Cultural identity is part of a sophisticated definition of self, as Professor Alfred Guillaume Jr. passionately describes: “I am a 50-year-old American. I am black, Roman Catholic, and Creole…. The segregated South wanted me to believe that I was inferior. The Catholic Church taught me that all of God’s people were equal. My French Creole heritage gave me a special bond to Native Americans, to Europeans, and to Africans. This is the composite portrait of who I am. I like who I am and can imagine being no other.”
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