race doesn't exist in france 🇫🇷

story time a few weeks ago I was invited to a dinner party with a bunch of people from 20 to 40 years old I'd say lower to middle class not really into politics and at some point one of them said that he tries his best not to describe someone or refer to someone by their race especially when he was with his kid so in that specific case he refused to describe the black person using the adjective black and used a bunch of other attributes of that person his size his age his looks to get the other person to understand who he was referring to he refused to use the objective black because he felt it would be offensive reductive to describe someone through their skin color and that is very French to me and to be fair I used to do the same thing when I was younger I also thought that identifying someone by their skin color was reductive and I would also have used other attributes to voicing the dirty word that they're black quit literally actually because it is quite common in France to say I'm black sorry black person instead of the exact translation Anwar the use of the English term black makes it less heavy whereas Noir sounds suspicious too racially connoted almost racist this is exactly why he titled this video race does not exist in France at least that's what a lot of French people say and to be fair they are not completely wrong in a way because we don't have many tools to measure racism xenophobia discrimination because we cannot collect statistics based on ethnicity the term race itself is quite controversial French people hate to use it because it implies that race exists and they'd rather believe it doesn't in the past decade French Latin politicians social activists social scientists and younger Generations in general have reintroduced this notion of race in public discourse and many aren't happy with it critics have talked about the Americanization of France the threat of workism racialism which refers to people who quote see race everywhere that sort of criticism largely come from French right Wingers but also from a portion of the left that believes that's no we shouldn't talk about race because the more we talk about it the more people see it the reality is that we all see it it'd be hypocritical to say that we live in a post-racial society sure we don't have many tools to measure it but racism still exists 91 of French black people say that they have been the victim of discrimination at least once in their lives and no no you can say that 91 of them are lying or overreacting racism is there we have to talk about it in schools and universities on TV in Parliament so yes younger Generations are more open to use terms like race racism islamophobia as a result we see those terms appear more and more often on mainstream media which gives the illusion that those issues are more present than they used to be which makes a lot of people question why do people feel the need to talk about them more those who claim to be Auntie work explain that the younger Generations tend to overreact to any slight occurrence of racism that they have become too sensitive that they prioritize their racial identity over everything this is what these two men said on a popular French TV series whose work as a scholar focuses on black history and diaspora sumaworo replies that it is convenient to look at anecdotes of young black people being angry or quote oversensitive and use it to shut down any discussions on racism instead she argues that taking into account Fran's history with racism allows us to look at this all the sensitive black people not as snowflakes but as the products and victims of systemic discrimination including physical violence police brutality dysfunctions this franchisement unemployment employment discrimination discrimination in terms of housing etc etc she says we pretend that racism doesn't exist as if the history of racism started in 2010 with work people who are obsessed about race but we have to respect history the history of our modern societies when we talk about the Orthodoxy of American compasses we talk about departments that were created in the 1960s 70s that doesn't mean that people didn't think about those things in the past but that those people weren't represented in universities because if you were a woman you weren't hired in universities if you were a minority you weren't hired in universities sociologists Eric beside that yes it is true that there are people in France who are very sensitive to minority issues many people are concerned about equality and Liberty just a little parenthesis here I just want to remind you that the French Republic slogan is Liberty equality fraternity he said that when we talk about gender when we talk about race we we talk about power relationships so that means we talk about inequalities about discriminating people by putting them in boxes however discussions on gender and race are detached from the Notions of equality and Liberty and relegated to the realm of identity politics but doing so helps frame the works as anti-republican when in fact they are the ones who care about the Republican values of equality and Liberty there is a real Paradox here because when we talk about fighting against inequalities fighting against discrimination we are told that we put the French Republic at the risk of disappearing so my question is very simple what is the French Republic really in order to answer that question we have to look at how the French public was forged which means we're gonna have to talk about French Colonial history France established its colonies in India Africa in North America a few Islands here and there including the West Indies from the 16th century it then lost some colonies in North America but strengthened its presence in Africa Asia Oceania which includes French Polynesia New Caledonia and the new Hebrides but also South America with Guyana today France still has a few colonies here and there across the globe and he has also kept close relationships with former colonies like Algeria and African countries for long time French diplomats described France relationship with Africa as France the expression is no longer used because of its neocolonial condition franzafric was largely based on the promotion of French culture and language abroad it sought to continue to maintain economic and political exchanges in favor France in exchange of military defense which too often took the full move interference macron recently ended the francific era to open a new neutral relationship with Africa it is not surprising in a way because in the past few years anti-fron sentiments have grown among young Amer not Americans young Africans living in former French colonies mainly through social media here's a video I wanted to show you that my research assistance AKA my sister I don't explode her don't worry here's a video she found which is both really funny and also quite serious in it tells us about the history of the artworks present in kibongi which is a museum specialized in African art and then after all these explanations he just takes the art because he was stolen from his ancestors and then walks towards the exit of the museum the video circulated a lot obviously it sparked discussions on the restitution of the person yes yes she's just said that 90 of Africa's cultural heritage is currently in Europe and we don't really talk about it if France was a person I think it would be the avoidant hyping the one that does not want to come from big problems who put things on the carpet and hopes people will forget as an example most former European Colonial how is having done the work I'm not saying that they are perfect don't get me wrong but in the UK in Germany you find museums that talk about their colonial past as someone once joked on TV France has 23 museums on clogs clogs yes but not on colonialism we refuse to say that we went to war in Algeria and Cameroon the same way a toxic X refuses to recognize they hurt you but you know they did I want to talk a bit more about Algeria the