by SELMA OUMARI
The majority of those who die at the hands of the police in France are not white. Yet, in the ideology of the French state, race doesn’t exist. There are only ‘equal’ citizens, allowing for no recognition of the difference in treatment between white and non-white people.
This uncritical approach to French values is also found in the country’s traditional antiracism movement. Embodied by organisations such as SOS Racisme, linked to the Socialist Party, the focus is on raising awareness and promoting assimilation. But this strategy doesn’t actively fight racism. In some cases it even feeds it, such as when SOS Racisme supported the banning of the veil in schools and workplaces in the name of French republican values. France’s multiple Islamophobic laws have often been supported by leaders across the political spectrum. In a country known for its social disputes, racism under the banner of French universalism acts as a strong point of unity.
New anti-racism
A new and growing antiracist movement in France is challenging that status quo, by asserting that racism is a structural element of the state. It argues that the republican ideology whitewashes racist policies and the nation’s imperialist history. This movement is embodied in a myriad of collectives, from no border and refugee activists to anti Islamophobia campaigners, black and LGBT activists, intersectional feminists and families of victims of police brutality.
‘Actually, we are the real left,’ says Youcef Brakni, a member of the Justice for Adama campaign, set up after the death of Adama Traoré, a Malian-French man who died in custody after being restrained by police. His death triggered large protests against police brutality. This anti-colonial form of anti-racism has remained on the margins of the left, with many groups and activists being critical of the mainstream left’s narrowly economistic approach. Asian, Arab and black activists are now playing a key role in changing this.
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