{"id":60252,"date":"2020-10-29T01:55:22","date_gmt":"2020-10-29T01:55:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mixedracestudies.org\/?p=60252"},"modified":"2020-11-01T03:36:26","modified_gmt":"2020-11-01T03:36:26","slug":"escape-from-blackness-once-upon-a-time-in-creole-america","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/?p=60252","title":{"rendered":"Escape From Blackness: Once Upon a Time in Creole America"},"content":{"rendered":"

Escape From Blackness: Once Upon a Time in Creole America<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

The Village Voice<\/a>
\n2019-12-04<\/p>\n

Originally published on 1994-12-08 as \u201cFade to Black: Once Upon a Time in Multi-Racial America\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Joe Wood<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cGrowing up in New Orleans<\/a>,\u201d you told me later, \u201cit would be impossible to see race as anything but socially constructed. But that doesn\u2019t mean it\u2019s not real.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cMETT\u00c9 MILATE
\nENHAUT CHOUAL,
\nLI VA D\u00ce N\u00c9GRESSE PAS
\nSO MAMAN.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cJUST PUT A
\nMULATTO<\/a> ON HORSEBACK,
\nAND HE\u2019LL TELL
\nYOU HIS MOTHER WASN\u2019T
\nA NEGRESS.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2014Creole proverb, as translated<\/em>
\nby Lafcadio Hearn<\/a>, 1885<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

NEW ORLEANS<\/a> \u2014 It was late and the show was finished. We were hungry and drunk. Adolph said Mul\u00e9\u2019s was probably closed by now but he knew a place to eat on the other side of town. \u201cMaybe you\u2019ll see some of them<\/em> over there, too,\u201d he said. Adolph is a scholar of African American history and politics, and he was raised in New Orleans and knew how they<\/em> looked and where they<\/em> ate. They liked Mul\u00e9\u2019s, a seventh-ward diner that serves the best oyster rolls in the city. The other place, Adolph said, was also good for observations, but far below seventh-ward culinary standards. It turned out to be an all-night fast-food joint, lighted too brightly, with a listless crowd of party people waiting in broken lines for some uninspired fried fare.<\/p>\n

For a moment I forgot entirely about them<\/em> and they<\/em>. I wanted to try an oyster roll but there were none left, so I ordered a chicken sandwich \u201cdressed\u201d with lettuce and tomato and mayonnaise. The woman at the cash register seemed bored by my enthusiasm, and sighed, and in response I noted her skin color. She was dark. I turned my head and checked out two sleepy-eyed girls in the next line. They looked tired in their frilly prom dresses; their skin was waxen, the sad pale finish of moonlight. I knew \u2014 oh, I hesitated a moment, because I could see how a hasty eye might have thought them white, but I knew. Turning to Adolph I whispered \u201ccreole\u201d and made giant drunken nod in their direction. Adolph looked and confirmed it: they were, in fact, them<\/em>…<\/p>\n

Read the entire article here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cGrowing up in New Orleans,\u201d you told me later, \u201cit would be impossible to see race as anything but socially constructed. But that doesn\u2019t mean it\u2019s not real.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,459,369,8,6462,20],"tags":[1447,31190,1438,11098,601],"class_list":["post-60252","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles","category-history","category-louisiana","category-media-archive","category-passing-2","category-usa","tag-homer-plessy","tag-joe-wood","tag-new-orleans","tag-the-village-voice","tag-village-voice"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60252","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=60252"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60252\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":60287,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60252\/revisions\/60287"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=60252"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=60252"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=60252"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}