1
00:00:08,173 --> 00:00:11,811
me, I would say that most
of even contemporary views

2
00:00:11,811 --> 00:00:15,215
about Creoles are still
driven by the same racism that

3
00:00:15,215 --> 00:00:16,516
characterized slavery.

4
00:00:16,516 --> 00:00:18,885
And then they
conclude, and I want

5
00:00:18,885 --> 00:00:22,822
to take that conclusion very
seriously, that although we

6
00:00:22,822 --> 00:00:26,493
might use a label "Creole,"
but that label doesn't mean

7
00:00:26,493 --> 00:00:31,297
that we have a linguistic
structure or class of Creole

8
00:00:31,297 --> 00:00:31,898
languages.

9
00:00:31,898 --> 00:00:33,833
The term "Creole" is
just a historical term

10
00:00:33,833 --> 00:00:37,504
that applies to this
particular group of languages,

11
00:00:37,504 --> 00:00:42,275
but isn't referred to special
developmental or special

12
00:00:42,275 --> 00:00:44,711
structural patterns.

13
00:00:44,711 --> 00:00:48,715
They're just a language,
that's what the Creole is.

14
00:00:48,715 --> 00:00:53,586
But then, what we have to ask
is where do we go from here?

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00:00:53,586 --> 00:00:56,489
What was the issue there?

16
00:00:56,489 --> 00:00:58,958
And in fact, we can do one
thing that-- and this is

17
00:00:58,958 --> 00:01:01,428
from Mufwene's work.

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00:01:01,428 --> 00:01:04,129
I like this map
because what is shows

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00:01:04,129 --> 00:01:05,665
is what we discussed earlier.

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00:01:05,665 --> 00:01:10,303
The fact that if you really
look at Creoles without biases,

21
00:01:10,303 --> 00:01:11,738
and you think of
the development,

22
00:01:11,738 --> 00:01:13,706
and you go back in
time and you think

23
00:01:13,706 --> 00:01:16,209
of the development of
Romance languages--

24
00:01:16,209 --> 00:01:18,812
so this is the way
Romance evolved.

25
00:01:18,812 --> 00:01:26,386
So Latin conquerors going from
Rome into Gaul, Iberia, et

26
00:01:26,386 --> 00:01:29,989
cetera, that's how the
Romance languages were

27
00:01:29,989 --> 00:01:34,426
created, through conquest
and contact of populations.

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00:01:34,426 --> 00:01:38,898
And the same way, if you look
at what happened to French when

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00:01:38,898 --> 00:01:43,970
French went to North America,
the Caribbean, Africa,

30
00:01:43,970 --> 00:01:48,007
all the way to Asia, that's
also how Creoles were created.

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00:01:48,007 --> 00:01:50,877
You got Haitian Creole,
[INAUDIBLE] Creole, Mauritius

32
00:01:50,877 --> 00:01:52,812
Creole, Seychelles Creole.

33
00:01:52,812 --> 00:01:56,883
And this is where you
get the Kreyolofoni,

34
00:01:56,883 --> 00:01:58,852
alongside Francophonie,
of course.

35
00:01:58,852 --> 00:02:01,387
But the claim I've
made so far is

36
00:02:01,387 --> 00:02:04,624
that you have similar
patterns, not only in terms

37
00:02:04,624 --> 00:02:06,993
of language contact
but also in terms

38
00:02:06,993 --> 00:02:09,829
of structural development.

39
00:02:09,829 --> 00:02:13,800
So from that
perspective, again, there

40
00:02:13,800 --> 00:02:17,603
need not be this divide,
this fundamental divide

41
00:02:17,603 --> 00:02:21,274
that linguists often draw
between language change,

42
00:02:21,274 --> 00:02:23,877
as in the history of French,
and then Creole formation,

43
00:02:23,877 --> 00:02:25,378
as in the history
of Haitian Creole.

44
00:02:27,880 --> 00:02:33,280
Earlier we talked
about these myths

45
00:02:33,286 --> 00:02:34,921
about the [INAUDIBLE] of Creole.

