"Speak White" is a French-language poem written by Canadian poet
Michèle Lalonde
Michèle Lalonde (July 28, 1937 – July 22, 2021) was a Canadian dramatist, essayist, playwright and poet for print and radio. She began her career as a writer and publisher while studying for a Bachelor of Arts degree at the Université de Montr ...
in 1968, and condemns the linguistic, cultural, and economic exploitation and oppression of
French-speaking Canadians, especially the
Québécois, by the English language and Anglo-American culture.
The poem was published in 1974 by Quebec publisher L'Héxagone, and was recited by Lalonde during the 1968 performance ''Chansons et poèmes de résistance'' (Songs and Poems of the Resistance) in support of the imprisoned ''
Front de libération du Québec
The (FLQ) was a Marxist–Leninist and Quebec separatist guerrilla group. Founded in the early 1960s with the aim of establishing an independent and socialist Quebec through violent means, the FLQ was considered a terrorist group by the Canadia ...
'' (FLQ) leaders
Pierre Vallières
Pierre Vallières ( – ) was a Québécois journalist and writer, known as an intellectual leader of the Front de libération du Québec (FLQ). He was the author of the essay ''Nègres blancs d'Amérique'', translated as ''White Niggers of Am ...
and Charles Gagnon, and again at the 1980 cultural event ''Nuit de la poésie'' (Night of Poetry) in Montréal.
Responses to Lalonde's work include a 1980
short film of the same name by directors
Pierre Falardeau
Pierre Falardeau (December 28, 1946 – September 25, 2009) was a Québécois film and documentary director, pamphleteer and noted activist for Quebec independence.
Falardeau wrote at least one book, ''Rien n'est plus précieux que la liberté ...
and
Julien Poulin
Julien Poulin (born April 20, 1946) is Canadian actor, film director, screenwriter and film producer. He has portrayed numerous roles in several popular Quebec films and series.
Elvis Gratton films
His most memorable role was Elvis Gratton in ...
, a number of reinterpretations, and "Speak What," a 1989 political poem by
Marco Micone
Marco Micone (born March 23, 1945) is an Italian-Canadian playwright and journalist. He was born in Montelongo, Italy and emigrated to Montreal in 1958.
Bibliography
Marco Micone grew up in Montreal and since he was thirteen when he arrived he ...
.
Derogatory use of the expression "speak white"
It is alleged that the first known instance of derogatory use of the phrase "speak white" against French-speaking Canadians occurred on October 12, 1889, when member of the Canadian Liberal party
Henri Bourassa was booed by English-speaking members of the parliament and shouted at to "Speak White!" during debates in the Canadian House of Commons on Canada's engagement in the Second Boer War. The controversial ''
Dictionnaire québécois-français'' has an entry from a November 2, 1893
MacLean's
''Maclean's'', founded in 1905, is a Canadian news magazine reporting on Canadian issues such as politics, pop culture, and current events. Its founder, publisher John Bayne Maclean, established the magazine to provide a uniquely Canadian perspe ...
article: "for every twenty French Canadians you encounter in my house or yours, fifteen can affirm that they have been treated to the discreditable 'speak white.'"
On March 7, 2007, journalist Larry Zolf published an article called "Speak White" on CBC News Online, giving anecdotal evidence of Canadian immigrants being told to "speak white" by hostile English-speaking Canadians. In the same article, Zolf also criticizes then-Liberal Party candidate Stéphane Dion, wanting to tell him to "speaking white" for Dion's "mangling the English language," and citing his lack of English proficiency as the reason for the candidate's unpopularity with English-speaking Canadian voters.
Reading and writing the poem
Written in October 1968, the activist poem "Speak White" by Quebec poet Michèle Lalonde references the expression's derogatory use against French-speaking Canadians, and the work as a whole rejects the imposition of the English language and Anglo-American culture, and denounces the political and economic oppression of the French language and those who speak it.
