22491: JHudicourt: On color in Corbett's list of heads of state -- Corbett adds

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: JHUDICOURTB@aol.com
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I'd like people's opinion on the relevance of information on skin color on
Bob Corbett's list of Heads of State.  Assuming that it is supposed to be
information that will be used mostly for academic or journalistic
purposes, I am thinking that the information on skin color should be of
importance and would be accurate.  I will claim that accuracy on such data
is debatable.  The issue of color in Haiti is not a simple black/white
issue (if that is ever simple) and the proof is that if we look as the
list of recent presidents the way Corbett has it, the following categories
of skin color are attributed to each of the presidents:

Francois Duvalier, Black
Jean-Claude Duvalier, dark
Lesly Manigat, light
Henri Namphy, Black
Prosper Avril, Black
Ertha Pascal-Trouillot, Light
Jean-Bertrand Aristide, Black
Rene Preval, Black

I am sure that if you would put 10 Haitians together to discuss this list,
2 of them could agree on how to use these 3 categories to describe these
presidents.  The website says that some of this information is from the
Paquin book on class and color in Haiti.  I'd like people to think about
these 3 categories as they seem to want to describe the recent presidents
(light, dark, black).   To me it doesn't make any sense at all.  In
addition, if  one goes by the pictures on the website as evidence,  many
of them don't seem to match the description either.  For example look at
Nissage Saget and Sylvain Salnave classified as light and dark.....   Is
this about pigmentation? Is it about class?  Is it about hair?  The whole
issue is ridiculous and to propose these categories as some kind of
academic information is baseless.  I would suggest that Corbett
deletes that whole column on his website page on heads of state because,
the data is subjective.  All of the presidents were Haitians and when
Haiti wrote its first constitution it was agreed by the leadership that
all Haitians would considered black.  This was a forward thinking step to
attempt to stay away from the pigmentation issue.  Why don't we just try
that.

================

Corbett replies:

Two issues:

1.  The question of the color itself.  I got those color descriptions from
Lyonel Paquin's book:  HAITI:  CLASS AND COLOR POLITICS (1983).

The book also convinced me that the notion of color seemed to be a live
one in Haitian politics, at least to mid-20th century if not later.

Thus I rather suspect it is relevant data.  Now, whether it is ACCURATE
data or not I have no idea and would like to hear what people think about
each question:

	A.  Is the skin color relevant?
	B.  If it is, what are the accurate descriptions for each
		leader?

2.  Something a bit lighter, but it has it's serious side to.  Hudicourt
suggests that "Assuming that it is supposed to be
information that will be used mostly for academic or journalistic
purposes, ...".

I think nothing could be farther from the truth.  I get a HUGE amount of
mail regarding my web page and very little of it is from academics of
journalists.  It is from students (from elementary school through doctoral
candidates, and from ordinary folks who clearly are neither journalists or
academics).  This pleases me greatly since it is delightful to know that
people are out there search for information on Haiti and that I am able in
some small way to contribute to that search.

However, it has some very hilarious consequences, espeically from students
wanting me to do their work for them.  My very favorite is about three
years old or more.  I have four essays on the Haitian Revolution, which is
sum are about 50-60 pages printed out.  I got a note from a younger
highschool student saying -- while this is from memory it is very close to
verbatim -- "Mr.Corbett, I just read your essays on the Haitian Revolution
and I think you are right about that.  I like the essays, but you do use
lots of really big words.  Do you think you could give me just a 5 page
summary of those four essays"

I couldn't stop giggling for a week.

Others will read book reviews I have (not on my Haiti page, but in
personal section on what I'm reading), and they will say things like:

You didn't deal too much with the character Julia, could you tell me every
thing yhou think about her?   And so on.

It is a lot of fun, and while I try very hard not to do their work for
them, I really do often take the time to engage them.  In the "Julia" case
for example I would write back and say, "Well, I'm not sure what it is you
want to know since I did speak of how I think she fits into the work, but
tell me what you are thinking and I'll respond..."  Something like that.
Some never do respond, of course.  But a surprising number do, and some
decent discussions of discovery follow.

But my web page for academics and journalists?  It's the farthest thing
from my mind....

Bob Corbett