Without a detailed examination of their current history and reality, Afros is losing its ability to integrate into society. In France, however, they see the autopsy as a “threat”.
Emmanuel Macron’s government had such a sharp turn to the right that it astonished even the representatives of the National Group (RN, for its acronym in French), the party that supports the far right in France.
Last week, French Interior Minister Gerald Dramanin suggested in a televised debate that RN leader Marine Le Pen was very “soft” about radical Islam. Le Pen’s expression after the comment was one of utter astonishment. The fact that Darmanin accused her – whose speech is well known for being populist and xenophobic – that she is not strong against Islam speaks to the way the Executive has fed on extremist positions to thank the more conservative electorate ahead of the presidential election. 2022.
In October 2020, Macron declared war on “Islamist separatism”, as the president christened “Islam’s attempts to dominate parts of the national territory and go against France”. This was sweet news for Islamophobia. Through the anti-separatism bill he introduced and passed on Tuesday, the president wants to reconfigure Islam practices in his nation to fit his view of “French Islam” which is supposed to reaffirm “France’s republican principles.” Its purpose, he explains, is to fight radical Islam and terrorism in this way, but the only thing this project manages to do is increase the stigma, hate speech and oppressive and authoritarian climate that Macron unleashed.
We recommend: France adopts law to combat Islamist radicalism
We must remember that Macron also presented The draft global security law which tried to prevent citizens from being abused by the police. France is facing an extremely controlling apparatus that Macron has tried to install on the grounds that it is best to protect “republican principles” such as freedom. And although the French have demonstrated against these government measures, the president’s office continues to put its finger on the pain. The latest controversy came from higher education minister Frederique Vidal, who wants to control studies on racism in France.
Demonstrations against systemic racism in the United States, after the death of George Floyd in 2020, echo in France, where they tried to ignore this issue. For several years, the United States, a country built on racism and slavery, like France, has been debating the implications of its past for today’s society. It is worth highlighting, for example, the autopsy carried out by the 1619 Project, which puts the consequences of slavery in the country at the center of the study and which seeks to be integrated into schools. But these American initiatives were not well interpreted by Vidal and Macron’s team, who described them as “a threat.”
Explains Macron’s struggle with “Islamic separatism”
The concept of “race” in France is a taboo that, for many politicians like Macron, tries to “divide the republic in two” between victims and culprits. Vidal understands it anyway, so he asked for an investigation into those who “look at everything in terms of the desire to fracture.” By this he meant researchers examining French colonialism and racism, whom he also called “activists.” “The investigation will determine what the research is and what activism and opinion are,” Vidal concluded.
This effort by the Ministry of Higher Education to control the examination of French colonialism and accuse American universities of “promoting dangerous leftist ideas” worries African scientists such as Mame-Fatou Niang, who points out that minority researchers have been considered activists throughout centuries, and this will only make them subject to greater control. On the other hand, he warned that this “purge at the academy” would cause a brain drain.
“French higher education has an excellent reputation in US doctoral schools where very strong, well-known and serious researchers would be trained. Undoubtedly, bleeding and brain drain will increase with such actions. This is your goal. Evacuation of critical thinking, “said Niang, who was attacked by French lawmakers for alleged” ideological excesses. “
France has always had a problem with the history of its colonialism. It is as sensitive a subject as slavery for the United States. And this translates into a huge problem for minorities. The French government, unlike other Western nations, does not officially keep statistics on race or religion, for example. But you can’t have a conversation about inequality without understanding race, its history, and its context. Without a detailed examination of their past and present reality, Afros loses its ability to integrate into society.
“The inability to shed light on that past maintains the racism and impunity of the police or the impunity of those who make decisions, at work or in homes, on physical grounds, and denies the rights of black or Arab French,” said Karfa Diallo, founder of Mémoires et Partages. born in Senegal New York Times.
In French universities, some academics have formed a group known as the “Observatory of Decolonialism and Identity Ideologies” in order to address what they consider to be an “unhealthy approach to race and identity in academia.” But all these initiatives come against a government’s reluctance to examine its mistakes while flirting with far-right voters, who want such a story unchecked and pass laws to protect the smell of manure, rather than measures to review systemic racism.
You may be interested in: Afros is also attacking France