from dozens of nations and a hundred different cultures, however, in that old, less nuanced American binary, they are all Caucasian. It is true that there is a lot of mixture in the black population though, as many have European ancestry to differing degrees. We can see this now with modern DNA tests. A Caucasian will have ancestry from all over Europe, but in the modern day, basic understanding that people who are uninterested in history and culture, they're all White. So in the modern day, less specific American understanding of "race" most Creoles are not mixed.
Creoles of color, on the other hand, typically have ancestry in different regions of Africa and some European admixture as well. So according to that simplified, American understanding of race, Creoles of color are mixed race.
And I'm going to have to disagree that Google is the best source for this type of information regarding colonial Louisiana history. Unfortunately, you'll find a lot of people making claims they've heard from someone secondhand, without a real understanding of what they're saying. The best source for this stuff is old history books on Louisiana, which contain a lot of primary sources and records from people who were there at the time.
One good thing about Google though, you can find the titles and some excerpts from these books if you dig hard enough.
Believe it or not, Wikipedia has an above average article on Louisiana Creoles that has a lot of good sourced information. It contains way more detail and nuance than I expected.
It distinguishes between Creoles and Creoles of color, and
it makes note of how the definition of Louisiana Creole has a completely
different meaning than Caribbean Creole, with an entirely separate and distinct
history and culture.
Check it out sometime. It's way better than I expected it to
be."
**
Reply
7. @mannyrodriguez5453, 2023
"@tonyc.7538 It also happened with the Spanish that
arrived in Cuba, many mixed and many did not mix, being Creole has nothing to
do with being mixed, you are absolutely correct, people just don't understand,
but then, Creoles can be both, a mixed family or a non mixed family with
European decent or any other foreign country who pass on the tradition of not
mixing or mixing with black and native . My both sides of the family are from
northern Spain, typically when Spaniards arrive to a foreign country they tend
to marry with their same people, just like it has happened in the U.S. and
everywhere around the world, this situation happened to my family where,
grandkids of Spaniards married among others of their kind. Even today it's very
common to do so."
Reply
8.
"@tonyc.7538 Excellent explanation of the true example of
what it is to be a Creole, remember one thing, which I know you know, a good
majority of Americans are very ignorant when it comes to race and ethnicity,
and what we are seeing today between politics and hate being flooded throughout
our nation just shows that ignorance and lack of true findings are in full
gear."
****
SHOWCASE VIDEO #2 -International Creole Day: In Louisiana, Cajuns are keen to preserve their identity • FRANCE 24
FRANCE 24 English, Oct 28, 2021 #Creole
#Louisiana #traditions
In the southern US state of #Louisiana, #Cajuns make up
nearly 10% of the population. Although #Creole is spoken less with each passing
generation, some are fighting to preserve the language and keep their
#traditions alive. FRANCE 24's Fanny Allard, Kethevane Gorjestani report.
-snip-
Here are some comments from this video's discussion thread (with numbers added for referencing purposes only.)
1. @philippehalbert4537, 2021
"If this story is about International Creole Day, why is "Cajun" in the headline? "Cajuns" are by definition creole, but not all Louisiana creoles are "Cajuns."
**
Reply
2. @mshaman86, 2021
"To get people to watch it Im guessing."
**
Reply
3. @genesisphillips, 2022
"Cajuns (Acadian Creoles) are a type of creole in Louisiana :)"
**
Reply
4. @Cramsiwel11, 2023
"@IslenoGutierrez Cajun is not a type of creole. They are two different ethnicity"
**
Reply
5. @IslenoGutierrez, 2023
"@Cramsiwel11 Cajun is absolutely a type of Louisiana Creole. Cajuns are white Louisiana Creoles. There are other white Louisiana Creoles too such as French Creoles (whites of colonial French and Québécois descent), Spanish Creoles (whites of colonial Spanish descent, usually from ancestry from Andalusia Spain or Spain’s Canary Islands), German Creoles (whites of colonial German descent) and Cajuns used to be called Acadian Creoles before the invent and spread of the term Cajun. There are mixed race Creoles like Creoles of Color (people of mixed European and black African descent, some may have Amerindian admix) and black Creoles (blacks of colonial Louisiana African descent). But there is one thing I’d like to say about today’s Cajuns. Cajuns are not Acadians, but are a mix between Acadians and French Creoles (whites of French and Québécois descent). Some may have Spanish or German admix too. But anyway, there are Cajuns on historic account identifying as Creoles in both French and English, also Cajuns in the modern age identifying as Creoles. Cajuns are a type of white Louisiana Creole that descends from Acadians and French Creoles (whites of French and Québécois descent)."