46
00:02:34,921 --> 00:02:38,525
So now what we could ask is--

47
00:02:38,525 --> 00:02:40,827
in case you want to
read more about it.

48
00:02:40,827 --> 00:02:42,595
So you can go to my website.

49
00:02:42,595 --> 00:02:48,134
And you find lots and lots of
arguments against this idea

50
00:02:48,134 --> 00:02:51,738
that you have this cycle.

51
00:02:51,738 --> 00:02:52,572
Let's go up to now.

52
00:02:52,572 --> 00:02:54,607
And here I'm going to be
using some of the slides

53
00:02:54,607 --> 00:02:57,677
that I showed at
the UN last week.

54
00:02:57,677 --> 00:02:59,579
So because what we
want to ask, connecting

55
00:02:59,579 --> 00:03:01,748
to the issues of
identity and education

56
00:03:01,748 --> 00:03:06,319
that were touched on
by Karen and Rachel is,

57
00:03:06,319 --> 00:03:08,154
why do these myths endure?

58
00:03:08,154 --> 00:03:10,089
Actually, now this, I
can go quickly, actually,

59
00:03:10,089 --> 00:03:12,625
because you've seen
all of these before.

60
00:03:12,625 --> 00:03:16,896
I just wanted to bring
them back there quickly.

61
00:03:16,896 --> 00:03:20,733
Again, you find this
myth in very well

62
00:03:20,733 --> 00:03:24,103
read, popular newspapers,
magazines, like Newsweek,

63
00:03:24,103 --> 00:03:28,841
The New York Times, Reuters,
even The New Yorker.

64
00:03:28,841 --> 00:03:32,545
And all of these share something
in common that we saw earlier,

65
00:03:32,545 --> 00:03:36,416
that now should be too
familiar, which is Creoles

66
00:03:36,416 --> 00:03:40,153
are French Patios,
broken French,

67
00:03:40,153 --> 00:03:43,456
they're like
primitive languages.

68
00:03:43,456 --> 00:03:45,725
Or, this one is the most poetic.

69
00:03:45,725 --> 00:03:47,360
And I like this one
because it makes me

70
00:03:47,360 --> 00:03:50,263
into a special
specimen of humanity.

71
00:03:50,263 --> 00:03:52,665
Because really,
that what it means.

72
00:03:52,665 --> 00:03:57,403
As I like to say when I give
this talk in public, when

73
00:03:57,403 --> 00:04:00,440
I switch from speaking
English to speaking Creole

74
00:04:00,440 --> 00:04:03,676
I go from being a modern human
to being a primitive human

75
00:04:03,676 --> 00:04:06,779
because I can all of a
sudden, on my tongue,

76
00:04:06,779 --> 00:04:09,582
I get to pronounce these
linguistic fossils, which

77
00:04:09,582 --> 00:04:11,584
are the equivalent of
the Galapagos to Darwin.

78
00:04:11,584 --> 00:04:12,619
This is spectacular.

79
00:04:12,619 --> 00:04:15,521
This is a spectacular claim.

80
00:04:15,521 --> 00:04:19,125
And this is Newsweek, this
is The New York Times.

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00:04:19,125 --> 00:04:22,562
It's to show you how
acceptable these claims are.

82
00:04:22,562 --> 00:04:27,066
But then, again, to wrap up
from what we discussed earlier,

83
00:04:27,066 --> 00:04:32,872
this is very much in sync
with Michel-Rolph Trouillot.

84
00:04:32,872 --> 00:04:36,743
Now this is going back to
the early part of this class,

85
00:04:36,743 --> 00:04:38,411
where we were
looking at history.

86
00:04:38,411 --> 00:04:41,047
So what we see is that
the same way that Creoles

87
00:04:41,047 --> 00:04:42,882
have been silenced,
the fact that Creoles

88
00:04:42,882 --> 00:04:44,817
are normal languages
that has been silenced,

89
00:04:44,817 --> 00:04:48,054
is often the same way that
ancient history has been

90
00:04:48,054 --> 00:04:49,455
silenced for the same reason.