war against France occupation started in 1954 it was triggered by the fln the National Liberation Front in a position to the French army which also included a portion of algerians called lyaki after many massacres many death the war ended in 1962 after 90 percent of French people voted for the independence of Algeria progressively French troops left the country it was a new beginning on the other hand the Aki so algerians who sided with the French during the war were no longer welcome in their home country and were treated like sub human in France despite their support during the war this is another example where we're only starting to talk about those things because the children of those who were colonized and then moved to France are starting to tell the stories that their parents were told to keep for themselves those children are progressively accessing positions where their voices can be heard in Academia in journalism in politics Etc but those stories have always existed in fact they were telling those stories but no one was willing to listen to them you may be familiar with omasi he played Lupine the Netflix TV series of the same name he's a very well-known french actor French people love him he always end up on the list of French people's favorite celebrities until the war in Ukraine wasn't a groundbreaking Revelation for me I have family in Africa I know they have always been children living in the war broken families parents who lose their children children who become orphans it has never stopped since the second world war I'm surprised that people are so affected by it here does that mean it does not affect you as much when it happens in Africa that's that was taken as an insults omasi was said to be ungrateful to have forgotten what France did for him the message was very clear without France omasi would be nothing the subtext was also very clear omasi was not considered as a French person literally born in France as French as me France is something outside of him France gave him success that is racist the Instagram page tecolonizonusha this meme which summed up the situation very well not being white in France means that you constantly have to prove that you are French that you love your country that you're baguette and croissant addicts I mean this is Nicholas to be honest how can we deny literal history to that degree I don't owe anything to anybody I am French as you can see younger Generations are forcing France to finally go to therapy and work on that avoidant nature because we won't be able to heal all the trauma caused by colonization if we don't accelerate the process I'll stop with the therapy metaphor you get the point in fact the use is becoming less and less patient less and less tolerant because we see that the Fight Against Racism xenophobia faces a serious backlash coming from the far right I mean far right activists recently burned the house and the cars of a mayor who had planned on opening a center for Asylum Seekers this is really serious they are also becoming less tolerant because they show how their parents try their best to integrate to assimilate to be more precise into French culture but still face many forms of discrimination employment housing aggressions hate speech Etc so yes now they say out loud that they are proud to be black to be Muslim to have complex identities that they want to preserve be proud of you because you can be do what we want to do they want to tell their stories and promote the stories of those who came before them I mean while I was doing the research for this video I discovered the stories of impressive women Ultra gold bosses like la la Fatma and Zuma nicknamed Georgia has Joan of Arc who resisted against France Colonial invasion in Algeria in the 19th century but I also learned about the story of female warriors of daome in binang who also fought against French colonization they looked super intimidating and were known to be powerful warriors they were called the Minas which means our mother and protected the king these are stories that we've never heard about because nobody was willing to listen and to be fair more French people are still not willing to listen yunai was in 2007 that President Nicola Sarkozy managed to stay in front of a Noggins partly made of black people if not entirely that the African men did not sufficiently make history nevertheless oldest testimonies those stories spawn towards one goal re-establishing the truth and Justice and that is something scholarship on tejab already said in the 1960s 1970s when he asked his students to stop being obsessed with getting white people to approve back Scholar's work to stop believing that quote truth sounds white he recommended instead to forge an African identity intelligencia to create new Frameworks and it's funny in a way because he ended up doing what he'd advised not to do I don't know if you know this but job is one of the leading Scholars behind afrocentrism which is based on the belief in Black Egypt maybe you've heard about it recently with the drama around Netflix Cleopatra's documentary it's a controversial topic because it is quite political but by claiming that Egypt was black which goes against what most experts have shown it is said that Advocates of afrocentrism did exactly what white people did with ethnocentrism first they sort of created this unique identity Africa the same way we created this sort of unique identity as whites Europeans you know which ultimately erases diverse cultures Etc they also sought like Europeans to promote that they were at the origin of civilization to legitimize their power their superiority over other cultures and ethnicities instead of promoting their own cultures and their diversity but doing that instead is very difficult isn't it it's tempting to people please the ones who've been taught to look up to to be the good black person that makes it to French people's favorite celebrities list to be grateful to not talk about your race because that'd be too political I wanted to make this video because it's been requested many times but also because it is possible that racism and xenophobia get worse as the far right becomes more and more popular and also as we start to see population migrating to the north and eventually to Europe because of climate change I mean we French people won't be able to say that race racism does not exist when the far right will choose to close our Boulders so we have to continue to raise awareness to open people's eyes to the reality that is in front of us and do the best job we can to avoid the worst case scenario and obviously this is not limited to France you know but yeah making this video was really interesting because I realized that I didn't know enough I actually don't know much about all that history so if you want to learn more and I highly highly recommend you educate yourself more on those topics I'll put some resources down there um and yeah that's it for today thank you so much for watching I hope you enjoyed it it was a bit more informative than what I usually do but yeah it's always good to be mindful of our history to again be more aware of our position in the world and how it affects other people before I end the video I need to introduce you to today's sponsor Squarespace Squarespace is an all-in-one platform for building your brand and growing your business online you can create your own website around your preferred aesthetic from a catalog of templates and use it as a landing platform for all the activity you do YouTube online shop Blog podcast photography Etc once that is set up you can connect all your social media accounts and share content between different platforms Squarespace can also help you create effective email campaigns to really connect with your community finally they had this very cool feature where you can 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Channel: Alice Cappelle

Views: 109,874

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Id: TQiRgpGZK-w

Length: 16min 40sec (1000 seconds)

Published: Thu May 25 2023