Blurred Consciousness: How Blackness and Space Shapes Identity Formation Among South African Coloureds and New Orleans Creoles
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BLURRED CONSCIOUSNESS: HOW BLACKNESS AND SPACE SHAPES IDENTITY FORMATION AMONG SOUTH AFRICAN COLOUREDS AND NEW ORLEANS CREOLES By Blair Marcus Proctor A DISSERTATION Submitted to Michigan State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of African American and African Studies–Doctor of Philosophy 2017 ABSTRACT BLURRED CONSCIOUSNESS: HOW BLACKNESS AND SPACE SHAPES IDENTITY FORMATION AMONG SOUTH AFRICAN COLOUREDS AND NEW ORLEANS CREOLES By Blair Marcus Proctor From an African Diasporic lens, and a Historical Sociology methodology, this dissertation investigates the ways in which intersecting connections of Blackness, space/geography, and identity-formation play a significant role in the formation of racial hierarchy. Applying theoretical concepts of racial formation theory , métissage , and intersectionality to my case study, the Creoles of Color and Coloureds are two ethnic groups that have similar historiographies in regards to their identity formation. The European-elite categorized, socially-constructed, and transformed heterogeneous ethnic groups into homogenous mixed-raced people and positioned in métissage , an ideology of “neither White, nor Black,” establishing dialectical- and multifaceted- consciousness. The objectives of this study are to: 1) Examine how the concepts of space and identity formation articulate themselves in Westbury (Johannesburg) and the 7th Ward (New Orleans); 2) Investigate how race ideology continues to marginalize people of color in South Africa and the United States; and 3) Survey how Coloureds and Creoles interpret and incorporate Black consciousness, the African Diaspora, intersectionality, cultural-formation, and space theoretical concepts into their own identity through archived research, participant observations, semi-structured interviews, and focus groups. Copyright by BLAIR MARCUS PROCTOR 2017 This dissertation is dedicated to Mom and Dad. Thank you for supporting me along this journey. iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to acknowledge all of the key people in my life who has helped me get through these five years of academic growth, mentorship, professional development, and words of encouragement. African American and African Studies (AAAS) Director and dissertation committee chair and mentor Dr. Glenn A. Chambers, Dr. Steven J. Gold, awesome mentor, Dr. Galen Sibanda, great izi-Zulu professor, and Dr. Danny Mendez, thank you for the support and signing on to join my committee – my dissertation committee; Mama Pat and Pops Robey, for letting me stay with you during my moving process to Michigan State; cousin Courtney Gardner and Andrew Fay, for your hospitality when I would stay in town; Dr. William Smith; Dr. Matthew Whittaker; Dr. Joochul Kim; Dr. Curtis Stokes; Dr. Ronald Hall; Dr. Pero G. Dagbovie; Dr. LaShawn Harris; Dr. Nkiru Nnawulezi; Dr. Rashida Harrison; Dr. Mary Phillips; Dr. Kamahra Ewing; Dr. Cona Marshall; Dr. Paula Miller; Dr. Carmel Martin-Fairey; Dr. Leigh-Anne Goins; Dr. Sherrae M. Hayes; Dr. Ashley L. Newby; Dr. Matthew Pettway; Dr. William Grant; Michael and Andrea Abrahams; Reginald Botha; Melanie DuBois; Dr. Floyd Hardin III; Kevin Jones, for all of the buddy passes; Kimberly Ross, doctoral candidate; Dr. John Metzler; Dr. Isaac Kalumbu; Dr. Rachel Ayieko; Roderick Watkins; Freddrico Chapman; De Wayne Anderson; Amber Smith; Aron Patton; Erin Alvarez; Linda Cornish; Fayana Richards, doctoral candidate; Linda Gordon; Marlena Janelle Edwards, doctoral candidate; Crystal Eddins, doctoral candidate; Dr. Tonya Braddox; Julene Wilson, for all of your hard work transcribing my interview recordings; Anthony Rachal; cousin Ernestine Brazeal; Valiant Cuiellette Jr. and last but not least, cousin Alexis Proctor Kellam, for coordinating my last interview. I would not be at this stage if it was not for you all! Thank you. v v TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION…………………………………………………………………….....……….1 SPECIFIC AIMS….……………………………………………………………..............3 BACKGROUND & LITERATURE REVIEW……..…………………………………...8 GAPS IN RESEARCH……..…………………………………………………………..15 DISSERTATION CHAPTER OUTLINE…………………………...…………………18 APPENDIX………………………………………………………………………...…...21 CHAPTER 1……………………………………………………………………………………26 RACIAL FORMATION THEORY……………………………………………………29 METISSAGE ….……… ……………………......……………………………………….36 INTERSECTIONALITY………….…………………………………………………...44 APPENDIX……………………………………………………………………………..63 CHAPTER 2……………………………………………………………………………………70 PART I: Creole Identity Formation…………………………………………………….70 Literature Review ……………………………………………………………….71 PARTII: Coloured Identity Formation………………………………………………….95 Literature Review ……………………………………………………………….96 Creolization ……………………………………………………………..98 Pan-Africanism and Garveyism in the Early 20 th Century Cape Town ..101 Legalized Segregation in Early 20 th Century Johannesburg ……....