91
00:04:49,455 --> 00:04:51,691
Because how many of
you, before this class,

92
00:04:51,691 --> 00:04:53,226
knew about Haitian history?

93
00:04:55,920 --> 00:04:57,630
You because you have
a Haitian boyfriend.

94
00:04:57,630 --> 00:05:02,368
[LAUGHTER]

95
00:05:02,368 --> 00:05:07,874
And when I ask that question,
even in big classes like 24.900

96
00:05:07,874 --> 00:05:11,077
with hundreds of students, I get
maybe one or two people to know

97
00:05:11,077 --> 00:05:14,847
that the Haitian revolution
was even more dramatic in terms

98
00:05:14,847 --> 00:05:18,251
of its claims than both
the French and the American

99
00:05:18,251 --> 00:05:18,985
revolutions.

100
00:05:18,985 --> 00:05:22,488
It was the only one
in the 18th century

101
00:05:22,488 --> 00:05:24,724
to proclaim liberty
and equality for all.

102
00:05:24,724 --> 00:05:25,692
The only one.

103
00:05:25,692 --> 00:05:28,127
The French one, the
French still had slaves.

104
00:05:28,127 --> 00:05:30,997
The American one, Jefferson,
Madison, all these guys

105
00:05:30,997 --> 00:05:32,632
still had slaves.

106
00:05:32,632 --> 00:05:34,667
And Haiti was the
only revolution

107
00:05:34,667 --> 00:05:40,039
where there was this
claim for liberty for all.

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00:05:40,039 --> 00:05:45,878
This is from Trouillot that
as Haiti was entering history,

109
00:05:45,878 --> 00:05:48,047
it was being written
about by people

110
00:05:48,047 --> 00:05:52,518
who did conceive of the Africans
as equals to the Europeans.

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00:05:52,518 --> 00:05:54,821
So they could only read,
according to Trouillot,

112
00:05:54,821 --> 00:05:58,291
those 18th century scholars.

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00:05:58,291 --> 00:06:00,393
They could only
read the news only

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00:06:00,393 --> 00:06:03,229
with the ready-made lenses.

115
00:06:03,229 --> 00:06:06,032
And it meant that
African liberation,

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00:06:06,032 --> 00:06:08,601
the fact that an African
army could win over Napoleon,

117
00:06:08,601 --> 00:06:10,303
they couldn't process that.

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00:06:10,303 --> 00:06:13,306
It was incompatible with the
idea of [INAUDIBLE] revolution.

119
00:06:13,306 --> 00:06:14,574
And the same way for language.

120
00:06:14,574 --> 00:06:18,077
So the same scholars looking
at Haiti's revolution,

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00:06:18,077 --> 00:06:20,179
they're also looking
at Creole language.

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00:06:20,179 --> 00:06:21,114
They couldn't imagine.

123
00:06:21,114 --> 00:06:23,516
For them it was
impossible that Creoles

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00:06:23,516 --> 00:06:25,618
would be no more languages.

125
00:06:25,618 --> 00:06:29,722
So you can just pass on that.

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00:06:29,722 --> 00:06:32,225
So this is very familiar.

127
00:06:32,225 --> 00:06:34,060
So this is the root
of all these myths.

128
00:06:34,060 --> 00:06:36,963
So the root of these myths
is basically, the idea

129
00:06:36,963 --> 00:06:40,466
that the Africans were lesser.

130
00:06:40,466 --> 00:06:44,604
And whatever they could produce
as language had to be lesser.

131
00:06:44,604 --> 00:06:49,242
Therefore they could not be
part of this same kind of theory

132
00:06:49,242 --> 00:06:52,545
as normal language change,
as they [INAUDIBLE]

133
00:06:52,545 --> 00:06:55,448
So again, we can say
it's the economy, stupid.

134
00:06:55,448 --> 00:06:57,049
Meaning that the driving--

135
00:06:57,049 --> 00:06:59,552
in fact, this is not clear.

