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I love learning about other cultures. Each day I'm looking a new country. For example I'm looking up Kiribati right now lol. Only because they are so deep in the middle of the ocean.
Being someone who has a Bachelor's in Geography, I can definitely appreciate that.
BTW, Kiribati was once known as the Gilbert Islands.
As for the media, it is hard to get the straight truth, without an agenda.
i found some points in the program interesting as well. it seems hard to convince most people including Haitians that there are Haitians of non african heritage
The reason it is hard to convince people is because the White population in Haiti is extremely minuscule. The White population in Haiti is so insignificant that even among rich millionaire Haitians it is rare to see a White face, let alone among the poor Haitian masses.
Haiti is not like the rest of Latin America, Haiti does not have a rich White ruling elite class that dominates the government and the television soap operas.
If Haiti produced their own soap operas, it would be dominated by Mulato phenotypes and not Caucasian phenotypes.
If Haiti had a sizable White population, Haiti would not be referred to as the Blackest country in the Western Hemisphere percentage wise.
The reason it is hard to convince people is because the White population in Haiti is extremely minuscule. The White population in Haiti is so insignificant that even among rich millionaire Haitians it is rare to see a White face, let alone among the poor Haitian masses.
Haiti is not like the rest of Latin America, Haiti does not have a rich White ruling elite class that dominates the government and the television soap operas.
If Haiti produced their own soap operas, it would be dominated by Mulato phenotypes and not Caucasian phenotypes.
If Haiti had a sizable White population, Haiti would not be referred to as the Blackest country in the Western Hemisphere percentage wise.
Haiti does not racially resemble a New World country. Haiti racially resembles the motherland due to it's lack of racial diversity. Haiti is nowhere near as racially diverse The United States and Brasil for example.
Haiti's racial breakdown is not that different from any of the other Caribbean islands, with the exception of the Spanish-speaking ones. Nearly every single Anglophone island has a white population of under 10%, and the white population on the islands which are still French possessions (minus Saint Bart's) isn't much higher.
What he said is 100 percent fact ? Haiti is just as Black as your average Sub Saharan African country. The White population in Haiti is about as significant as the Black population is in Poland for example.
Haiti does not racially resemble a New World country. Haiti racially resembles the motherland due to it's lack of racial diversity. Haiti is nowhere near as racially diverse The United States and Brasil for example.
Haiti isn't that demographically different from the majority of the Anglophone and Francophone Caribbean. Is it somewhat more African-descended? yes. But there isn't a huge gap between the demographic makeup of Haiti vs Guadeloupe, Barbados, Grenada, St Kitts, Antigua or Jamaica.
The idea that the second independent nation of the New World "doesn't racially resemble a New World country" is at best, ignorant and at worst simply idiotic. Furthermore, many of the countries of the New World have undergone profound demographic shifts in the last century, especially Brasil, Cuba, Puerto Rico and other nations in Latin America that received heavy post-colonial immigration in the 19th and 20th centuries due to deliberate whitening policies. So again, you aren't saying anything of substance here.
Although Haitians (as a group) are genetically mostly African; you’ll hear many families citing ancestry from S.D., Jamaica, France, Cuba, and Martinique (examples). To say Haiti is demographically closer to ‘Sub-Saharan’ African countries is asinine. The Haitian definitions of race are very different from the rest of LA.
While the rest of LA was encouraging White immigration, Haiti was receiving free blacks from MANY colonies, territories and nations in the Caribbean and America and losing Mulattes & Whites to Louisiana, Quebec, France, Cuba, DR, etc.
Haiti has a ton of ‘Grimaud’ and ‘Grimel’ who in Africa or any other LA country would be ‘Mulatto’, but they are Black in Haiti. The ‘Mullate’ in Haiti are pretty much Quadroons and pure Caucasians are the only people really considered White. An Arab in Haiti is not considered ‘Blanc’, they’d be considered Arab.
In the North (and East), you’ll find more people with some sort of Afro-Cuban or Dominican ancestry. Outside of that, Northern Haiti is as Black as Ghana. To the South near Jeremie and Dame Marie, is where you’d find a bunch of ‘Grimaud and Grimel’ of French Descent (They won’t let you forget it either). In the middle you have the Ouest Department and P.A.P.
