Constructing and reproducing whiteness:

An oral history of French Creoles in Trinidad

Abstract

This study explores questions of identity and ethnicity in relation to white French Creoles in Trinidad, who represent an economically powerful, though socially and ethnically marginalised group. Very little scholarly research has been carried out on this group. This paper therefore seeks to understand what it means to be a white French Creole in a society that is politically, culturally and socially dominated by peoples of African and East Indian origins. Specifically, the study seeks to understand how white French Creole identity is subjectively constructed, reproduced, experienced and understood. This research sits in a symbolic interactionist framework, employing qualitative interviews with twenty-four white Trinidadian French Creoles, and uses discourse analysis to analyse their narratives. The research findings suggest that white French Creoles retain a strong sense of racial superiority, based on their identities as white people. However, unlike the older generations, the younger generations tend to disregard their ethnic identity as French Creoles in order to assimilate into the Trinidadian society as a whole. Nevertheless, this appears to less than successful because of their subjective and objective whiteness.