The Global Sociology Blog

In a previous post, commenter Outremer added two important data points related to the ways in which debates and controversy over contemporary French public policy are shaped by collective history. So, I’ll just reproduce them here:

"These issues have been profoundly in play, in similar and very different ways, in the French overseas departments (states) Martinique and Guadeloupe, where the vast majority is black, and where hostility towards whites is systematic and intense, as well as ignored, and usually is also often overcome by an overarching sense of equality and a set of very respectful manners that discounts race differences. Other factors here are the history of colonialism since 1600s, with some few thousands of surviving progeny who draw on their communal and ancestral ties with France, and strong local culture and language (creole which is not understood by most French). France has many proudly quasi-independent nationalities within (Basque, Corsican, Creole, etc.) which seem to coexist and partake of the French polity while continuing strong local traditions. I find that discrimination is encoded very differently here than in the US South, or US Northwest where I’ve lived most. I have been disappointed that here in Martinique, access to learning about local creole culture is starkly absent from the curriculum, and intercultural sharing is challenging if also accelerating by drinking rum together. Cultural traditions dissipate less when closed."

I think there are several dynamics at work and that not every ethnic group is treated the same. After all, Corsican nationalist groups (literally) get away with murder and systematic terrorism (not to mention all sorts of fraud and large-scale subsidizing by France and the EU) whereas French youth from North African descent get to experience the TLC from the anti-criminality brigades. The French state has always (for some incomprehensible reasons) accommodated the Corsicans but repressed "les jeunes de banlieues." Whiteness might be a factor along with the fact that Corsicans, for better and for worse, have a longer history with France (along with the misfortune of having produced Napoleon and his power and money-grabbing family).

Similarly, Britons and Basques have been largely treated with kid gloves with the exception of ETA in the latter’s case. Even though Basque nationalist have been subjected to extensive surveillance by the French state, one needs only consider their treatment by the Spanish state to see the difference. As for the Britons, well, in a country with such a strong tradition of centralized and national curriculum, they managed to get les écoles diwans.

Colonial territories such as Martinique and Guadeloupe are a different story altogether. Suffice to say here that nationalist (often racialized) demands are usually not kindly treated by the French state.

Outremer also added this:

"Of course I should have mentioned that there have been dramatic and intense strikes here that have demonstrated the local power of the unions; which also echo and draw strength from French and local cultural traditions of opposition and even more from ethnic politics of solidarity aggravated by ethnic discrimination. The entire economy here was shut down for well over a month (no schools, no gas, no postal service, no supermarkets or stores), until agreement was secured on lowering prices on common food items and on increasing salaries for the lowest paid workers."

It is indeed interesting that forms of protest use a well-known repertoire of contention in the French context: the labor strike.

And to add some more to this topic, this was in the news today:

Le Comité pour la mesure de la diversité installé, Politique – NouvelObs.com via kwout

It remains to be seen what this Committee for the Measurement of Diversity will actually measure and whether it will be able to detect forms of discrimination that have gone unnoticed before. I am glad though to see that Michel Wieviorka (current president of the International Sociological Association and very well-known sociologist) is part of the group.