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00:06:59,552 --> 00:07:03,055
So yesterday, Noam Chomsky
was in Black Matters,

137
00:07:03,055 --> 00:07:07,160
and I asked him that question
about what came first,

138
00:07:07,160 --> 00:07:12,365
the economy, empire, or racism?

139
00:07:12,365 --> 00:07:15,501
Because one could say that
racism is a result of empire.

140
00:07:18,230 --> 00:07:21,470
If you want to make the
Africans as slaves of labor

141
00:07:21,474 --> 00:07:23,176
in order to produce
wealth, then you

142
00:07:23,176 --> 00:07:28,781
are going to demean the color,
the culture, the language.

143
00:07:28,781 --> 00:07:32,385
Or was racism there
before, and therefore

144
00:07:32,385 --> 00:07:34,787
made it OK to make
them into slaves.

145
00:07:34,787 --> 00:07:38,191
That's a hard
question to answer.

146
00:07:38,191 --> 00:07:38,957
It's hard to know.

147
00:07:38,957 --> 00:07:41,360
Maybe the two, as
Chomsky puts it,

148
00:07:41,360 --> 00:07:43,362
the two reinforce each other.

149
00:07:43,362 --> 00:07:45,097
You see that in the
case of Haiti, though,

150
00:07:45,097 --> 00:07:53,506
we have all these documents
that show that clearly,

151
00:07:53,506 --> 00:07:56,843
one of the driving forces
behind the Black Code, which

152
00:07:56,843 --> 00:08:03,249
was a code to regulate the
slaves in the Caribbean,

153
00:08:03,249 --> 00:08:07,353
the driving force
behind it was economics.

154
00:08:07,353 --> 00:08:08,187
Something like that.

155
00:08:10,990 --> 00:08:12,850
So it's the idea that
the Creole Blacks

156
00:08:12,859 --> 00:08:16,229
are superior because they
are in the company of whites,

157
00:08:16,229 --> 00:08:17,063
something like that.

158
00:08:17,063 --> 00:08:19,565
"For all the tasks, it
is the Creole slaves

159
00:08:19,565 --> 00:08:20,500
that are preferred."

160
00:08:20,500 --> 00:08:23,002
And here, the idea is they said,
the Creole slaves are those

161
00:08:23,002 --> 00:08:27,340
who are born in the Caribbean,
they have African ancestry

162
00:08:27,340 --> 00:08:29,809
but they were born
in the Caribbean.

163
00:08:29,809 --> 00:08:31,244
And they have more worth.

164
00:08:31,244 --> 00:08:31,944
Why?

165
00:08:31,944 --> 00:08:36,282
Because they are
being assimilated

166
00:08:36,282 --> 00:08:37,717
into European culture.

167
00:08:37,717 --> 00:08:38,985
Talking about assimilation.

168
00:08:38,985 --> 00:08:41,554
So here, assimilation
comes with the benefits.

169
00:08:41,554 --> 00:08:44,222
As you're being
assimilated you acquire--

170
00:08:44,222 --> 00:08:46,626
and actually this guy, this
is the same guy, actually,

171
00:08:46,626 --> 00:08:49,529
who came up with this
[INAUDIBLE] pulse of blood.

172
00:08:49,529 --> 00:08:53,499
We could compute qualities
of different mixes

173
00:08:53,499 --> 00:08:55,635
based on the quanta of blood.

174
00:08:55,635 --> 00:08:57,136
White blood, this
is black blood.

175
00:08:57,136 --> 00:09:01,607
He also had quanta
in terms of the worth

176
00:09:01,607 --> 00:09:07,613
of Creole slaves versus those of
African slaves, a quarter more.

177
00:09:07,613 --> 00:09:09,749
So imagine.

178
00:09:09,749 --> 00:09:14,353
And of course, the idea
that what made them better

179
00:09:14,353 --> 00:09:16,756
is because they had
been assimilated.

