BIPOC is Cultural Appropriation. When Lefties use the term “people of color,” they fall subject to their own indictment of “cultural appropriation,” and in a particularly ironic way. The original “people of color” were the mixed-race Creoles of Saint-Domingue de l’ouest, today known as Haiti; they were the shopkeeper class and bore the French moniker, Les gens de couleur libres or “Free People of Color.” When the black revolution in Saint-Domingue ran out of white people to massacre, it turned against the Free People of Color, whereupon every Free Person of Color who could do so fled the island for somewhere else. The majority ended up in New Orleans where they were a helpful presence to Colonel Jackson during the famous battle against the British in 1814. Les gens eventually became the shop-keeping class of their adopted city, where they had their own thriving culture – including eventually their own opera house.
The People of Color were, of course, Republicans – ardent Republicans who lobbied for Abolition in their newspaper, La Tribune de New Orleans, published in French on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, and in English on Tuesdays and Thursdays. During the Civil War the men of Les gens formed the Louisiana Native Guards, a militia for the defense of New Orleans. When the North captured New Orleans in 1862, it gave the Guards a unique opportunity. They could re-enlist under Union auspices, preserving their rank, in the newly formed Corps d’Afrique, the first “colored” outfit in the Army of the Republic. My great-grandfather, Arnold Louis Bertonneau, held the rank of captain in both the Southern Colored Infantry and the Union-sponsored Corps d’Afrique. He was the author of the Creole Petition, which sought the enfranchisement of les gens, and which he personally presented to President Lincoln in 1864. He was otherwise a wine merchant, haberdasher, and editor of La Tribune.
2 replies on “BIPOC is Cultural Appropriation.”
Thank you for that history lesson. The left commonly appropriates whatever furthers their nefarious ideology, without self-awareness, or perhaps simply counting on the fine job they’ve done of dumbing down American education so that many are so ignorant of history they can be told anything and will believe anything.
I am constantly gratified and amazed by the level of historical knowledge so many BW.Com members share, not to mention the prodigious knowledge of history imparted by Bill.
Thank you, Lynda. The family lore has been passed along among the Bertonneaus, so I have known it since my grandmother and great aunts told me about when I was a teenager. I tried to insert a photograph of my great grandfather, but I couldn’t figure out how to do it.
I was a college English professor for thirty years. I witnessed the diminution of historical learning among the passing cohorts of students — until there was none. This is a tragedy, since history is the trans-personal memory that gives our lives a context. We live in a contextless age.