…..106 apartheid (Group Areas Act 1950)……………………………………..107 APPENDIX……………………………........................................................................ 111 CHAPTER 3…………………………………………………………………………………...119 METHODS…………………………………………………………………………….119 Preliminary Studies ………………………………………………………….....119 FINDINGS……………………………………………………………………………..121 Qualitative Research Methods/Participant Observations- Johannesburg ..........121 Qualitative Research Methods/Participant Observations – Cape Town ………124 Historical Research Methods ………………………………………………......127 Interviews ……………………………………………………………………....129 Identity Formation ……………………………………………………...129 Circularity: Spatial Boundaries – Inclusion versus Exclusion …………….. 138 African Diaspora: Consciousness, Trauma, Memory, Legacy, & Home .148 APPENDIX…………………………………………………………………….............152 vi CHAPTER 4……………………………………………………………………………………155 METHODS……………………………………………………………………………..155 Preliminary Studie s……………………………………………………………156 FINDINGS………………………………………….......................................................157 Qualitative Research Methods/Participant Observations …………………......157 Historical Research Methods ……………………………………………….....162 Interviews ……………………………………………………………...............163 New Orleans: Life and Culture Before and After the Hurricane …........163 Gentrification: Further Displacement, Exile, & Circularity …………..176 APPENDIX…………………………………………………………………………….179 CONCLUSION…………………………………………………………………………………183 APPENDIX……………………………………………………………………………..202 BIBLIOGRAPHY……………………………………………………………………………...206 vii INTRODUCTION The emergence of the black ghetto did not happen as a chance by-product of other socioeconomic processes. Rather, white Americans made a series of deliberate decisions to deny blacks access to urban housing markets and to reinforce their spatial segregation… Douglas S. Massey and Nancy A. Denton, American Apartheid For to be free is not merely to cast off one’s chains, but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others. Nelson Mandela The paradox of education is precisely this – that as one begins to become conscious one begins to examine the society in which he is being educated. James Baldwin Coloured identity in Westbury, South Africa, and Creole of Color identity in New Orleans, acquire complex and various meanings due to the unique racial histories and ideologies of the respective nations in which they were constructed. Race-based identities built on a Black – White binary placed limitations on those populations that fell “in-between” and outside the established norm. Coloured and Creole of Color formation–created by the European-elite, was a racial classification that involved métissage i, and it was developed in the Cape of Good Hope (present day Cape Town) and Louisiana during the mid-seventeenth century. Within both geographic-spaces, these populations were classified as “mixed-race” groups, and they were placed as objectified buffers in-between “racially-pure” Whites and Blacks, established by the colonial states in Louisiana and Cape Town. Historically, prior to European penetration in New Orleans, Louisiana and South Africa, the Indigenous communities of Indigenous Americans (referred to as Indians 1 by the colonists and enforced by the colonialists) and the Khoi and San people of the southern African region.2 By the end of the seventeenth century, with combination of the Indigenous populations and enslaved African populations in both the New Orleans and Cape Town regions, the European settlers who supported the colonial-states were the minority. 3 Race was used as a social construction, an 1 ideology, and a tool to divide and conquer the majority of the non-White population in South Africa and Louisiana, respectively. Then, legislation—the implementation of laws—was put in place for the purpose of supporting institutionalized- and legalized-racism that maintained White supremacy, during the imperial and colonial eras in both the U.S. and South Africa, for the purpose of world-economic and -political sovereignty. 4 In the modern era, de jure racial segregation involved State-government officials zoning specific areas and boundaries designated for Creoles of Color (classified, along with African Americans, as Coloreds ) during the Jim Crow period. In the South African context, Coloureds were further marginalized and established as an intermediate “racial” group (and buffer) to segregate Whites from Blacks during the implementation of the apartheid regime in 1948. Since the end of apartheid, in 1994, the African National Congress (ANC) led government promotes a non-racial democratic society. Yet, the Coloured community in Westbury (a township of Johannesburg that is focal to this study) still feels racially