1959: (Comhaire-Sylvain Insists on Impersonal References — Her Concern Being Less to Target Specific Scholars but More to Articulate That Most Research Faile…

1959: (Comhaire-Sylvain Insists on Impersonal References — Her Concern Being Less to Target Specific Scholars but More to Articulate That Most Research Failed to See Account for or Locate Haitian Women, She Being Particularly Concerned with Labeling Systems That Used Words Like “Caste” — Instead She “Insisted on Using Impersonal References Such as Letters or Numbers to Describe the Social Classes” Because “the Word ‘Sub-Proletariat’ in Particular Is Objectionable Because of Its Implicit Value Judgements,” Explaining That “the Masses Adhere to Standards Rejected by the Upper Classes but This Is Not Necessarily a Mark of Inferiority”): Comhaire-Sylvain’s concern was less to target specific scholars, but more to articulate that most research failed to see, account for, or locate Haitian women. She was particularly concerned with the labeling systems that used words like “caste” to describe Haitian social systems. Instead, she insisted on using impersonal references such as letters or numbers to describe the social classes because the word “sub-proletariat,” in particular, was objectionable because of its implicit value judgements. She explained that the masses adhere to standards rejected by the upper classes, but this is not necessarily a mark of inferiority — the insistence on neutral nomenclature was itself a political act, refusing to let the vocabulary of class reproduce the hierarchy it purported to describe.