29907: kathleen(partial reply)Re: 29905: Meta (Re:) Dr. Ertha Pascal-Trouillot (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Kathleen Burke <kathleendantor@verizon.net>

I can speak only to the question of color.
When looking for a particular person in Papay, the Haitian would ask me to 
describe what color of skin.  I would reply I wasn't sure.  One person, Mario, 
explained to the others that Americans were like that:  black was black.  I 
think I am taken aback when a blond person describes himself as black, but that 
is what happens in America.  There are not different words for different skin 
shades as there are in Haiti.  I personally wonder if this comes from the 1/16 
rule in Louisiana - any more than that and you were black?  Kathleen