180
00:09:16,756 --> 00:09:21,127
In this case, he used a
poetic term, "embellished."

181
00:09:21,127 --> 00:09:25,464
But the mysticity,
meaning slavery by whites

182
00:09:25,464 --> 00:09:26,999
would embellish
the black species.

183
00:09:29,900 --> 00:09:32,070
So this is some
of the background

184
00:09:32,071 --> 00:09:35,341
behind all these claims
about Creole languages.

185
00:09:35,341 --> 00:09:38,110
But of course, the other part
of the background that you know

186
00:09:38,110 --> 00:09:41,714
is the fact that there
was this revolution that

187
00:09:41,714 --> 00:09:42,682
had to be silenced.

188
00:09:42,682 --> 00:09:45,184
This is the book that
you read, actually,

189
00:09:45,184 --> 00:09:49,522
part of it that you read
about silencing the past.

190
00:09:49,522 --> 00:09:53,225
And so what I'm driving at
here is that all of this

191
00:09:53,225 --> 00:09:59,732
together creates the
roots of these views

192
00:09:59,732 --> 00:10:01,367
that Creole is so special.

193
00:10:01,367 --> 00:10:03,436
And again, just
for good measure,

194
00:10:03,436 --> 00:10:06,539
I want to stress
again, especially

195
00:10:06,539 --> 00:10:12,044
as we wrap up this course,
that these notions of Creoles

196
00:10:12,044 --> 00:10:16,482
being lesser and to
be excluded, actually,

197
00:10:16,482 --> 00:10:19,318
they've been fought against,
even in the 19th century.

198
00:10:19,318 --> 00:10:21,721
So this is Dessalines,
our first president.

199
00:10:21,721 --> 00:10:25,324
And now this that
famous quote in French,

200
00:10:25,324 --> 00:10:28,394
because it's written
by a French observer.

201
00:10:28,394 --> 00:10:30,262
But the key point
here is the fact

202
00:10:30,262 --> 00:10:36,435
Dessalines would get very upset
when someone was back then--

203
00:10:36,435 --> 00:10:38,938
well, they weren't Haitian
yet because it was still

204
00:10:38,938 --> 00:10:41,374
under the colony.

205
00:10:41,374 --> 00:10:45,711
But he would tell anyone
who spoke French to him

206
00:10:45,711 --> 00:10:48,514
that, why do you speak French?

207
00:10:48,514 --> 00:10:50,116
You have your own language.

208
00:10:50,116 --> 00:10:51,350
So this is Creole actually.

209
00:10:51,350 --> 00:10:54,487
[SPEAKING CREOLE],, you
have your language.

210
00:10:54,487 --> 00:10:58,057
And as he was looking
at them with disdain,

211
00:10:58,057 --> 00:11:00,793
why look for another language?

212
00:11:00,793 --> 00:11:02,895
Why look for someone
else's language?

213
00:11:02,895 --> 00:11:04,430
So the point here
is that Dessalines,

214
00:11:04,430 --> 00:11:08,334
even as he was technically
a French citizen

215
00:11:08,334 --> 00:11:10,269
as he was fighting
for independence,

216
00:11:10,269 --> 00:11:13,806
he understood the power
of the Creole language.

217
00:11:13,806 --> 00:11:17,376
Now that's [INAUDIBLE]
This is to remind

218
00:11:17,376 --> 00:11:21,013
you this line between your
politics and identity.

219
00:11:23,580 --> 00:11:24,950
So this is one of the first--

220
00:11:24,950 --> 00:11:32,391
1805-- law in Haiti
creating Haiti.

221
00:11:32,391 --> 00:11:33,492
So this is Article 1.

222
00:11:33,492 --> 00:11:36,662
"The people inhabiting the
island, formerly St. Domingo,

223
00:11:36,662 --> 00:11:39,632
agree to form themselves
into free state

224
00:11:39,632 --> 00:11:42,635
sovereign and independent
of any other power."

225
00:11:42,635 --> 00:11:46,939
So this was the most
disturbing part about Haiti.

