France is Getting Away with Murder
France seems to have escaped accountability for its systemic racism, repression and neocolonialist agendas. This should not happen.
France knows how to get away with murder. Western elites have long anointed the French as the epitome of finesse, liberalism and freedoms — the birthplace of enlightenment, the land of the cherished Laïcité . This image has thrived, despite blood and tears decorating every facet of French history. Emanuel Macron relies on the same flawed perceptions to position himself as a defender of liberty. The world needs to call his bluff, and make the French answerable for their undying love for racism and exclusion. Otherwise, we might witness the rise of a modern apartheid state in the heart of Europe.
Macron is rather open about his agenda. He said in a recent interview: “I do not like the word minority.” For sure he does not. And therein lies the problem. Forced assimilation and bulldozing of cultural and religious values of minorities (many of whom are descendants of quasi-slaves in French colonies) defines contemporary France. Instead of atoning for their past and present crimes, the French take pride in their actions. They cannot be racists, for they are the inventers of liberalism. Thus, French education minister Frédérique Vidal thinks she is championing freedom of expression by cracking down on the “import” of antiracist, “woke” ideas from American universities. And the western elite is happy to defend this witch hunt. The Wall Street Journal recently published an op-ed endorsing Macron’s liberal policies.
This pro-white, pro-elite solidarity should have limited takers these days. The world is slowly waking up to bitter truths about the republic. In secular France, Catholic churches receive generous public grants, while mosques are facing official crackdown. The authorities are also sending feelers on whether to ban Halal products. Next in line is “reforming” Islam, though initial attempts backfired when some Muslim organizations refused to become signatories to a controversial declaration. The apartheid bill is still expected to pass the senate, after breezing through the lower house.
It is not just the Muslims. Blacks have long complained of institutional racism. The banlieue residents no longer want to suffer in silence. They have witnessed decades of systemic discrimination, racism and exclusion. Instead of healing, the republic loves to rub salt on their wounds.
This smugness extends beyond the homeland. Macron has repeatedly refused to apologize for French atrocities in Algeria during the latter’s war of liberation. There were massive violations of human rights, mass killings, rapes and torture. As many as 1.5 million people lost their lives during this genocide. The French took human skulls as war trophies from colonial Africa and still display them, proudly, in their museums.
While other colonial powers never truly apologized for their sins, they at least display some superficial remorse. For the French, colonialism was a liberating mission that needs to be continued into the future. French exceptionalism and universalist ideas are virtues, not crimes. Apologize for what?
This collective psyche about racial superiority has dogged the French for long. They have combined militaristic secularism with quasi liberalist values, and demand global recognition. The world should deny them this laurel. France needs a major course correction, a grand national therapy of sorts. The world can help by boycotting the individuals and institutions that continue peddling racism. Empowering French minorities and highlighting their miseries can also help. Black and Arab French groups recently launched a class action law suit against the French police, a first of its kind, accusing them of using elaborate racial profiling. More such actions could come in the future, and on multiple grounds of discrimination. These voices need to be amplified in the global press.
Doing away with the perceptions of French cultural superiority can also help. Minorities in the western media are better suited for this job. They are not as encumbered by the myth of French exceptionalism as their white counterparts. They can empathize with the French minorities, having experienced similar problems. Writing about the banlieue, instead of Paris Fashion Week, sounds like a good idea.
P.S. France finally returned 24 of the 36 reported skulls belonging to Algerian freedom fighters in 2020. Algeria buried them with national honors but is still waiting for the balance that is lurking somewhere in France’s massive corpus of atrocities, genocides and oppression.
Photo by Mathias P.R. Reding on Unsplash