Port Au Prince has Levantine and other Asian minorities scattered throughout the populace. Port-Au-Prince used to be composed mostly of ‘local’ natives whose admixture (Loads of Brun, Grimaud, Blanc, and Arabs) is not like what we see today in the city. PAP was never meant to support the population we see today (used to be a city of 50,000).
Amongst the Haitian diaspora there is a phrase that is usually accompanied with a roll of the eyes “Tout moun sortie Port Au Prince”. This means “Everyone comes from P.A.P”. Haitians from the countryside have displaced the original population of PAP which was lost during several dictatorships and Brain Drains. The government used to even have special birth certificates for people born outside of PAP which indicated that they were “Peyizan” or “Peasant”.
In regards to Africa, the countries that would resemble Haiti demographically would be the nations in South and East Africa. Not in terms of ethnicity (It is well known the Haitian slaves were taken from Benin, Togo, and Ghana) but racial diversity. To a Grimaud Haitian, it’s an insult to say they are not Black. So race is also reported accordingly.
In Haiti there is a saying ‘Neg se Neg’. It literally means ‘Black is Black’. That’s why older Haitians will laugh if you tell them that Latin Americans as a whole; are not black. Especially Dominicans and Puerto Ricans. Haiti was founded by a Black and Mulatto Rebellion (with tinges of Taino) who were oppressed by a White ruling class.
Thanks for sharing. It amazes me that there are people still surprised to see non-African descended people in Haiti.
Quote:
Originally Posted by eschaton
Haiti's racial breakdown is not that different from any of the other Caribbean islands, with the exception of the Spanish-speaking ones. Nearly every single Anglophone island has a white population of under 10%, and the white population on the islands which are still French possessions (minus Saint Bart's) isn't much higher.
Not so. Please remember that the rest of the Caribbean is not necessarily split between "black/white."
Cayman Islands - mixed 40%, white 20%, black 20%, expatriates of various ethnic groups 20%
St. Martin - Creole (mulatto), black, Guadeloupe Mestizo (French-East Asia), white, East Indian
Trinidad & Tobago - East Indian 35.4%, African 34.2%, mixed - other 15.3%, mixed African/East Indian 7.7%, other 1.3%, unspecified 6.2%
St. Vincent & the Grenadines - black 66%, mixed 19%, East Indian 6%, European 4%, Carib Amerindian 2%, other 3%
Thanks for sharing. It amazes me that there are people still surprised to see non-African descended people in Haiti.
Not so. Please remember that the rest of the Caribbean is not necessarily split between "black/white."
Cayman Islands - mixed 40%, white 20%, black 20%, expatriates of various ethnic groups 20%
St. Martin - Creole (mulatto), black, Guadeloupe Mestizo (French-East Asia), white, East Indian
Trinidad & Tobago - East Indian 35.4%, African 34.2%, mixed - other 15.3%, mixed African/East Indian 7.7%, other 1.3%, unspecified 6.2%
St. Vincent & the Grenadines - black 66%, mixed 19%, East Indian 6%, European 4%, Carib Amerindian 2%, other 3%
Jamaica, the Bahamas, St Kitts & Nevis, Antigua & Barbuda, Dominica, St Lucia, Barbados & Grenada are all in excess of 80% Black, and together make up the overwhelming majority of the English-speaking Caribbean. The countries you pointed out are exceptions, not the rule, and furthermore only T&T has a large population out of all of them. The Caymans are tiny, St. Martin is tiny (and ironically overrun with Haitians anyway lol) and St Vincent doesn't even have an international airport.
Fela made a song when he was living called "Yellow Fever" about bleaching cream in Africa... "Your face in yellow but your a** is black"...
I called out an AA friend when she referred to someone as being "too dark"..I said,"What is "too dark?", Too dark in relation to
who or what?" I was trying to make her think about what she said..I said the persons color is normal as they were born with it
she said she was driving at night and almost ran over an African man because she didn't see him, because he was "too dark".
I said "You know what? then I thought "forget it"
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