Tag Archives: visible minorities

L Autre Dumas

March 3 10

So they made a film in France about Alexandre Dumas, père, called L Autre Dumas, starring Gerard Depardieu.  Look at the photo of Dumas and think about how Gerard Depardieu looks, and hopefully you will see the issue.

The thing that is very interesting is that Le CRAN has attacked the film for this in a post on their website that makes me quite happy (really, I am so glad these types of organizations exist now in France), is that Dumas himself, in ” Mes Mémoires (French Edition)“ discusses the issues he has because of his blackness, the fears his mother had before he was born etc.

My favorite part, because it is so true, is the following quote:

Trop peu de nos compatriotes savent qu’Alexandre Dumas, l’un des plus grands auteurs français, était un métis, qu’il était considéré à son époque comme Noir et qu’il se décrivait lui-même comme un « nègre » aux « cheveux crépus » - Le Cran

Too few of our countrymen know that Alexandre Dumas, one of the greatest French writers, was mixed, he was consider black  in his time he described himself as a “negro” with ” frizzy hair” — translation, Jade

So why is this important?  For me personally, learning that Alexandre Dumas was black like my family (in that most American black people are “métisse”),  was life changing.  I was familiar with his work, specifically the Three Musketeers (below) and the Count of Monte Cristo from a very young age, even if i was not familiar with him, the man.

The day I learned about his ethnic/racial heritage was life changing for me. I took it the same way I took Obama. Here is this name, this person who changed the face of the world, this person who is seen as one of the best and a (French) cultural icon, whose work has turned in to so many plays and films etc. and he looks like my cousin. He looks like my future children. He looks like me. That experience showed me that, despite the message I received from those around me, the only true limits of my ability to achieve and to reach would be from me. It meant so much more than people telling me to reach for the stars, because here was someone who had already done it, despite all the odds and circumstances that were not in his favor… and he did it without denying who he was or where he came from.

So, the film bothers me. People do not know about the heritage of Alexandre Dumas, and films like this mis-educate people (and that isn””t even with acknowledging the assistant issue that apparently exists in the film, making Dumas in the film a figurative “Nègre littéraire” the idiomatic French term for ghost writer, rather than the literal “Nègre littéraire” that he was).

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Thoughts on Black and Blackness in France

February 19 09

On Wednesday, February 4, there was a French Studies Colloquium hosted by my old school. The talk was Pap NDIAYE on Blacks and Blackness in France: A Historical and Sociological Perspective. I was unable to be there, but I was lucky enough to receive a CD of the talk, and it was very very good. I generally don’t like to get in to conversations with people about blackness and racism in France because while it is similar to the US, it is also very different. As Pap Ndiaye is actually a prof of American Studies in France, he was able to make so many great points that pointed out the differences. He also wrote a book (I got the last in stock copy from amazon.ca har har), CONDITION NOIRE (LA) : ESSAI SUR UNE MINORITÉ FRANÇAISE.

Here are some of the main points that I think are important to understand the difference in perspectives that came up in the talk:

  • The Black population didn’t really begin to exist in large numbers in France until WWI, when Senegalese and Afro-American soldiers came to France and stayed.
  • The Black French population is more diverse than the American Black population (the Caribbean, West Africa, Islands like Reunion, Madagascar, etc). This means that, historically, the black populations in France have been very compartmentalized based on a secondary ethnicity.
  • This means there is no monolithic blackness in France (though this is changing). In face, if you ask the people who were born and raised there, they are more likely to say and accept that they are French. However, their social interactions are what makes them black. In the talk he said there is a “loos transnational blackness with a strong feeling of being French.”
  • Thus, being black in France is not a cultural experience, but a SOCIAL experience built through social interactions. The term that has come in to use, as a result, to describe this social group is visible minorities.
  • There are class issues in terms of discriminatory employment. For instance, while the unemployment is basically equal among white French people and black French people, underemployment amongst black people is a big issue. There is a joke that France has the most educated security guards in the world.
  • There is an issue with visual minorities never being allowed to assimilate completely, even though they see themselves as French. This is illustrated by the use of the term immigrant to describe people who are visual minorities that are 2nd, 3rd etc generation French born citizen. The great example he pointed out was Sarkozy, the current French president. Though his father was born in Hungary, Sarkozy would never be referred to as an immigrant. He is considered French through and through.

One thing he said that was really great was:

In France, as well as in the United States, people can identify as black without believing that the designation says anything deep about who they are.

I hope people get that. I’m often left thinking that they don’t.

As time as gone on, though the black population in France is diverse, they have come to realize that they have a shared social experience (again, not cultural), and as a result, a new negritude is being born. It is very interesting to watch. I’m sad I wasn’t in school when this started (it start right after I graduated), but I saw the early since of it’s impending arrival nonetheless. Hopefully his book, and the few studies that have been funded to examine visible minorities (though it is seen as an attack on the fundamentals of the French republic, which was to remain raceless after the revolution) will continue this dialogue. It is always intersting to do compartivie studies. Alsoin the post colonial world with the continued post colonial migration and France still having strong vested interests in many of her former colonies, the social interactions of race when whiteness is the norm will need to be addressed, as people can’t stay invisible forever and there is racism and discrimination in the hexagon.

One point Ndiaye did make though, is that, despite the lack of monolithic blackness one thing that has linked all black populations, transnationally and internationally is music. We all exchange music. I thought that was pretty awesome, considering I really got interested in France and the construction of identity because of the amazing hip hop and rap that was being produced in the 90s.

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