The poem was intended to be read on stage by Canadian comedian
Michelle Rossignol
Michelle Rossignol, (4 February 1940 – 18 May 2020) was a Canadian film actress. She appeared in fifteen films between 1956 and 2010. She was made an Officer of the Order of Canada in 1991 and a Knight of the National Order of Quebec in 20 ...
during a show entitled ''Chansons et poèmes de la Résistance'' (Songs and poems of the resistance), but it was Michele Lalonde who finally recited the poem.
The show, which brought together artists including
Robert Charlebois,
Yvon Deschamps, et
Gaston Miron
Gaston Miron (; 8 January 1928 – 14 December 1996) was an important poet, writer, and editor of Quebec's Quiet Revolution. His classic ''L'homme rapaillé'' (partly translated as ''The March to Love: Selected Poems of Gaston Miron'', whose ...
, was organized to support the cause of
Pierre Vallières
Pierre Vallières ( – ) was a Québécois journalist and writer, known as an intellectual leader of the Front de libération du Québec (FLQ). He was the author of the essay ''Nègres blancs d'Amérique'', translated as ''White Niggers of Am ...
and
Charles Gagnon, who had just been imprisoned for their activities within the ''
Front de libération du Québec
The (FLQ) was a Marxist–Leninist and Quebec separatist guerrilla group. Founded in the early 1960s with the aim of establishing an independent and socialist Quebec through violent means, the FLQ was considered a terrorist group by the Canadia ...
'' (FLQ). Both the written poem and its performance were a part of the
Quiet Revolution of the 1960s, a cultural movement celebrating French-Canadian language, culture, and identity.
Following the example of the ''
Nègres blancs d'Amérique'' by Pierre Vallières, ''Speak White'' equates the racism endured by Black Americans and the
colonization
Colonization, or colonisation, constitutes large-scale population movements wherein migrants maintain strong links with their, or their ancestors', former country – by such links, gain advantage over other inhabitants of the territory. When ...
that colonized people were subjected to by colonial empires, to the
linguistic discrimination experienced by French-speaking Quebeckers.
These two texts are commonly thought to be a part of a movement by nationalist intellectuals to appropriate ''
négritude'' (movement and usage as a term). Additionally, Lalonde had remarked in a 1968 interview that “language here is equivalent to color for the Black American. The French Language, it is our Black color!”
However, because the phrase "speak white" has been used by anglophones against francophones since the end of the nineteenth century, the claim that Quebec nationalists have appropriated the ''
négritude'' movement and term during the 1960s and 1970s must be carefully regarded, if not reconsidered, as this term was historically imposed on them. The expression "speak white" was not coined by nationalist intellectuals, so the parallel between the condition of French-speaking Canadians and Afro-Americans in the United States primarily stems from the use of the expression by Anglophones. The Quebec nationalist discourse of the 1970s was a part of a much broader anti-colonialist vocabulary than solely the question of American Blackness, recognizing, for example, a kinship with the struggles waged against in Algeria and Vietnam, as mentioned in the poem by Michèle Lalonde.
The ''
Front de libération du Québec
The (FLQ) was a Marxist–Leninist and Quebec separatist guerrilla group. Founded in the early 1960s with the aim of establishing an independent and socialist Quebec through violent means, the FLQ was considered a terrorist group by the Canadia ...
'' (FLQ)'s proximity with revolutionary and anticolonial movements in Cuba, South America, Palestine, and Algeria, as well as with the
Black Panthers
The Black Panther Party (BPP), originally the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense, was a Marxism-Leninism, Marxist-Leninist and Black Power movement, black power political organization founded by college students Bobby Seale and Huey P. New ...
in the United States, illustrates the extent to which Quebec nationalism in the 1960s and 1970s claimed to be a part of a global anti-imperialist movement, of which ''
négritude'' was one of many faces.
References
{{Reflist
External links
"Speak White" poemtranslated by Albert Herring
Canadian poems
1980 films
Anti-Quebec sentiment
Francophobia in North America
Canadian short documentary films
Films based on poems
National Film Board of Canada documentaries
Documentary films about racism in Canada
Political catchphrases
Documentary films about words and language
Documentary films about Quebec politics
Linguistic discrimination
Racism in Canada
Films directed by Pierre Falardeau
Language policy in Canada
French-language Canadian films
1980s Canadian films