Leah Chase not starring in remake of Darby O’Gill and the Little People
It’s the holidays, and like everyone else in Judeo-Christendom, I’m swamped with a bejillion other things right now, but I thought I’d pop in for a sec to mention an update on the whole “Creoles don’t exist” controversy. Seems that yesterday, the Gray Lady posted a nicely written response to That Article, complete with interviews with real, live Creoles–who, as it turns out, do possess wee pots of gold-tinged oil, boiling over with calas. I’m sure a number of them now own another variety of the pot-o-gold, given the houseparty that Katrina threw in many historically Creole neighborhoods, but I’m not very good with toilet humor, so I’ll just stop there.
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The term “creole” has evolved to have several different meanings and is generally misused. It originally had absolutely nothing to do with race and had everything to do with whether or not you were born in the new world (Louisiana) or the old world (France). It is currently claimed by folks to apply solely to them and I don’t really care, they can have it. But, the term itself, like so many others, has lost any true meaning, thus, in a sense, the GQ writer was spot-on.
Well, with all due respect, Steve, I COMPLETELY disagree. Many words lose meaning or shift meanings over the years; it’s the nature of language to change and adapt to the environment in which it’s being used. Today, the term “Creole” has a variety of accepted meanings–most importantly, as a descriptor of both ethnicity and cuisine. So to say that the Chases and Morials and the Glapions and the Honores and a bejillion other folks who have identified as Creole for generations are somehow “wrong” because they’re using that term in a manner different than it was originally conceived is just plain dumb.
Yes, and we can have many conflicting truths. Say it, believe it, let enough time go by and have others say it and believe it and it becomes the truth, and rigorously defended as such to the point of calling someone “dumb”.
When and if I ever have a child, for example, I will teach him his whole life that a fork is, in fact, a spoon and vice versa. He will tell his friends, and after enough time they can vigorously defend it as truth.
This is how words and terms “shift meanings” and “adapt to their environments”. Language does not adapt, it is not alive, people adapt it through misuse and ignorance. The fact that “many words lose meaning or shift meaning over the years” does not detract from Steve’s argument. If anything, it enhances it. After all, all he said is that the word has lost any true meaning. Richard, despite thinking Steve dumb, you appear to agree with him.
Plato: Steve and I both agree that words shift meaning. We disagree, however, on the importance of their origins. Steve–and possibly you, too–argue for the importance of original meaning. You in particular seem to argue that language is somehow a pure representation of the things and ideas in the universe and that human beings corrupt its purity. (If that’s what you really believe, you might wanna bone up on your de Saussure.)
And just to go out on a limb here, I’d argue that yes, if you started calling forks spoons, and spoons dreidels, and knives zoroastrians, and if you got enough people to do the same, the meanings of those words would change. In fact, “dumb” is a great example of a word that’s changed meaning in just such a way. Has it *lost* its meaning? No, it’s just got a *different* meaning these days.
Most importantly, though, my point is that if people call themselves Creole, and they identify with other people who call themselves Creoles, and they build communities and relationships around a shared understanding of the word, for someone like Steve to say that the word has lost all meaning…well, that seems pretty offensive to me.
Steve: Those of us descended from the French Creoles first born in the colonies to still exist (as do the Spanish Creoles, I’m sure). However, linguistic shift has left the word “creole” adopting a new meaning, those mulates who were born of black and French/Spanish creole parentage. This was done over a 100 years ago and thus is no “new” change. If enough people use the word “creole” with either meaning and can be understood as such by our peers, then the word means exactly that. Language is never static.
Hows about octaroon or mulatto? Do those words still have any true meaning?
Big words……hurting brain ……must rest
Sure, Biscuit. Quadroon, too. (I wouldn’t be surprised if they’re still on the books here in Louisiana as legally defined descriptors.) We just don’t use them much anymore.
This is an audio interview with Leah Chase. In this interview Leah talks about Creoles and Creole food. NewOrleansPodcasting.com was created to gather positive stories about the New Orleans recovery. Hopefully Dooky Chase will open soon and that would definitely be good news.
Steve, Plato: Richard is spot-on correct in his analysis.