**
6. @Christafree, 2022
"There's a difference between Cajun and Creole, they're not the same. Creole has African influence.
If you ever talk with a true cajun you can't really understand what they say, neither can French people. It's a distorted version of french and English. The food is outstanding!"
Reply
7.
"In its original, historical sense, creole merely refers to someone born in the Americas whose ancestry is not 100% Indigenous. For example, someone whose parents immigrated to Louisiana in 1700 and was subsequently born there is creole. It has nothing to do with race, or at least it didn't until after the Civil War. Thank Jim Crow for that. Also, there are mixed race Cajuns."
**
Reply
8.@IslenoGutierrez, 2022
"Cajuns are creoles and many other races and ethnicities are creoles in Louisiana"
**
Reply
9. @IslenoGutierrez, 2022
"I’m from south Louisiana born and raised and let me tell you, Cajuns are a type of white Louisiana creole. Creole in Louisiana has historically been an identity that includes anyone that is born in Louisiana and into the local culture that has its roots in the French and Spanish colonial period. So this includes all the whites, all the blacks and all the mixed race people born in Louisiana into this culture and way of life. Cajun is a recent identity that was wholesale adopted by Acadian Creoles in the 1960’s and was cemented by the 1980’s. Before the 1960’s, Cajuns were called creoles just like other local Louisiana folks mainly in south Louisiana (this is where the colonial based culture exists mostly). And to be exact, Cajuns were called Acadian creoles. All creole groups had certain names identified by ancestry or race like French creoles (whites of French descent), Spanish creoles (whites of Spanish descent), German Creoles (whites of German descent), Acadian creoles (whites of Acadian descent), Creoles of Color (mixed race people of European and African descent), métis creoles (mixed race people of European and Amerindian descent) and Afro creoles (blacks of African descent). So Cajuns are a certain type of white Louisiana creole called Acadian creoles or simply just creoles like all other creoles. Cajun is a recent identity since the 1960’s."
**
Reply
10. @IslenoGutierrez, 2022
"@philippehalbert4537 yes I agree with you. There is an ignorance going on in relation to who or what is creole and Cajun is tied to that. Cajuns are creoles just the same as other Louisiana creoles of whatever race or ancestry. What people don’t realize is that creole is not a race or ethnicity at all. It has nothing to do with race or ethnicity and has everything to do with being born in Louisiana and into the local culture that is rooted in the french and Spanish colonial periods. That’s all. So many people try to make it something else that it is not. Louisiana really needs some sort of formal cultural organization to sort all this mess out and create an official definition of Louisiana creole and those that are part of the creole population. And also to rebuild the creole identity across racial and ethnic lines because let’s face it, corruption of the creole identity since Jim Crow has severely damaged the identity and has seriously reduced its numbers of those that identity as creole."
**
Reply
11. @Dragoncam13, 2022
"@IslenoGutierrez and btw man,what people try to call a Cajun accent is just a white creole accent. Any original Acadian accent they had disappeared within the first 100 years of them being here in favor of the already existing francophone accents. Also don’t even get me started on how a lot of supposed Cajuns are more of a different ethnicity at times than they are ethnic French in comparison to a French/Spanish creole like yourself and majority French people like my grandfather. Even the German creoles are more French than these people😂🤣"
**
Reply
12. @IslenoGutierrez, 2022
"@Dragoncam13 I can agree with many of your points, but let me further expand.