226
00:11:46,939 --> 00:11:48,540
Slavery is abolished.

227
00:11:48,540 --> 00:11:54,046
This was 1805, at a time when
both Europe and the Americas,

228
00:11:54,046 --> 00:11:56,248
both North and South
America, including countries

229
00:11:56,248 --> 00:11:58,551
like Colombia,
Venezuela, Bolivia,

230
00:11:58,551 --> 00:12:00,286
who actually benefited
from Haiti in terms

231
00:12:00,286 --> 00:12:02,822
of their own independence,
they still had slaves.

232
00:12:02,822 --> 00:12:06,425
So slavery is forever abolished.

233
00:12:06,425 --> 00:12:08,994
But the part that,
remember, is also important

234
00:12:08,994 --> 00:12:14,266
is that excluding whites from
owning any piece of Haiti,

235
00:12:14,266 --> 00:12:16,268
which has now been changed.

236
00:12:16,268 --> 00:12:17,770
But that point that
I want to stress

237
00:12:17,770 --> 00:12:20,906
is the fact that
Dessalines understood also

238
00:12:20,906 --> 00:12:22,575
the power of identity.

239
00:12:22,575 --> 00:12:24,243
Now this is 1805.

240
00:12:24,243 --> 00:12:27,446
And he says that,
"all acception"

241
00:12:27,446 --> 00:12:30,316
means difference of color

242
00:12:30,316 --> 00:12:35,454
With [INAUDIBLE],, "The Haitians
shall henceforth be known only

243
00:12:35,454 --> 00:12:37,089
by [INAUDIBLE] of blacks."

244
00:12:37,089 --> 00:12:38,424
That's 1805.

245
00:12:38,424 --> 00:12:40,826
NICK: What's this
written in, English?

246
00:12:40,826 --> 00:12:43,729
MICHEL DEGRAFF: Well, remember,
this was at a time when--

247
00:12:43,729 --> 00:12:45,464
this was both in
English and French

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because Dessalines
understood that he

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had to let the world know
that this is my position.

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So this book here
answers this question.

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Why was Dessalines, since
he was so pro Creole,

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00:13:01,781 --> 00:13:04,717
why was he writing in
French and English?

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00:13:04,717 --> 00:13:07,620
And the point is that when you
he was speaking, like here,

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here was being in Creole.

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00:13:08,754 --> 00:13:11,557
But when he had people
write for him, because most

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00:13:11,557 --> 00:13:13,726
of the time he had
people write for him,

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he wanted the world
to understand what was

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his position about this issue.

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00:13:18,631 --> 00:13:21,467
So he had to write
in French and English

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00:13:21,467 --> 00:13:23,302
because he was speaking
not to Haitians,

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00:13:23,302 --> 00:13:24,570
but he was speaking to the USA.

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This is opposition.

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So be aware.

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00:13:29,175 --> 00:13:37,783
But then of course, this
is a book by Paul Farmer.

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So this part is moving
from 1805 to the present.

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And then to understand
why up to today

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00:13:45,624 --> 00:13:48,494
there's still this struggle
around language and entity

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in the Caribbean,
especially Haiti.

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From the very beginning,
after independence,

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00:13:56,202 --> 00:13:58,537
there was all this
pressure for Haiti

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to remain in the
French dominion.

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And then American dominion.

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As you know, America, the US
occupied Haiti for 15 years

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in the early part
of the 20th century.

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But even in 1825,
the French managed

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to extract this
indemnity from Haiti.

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This was huge back then.

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I think this is now worth
billions of dollars.

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00:14:27,132 --> 00:14:32,137
Can anyone read this from here?

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Who wants to read this?

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00:14:34,874 --> 00:14:35,841
OK, Karen.

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00:14:35,841 --> 00:14:38,811
KAREN: "President Boyer
for 150 million francs

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00:14:38,811 --> 00:14:42,414
and the halving of customs
charges for the French trade--

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00:14:42,414 --> 00:14:46,018
all as indemnity for the losses
of the plantation owners.

