Speak White

Speak White
Directed by	Pierre Falardeau Julien Poulin
Written by	Michèle Lalonde (poem)
Release date(s)	1980
Running time	Short: 6 min.
Country	Canada
Language	French

Speak White is a French language poem composed by Québécois writer Michèle Lalonde in 1968. It was first recited in 1970 and was published in 1974 by Editions de l'Hexagone, Montreal. It denounced the poor situation of French-speakers in Quebec and takes the tone of a collective complaint against English-speaking Quebecers.^[1][2] Her poem is not, however, directed solely or even primarily at English Canada, often citing British and American references such as Shakespeare, Keats, the Thames, the Potomac and Wall Street as its symbols of linguistic oppression.

In 1980, Speak White was made into a short motion picture by polemicists Pierre Falardeau and Julien Poulin, the six-minute film featured actress Marie Eykel reading Lalonde's poem. It was released by the National Film Board of Canada.^[3]

Italian-Quebecer journalist playwright Marco Micone also wrote a poem in response called Speak What?, depicting allophone immigrants as the same oppressed class as the Québécois in Quebec, and calling for a more inclusive society.^[4][5]

Origin

"Speak White" was an insult used by English-speaking Canadians against those who spoke other languages in public.^[6][7] In his controversial Dictionnaire québécois-français,^[8] Lionel Meney quotes a Maclean's article from 1963 that for "every twenty French Canadians you encounter in my house or yours, fifteen can affirm that they have been treated with the discreditable 'speak white'".^{[citation needed][who?]}

The earliest allegation of the slur was recorded in the Canadian Parliament of 1899 as Henri Bourassa was booed by English-speaking Members of Parliament while attempting to address the legislature in French against the engagement of the Dominion in the Second Boer War.^{[citation needed]} André Laurendeau recorded anecdotal evidence in his 1963 journal during the Laurendeau-Dunton Commission that English Canadians would hurl the phrase at French Canadians outside Quebec, and speculated that it was borrowed from the Southern United States.^[9] Anecdotal evidence also suggests that the phrase was used against immigrants.^[7]

Although the expression has never been directly quoted and attributed to an individual, the expression continues to enter the public sphere in the course of rhetorical political debate.^[10]

References

1. ^ "Canadian literature: The "Quiet Revolution"". Encyclopædia Britannica Online. 2007. http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-42340/Canadian-literature#915409.hook. Retrieved 2007-09-08. 
2. ^ Bilan du Siècle (fr)
3. ^ Imdb listing for Speak White
4. ^ "Canadian Literature: The cosmopolitan culture of French Canada and Quebec". Encyclopædia Britannica Online. 2007. http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-258879/Canadian-literature#915553.hook. Retrieved 2007-09-08. 
5. ^ http://www.pressegauche.org/spip.php?article1732
6. ^ Debates - Issue 29 - February 1, 2005
7. ^ ^{a b} Larry Zolf. "Speak white." CBC News. 7 March 2007.
8. ^ "Les Québécois racistes à l'endroit des Français? (fr)". Groupe TVA inc.. 2005-03-28. http://lcn.canoe.ca/lcn/infos/national/archives/2005/03/20050328-100403.html. Retrieved 2007-09-08. 
9. ^ Monière, Denis (1983). André Laurendeau et le destin d’un peuple. Saguenay, Canada: Bibliothèque Paul-Émile-Boulet de l'Université du Québec à Chicoutimi. p. 324. http://classiques.uqac.ca/contemporains/moniere_denis/andre_laurendeau/andre_laurendeau.doc. []
10. ^ Comeau, Gerald (2005-02-01). "The Late Honourable Louis J. Robichaud, P.C., Q.C., C.C.". Debates of the Senate (Hansard): 1st Session, 38th Parliament, Volume 142, Issue 29. http://www.parl.gc.ca/38/1/parlbus/chambus/senate/deb-e/029db_2005-02-01-E.htm?Language=E&Parl=38&Ses=1. Retrieved 2007-09-08. 

External links

• "Speak White" poem in French with English translation
• Speak White at IMDB at the Internet Movie Database
• NFB Web page (in French)