The so called “Cajun” accent is nothing more than a regional white accent of Acadiana. It’s the white Acadiana region accent. Blacks and mixed race people from Acadiana have their own version of it that sounds a bit different but has some similarities. And yes, I’d say it’s mostly white creole, but not fully as it was also influenced by anglos from North and Central Louisiana who also settled in parts of Acadiana. There are many people in Acadiana that do in fact have lots of Acadian ancestry and even others that are fully Acadian such as some small town folks. But as you and I both mentioned, many are not actual Acadians because either they are a mixture of Acadian and French, some have German, English, Irish, Italian or Spanish thrown in, others are largely French and either not Acadian at all or not mostly Acadian while others have like you described have little french or even little Acadian and only identify as Cajun because they grew up white in Acadiana. It’s a big mess. I’d say most whites in Acadiana are white creoles. The types of white creoles range from Acadian Creoles, while some are French Creoles while others are Spanish creoles or German Creoles and most are some sort of mixture of any of them.
The accent of the Greater New Orleans area is a mixture of the old white creole accents like from French Creoles, Spanish Creoles, German Creoles, Acadian Creoles and white St. Domingue Creoles (white French creoles from the Caribbean from what is now Haiti) in the area mixed with accents from southerners from other southern states that arrived in New Orleans since 1803 in the Louisiana purchase as well as German, Irish and Italians that settled in the area in the 1800’s from the east coast. Black New Orleanians have a version of the accent that has more black US southern with less of the German, Irish, Italian east coast influence from the 1800’s. In areas that border between Greater New Orleans and Acadiana one can hear an accent that is a mixture of the two accents such as in the town of Houma in Terrebonne parish that sounds half New Orleans, half Acadiana"
**
13. @MickeyCreole, 2023
"You know being Creole is something to be very proud of. To
be a Creole descendant, you understand through stories from older generations
of your family history and what they sadly went through for their future
generations to be free and equal to anyone. I’m British-Mauritian Creole
(slightly mixed) and I’m very proud and feel enriched to embrace both my
British and Mauritian cultures, it’s very empowering, especially understanding
that my maternal grandmother was born from a slave and her French plantation
master ‘husband’; my maternal grandmother only became free when she was 3 years
old when her own mother died in childbirth and then her grieving father left
the island and returned to France. The story how the slaved Mauritian Creoles
became to be is an incredible history that was both brutal and savage but it
became their resilient to be free and cultural, which continues to exist today.
We have our own language and culture filled with incredible food, music and
dance, a positive honour to our ancestors who’d suffered so awfully for us
today to be free and equal to anyone. Creoles around the world need to fight to
maintain their histories so that nobody forgets the truth and what we have
overcome"
14.
"I was born and raised in California but my dad’s family is
originally from New Orleans. My great grandfather grew up in a water based
community on Lake Ponchartrain. He had a very thick accent. Mind you, we are
black with Creole/Cajun roots. I wish my family still spoke the language and
preserved the culture. Whenever I acknowledge my Creole/Cajun heritage, people
label me a “sellout.”
Reply
15.
"That's tragic. Ignore
them."
**
Reply
16. @Mr.Universe, 2023
"I have creole roots as well...unfortunately the language was
not passed down, the food was however."
Reply
17.
"@Mr.Universe True, the food is amazing."
**
Reply
18. @sonozaki0000, 2023
"It's the same with me! My Black Cajun grandmother was taken
to Los Angeles as a child, and we are still out here. And since she died in an
auto accident just after I was born, I didn't learn anything from her directly.
I feel so divorced from that part of my heritage, but I sometimes wonder if
it's possible for those like you and me to finally fix that connection. Better
late than lost forever, no? I hate listening to myself practice French, but
I've been trying as a basis to learn Lousiana Creole and French at some point
LOL
It seems its not a rare thing for many Black Cajuns & Creoles to have moved to California during the Great Migration, by the way. Maybe it's about time to start advocating for those of us in CA to come together, to keep our ancestors' culture alive in a "new" place."
**
Reply
19. @jessicamcdaniels2337, 2023
"@sonozaki0000 Yup, my family settled in South Central LA
when they left New Orleans. That's where my dad grew up. We've been in
California ever since. I was raised in NorCal. I also think your idea about us
coming together is a great step forward."
****
This concludes Part II of this two part pancocojams series.
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