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00:14:46,018 --> 00:14:47,887
These conditions
accepted in 1825,

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00:14:47,887 --> 00:14:50,589
led to decades of French
domination of Haitian finance

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00:14:50,589 --> 00:14:52,992
and had a catastrophic
effect on the new nation's

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00:14:52,992 --> 00:14:54,260
delicate economy.

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00:14:54,260 --> 00:14:55,961
Despite its nominal
independence,

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00:14:55,961 --> 00:14:59,398
Haiti could not escape from the
shackles of foreign domination.

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00:14:59,398 --> 00:15:01,000
The very fact of
the debt to France

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00:15:01,000 --> 00:15:03,135
strikes the modern
observer as odd.

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00:15:03,135 --> 00:15:04,803
Why might a country
of former slaves

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00:15:04,803 --> 00:15:09,408
feel compelled to remunerate the
plantocracy for losses incurred

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00:15:09,408 --> 00:15:10,976
in a war of liberation?"

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00:15:10,976 --> 00:15:13,145
MICHEL DEGRAFF: So the
answer is that the elite

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00:15:13,145 --> 00:15:14,446
had to make this compromise.

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00:15:14,446 --> 00:15:15,814
The elite wanted
to be recognized

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00:15:15,814 --> 00:15:18,284
by Europe and by America.

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00:15:21,050 --> 00:15:23,150
So that question here points
to this basic struggle

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00:15:23,155 --> 00:15:26,592
in Haitian history, that
from the very beginning,

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00:15:26,592 --> 00:15:30,863
the new elites that became
the leaders of the country,

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00:15:30,863 --> 00:15:34,500
they in many ways repeated
what the French had done.

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00:15:38,370 --> 00:15:40,600
This is now after
the earthquake.

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00:15:40,606 --> 00:15:43,442
This is from The Boston Globe.

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00:15:43,442 --> 00:15:45,311
And this is a
straight continuation

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00:15:45,311 --> 00:15:48,247
of what Paul Farmer discussed
in that previous quote.

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00:15:48,247 --> 00:15:52,618
So who wants to
read this part here?

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00:15:52,618 --> 00:15:54,954
STUDENT 2: I can.

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00:15:54,954 --> 00:15:55,854
STUDENT 3: Go ahead.

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00:15:55,854 --> 00:15:58,390
STUDENT 2: "The question now is
whether the wealth elite that

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00:15:58,390 --> 00:15:59,925
controls the bulk
of the economy will

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00:15:59,925 --> 00:16:03,162
help rebuild Haiti and create
a thriving middle class.

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00:16:03,162 --> 00:16:05,631
80% of Haitians live in
poverty, while a handful

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00:16:05,631 --> 00:16:08,567
of often light-skinned
descendants of the French,

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00:16:08,567 --> 00:16:11,937
who ruled the country's coffee
and sugar slave plantations

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00:16:11,937 --> 00:16:14,473
until Haiti declared
independence in 1804,

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00:16:14,473 --> 00:16:18,344
and other groups control
most of the wealth."

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00:16:18,344 --> 00:16:19,745
MICHEL DEGRAFF:
So basically, you

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00:16:19,745 --> 00:16:22,815
see the cleavage is still there.

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00:16:22,815 --> 00:16:26,385
This cleavage-- and I think
here we can refer back to Karen

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00:16:26,385 --> 00:16:28,387
and Rachel's presentation--

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00:16:28,387 --> 00:16:31,156
this cleavage between
the elite and the masses

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00:16:31,156 --> 00:16:34,693
also has this reflex,
this linguistic reflex,

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00:16:34,693 --> 00:16:39,798
where French is a language
of power versus Creole

326
00:16:39,798 --> 00:16:43,469
being a language that's
still struggling to become

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00:16:43,469 --> 00:16:46,038
a tool for liberation.

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00:16:46,038 --> 00:16:49,441
So here, I think we have
this tight connection,

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00:16:49,441 --> 00:16:54,546
this tight nexus between
language, power, and identity.