Mixed products everywhere!
JC
We first told you about Mix It Up in March and Like Minded People last year. The Times-Picayune reports on additional companies that are contributing to the rise of products that cater to interracial couples and mixed consumers. Look no further…now you can get tshirts, greeting cards, gifts, and hair products that speak to your experience!
Frustration among biracial and multiracial consumers, who crave products that reflect their cultures and skin tones, has bred a home-grown market in goods from cards to clothes. “There are all of these children of interracial marriages,” said Tiffany Morrison, 37, who, with her sister, 36, launched Mix It Up in Los Angeles in January. “There are things that we need, and now we’re creating them.”
Mahisha Dellinger, 29, whose father is Creole and mother is black, remembers experimenting in the kitchen, mixing coconut oil and shea butter with store-bought hair conditioners and styling products. “I couldn’t find the right line of product for my hair,” she said. Based in Sacramento, Calif., she started Curls online at www.curls.biz in 2003, and now the products, including a children’s line called Curly Q’s, are available at selected salons.
misha wrote:
“Creole”? Can most people tell the difference between a Creole and Black American? Most Black Americans have White and Native American blood and they’re still called Black!
Posted 29 May 2005 at 10:47 pm ¶
scransnee wrote:
Only Creoles want to make the distinction between being black.
Posted 15 Jun 2005 at 6:37 pm ¶
Pat wrote:
No. You have to be from certain parts of the nation or the Carribean to get it. While color does play a part that is decreasing. Being Creole is a mindset and more of a cultural thing. Creoles can be any mixture.but usually there is French and/or Spanish heritage which has influenced the family’s lifestyle or religion. I had a blond blue-eyed German/French background roommate from Haiti who called herself Creole. Why? Because her family settled in Haiti in the late 1700s , were Catholic ,spoke French and were Fracophils.
However, Cajuns, black or white or any combination do not view themselves as Creoles. The Native American contributions to the family tree usually do not appear to figure into the formula.
Interesting enough, there is also an economic aspect of this. Most people who viewed themselves as Creoles were usually decendants of “free people of color” who were economically secure.
Posted 25 Jun 2005 at 11:33 pm ¶
Shermelle wrote:
My father once dated a lady who called herself creole. Funny thing was she was Eygyptian and French.
Posted 27 Jun 2005 at 10:24 pm ¶
jean stoia wrote:
Hi,
Is there any evidence for a black heritage among Cajuns? (French Acadians who migrated to Louisiana) I know the Cajuns intermarried with white Creoles, but did they intermarry with Creoles of Color? If there is evidence of black roots in Cajuns, what is the origin?
Thanks.
Posted 04 Sep 2005 at 1:53 am ¶
Cleo wrote:
Hello there. Of course there is an intermarrying of black, creoles, Cajun, and Indian. My grandmothers side was Cajun. They were mainly light coffee colored, with blue or green eyes. Or they look Indian or white, although the white ones have the curliest hair u ever did see. My grandpa’s side are dark dark Indians, so they’re black. The lines down in Louisiana i think became blurred between cajun and creole. My family calls thems cajuns most of the time.
Posted 07 Sep 2005 at 12:38 am ¶
Mike wrote:
Very interesting! I’m “white” with “two drop” Native American.
However, if I had “one drop” African ancestory I would be “Black” or “African American.”. I’m from south Louisiana and the culture is a blend if not all people are a blood blend.
Cajun is considered “White” French et Creole is considered “Black” French for South Louisiana.
“White Creoles” in Louisiana dropped the Creole term because the Americains thought that we were all multiracial. “Oh, the horror!”
So many adopted the Cajun label because that is supposedly 100% white.
It’s more complicated than that but that is the gist of it all.
Louisiana used to be called the Creole State but they changed it.
Why?
Some “dark” reason is why.
Even though everyone eats Gumbo - Africa,Okra.
Why not “Black Cajun”
or
“Cajuns of Color”
Read - request from local library:
The Cajunization of French Louisiana: Forging a regional identity.Authors: Trepanier, Cecyle
Source: Geographical Journal; Jul91, Vol. 157 Issue 2, p161, 11p, 2 charts, 10 maps
French, Cajun, Creole, Houma : a primer on francophone Louisiana / Carl A. Brasseaux.
De Ville, Winston, “‘Cajuns’ and Neo-ethnicity: Concerns of an Acadian-American Genealogist,” National Genealogical Society Quarterly, 89 (March 2001)
Sexton, Rocky. 1999.
Cajun Mardi Gras: Cultural Objectification and Symbolic Appropriation in a French Tradition. Ethnology 38(4): 297 -313
Posted 28 Apr 2006 at 6:18 pm ¶