Racism in France: The Civilizing Mission of Whiteness

211 Pages Posted: 16 Nov 2009

See all articles by Tony S. Juge

Tony S. Juge

affiliation not provided to SSRN

Date Written: November 13, 2009

Abstract

Race and racism in France remain difficult topics to address in France. The language used to refer to discrimination does not really allow for any in-depth discussion about race. While it is widely accepted that race should not be understood biologically, the social realities of race are all but absent from any national discussions in France. I contend that this is in part due to whiteness. France has shied away from its racist and colonial past. Through a series of open-ended surveys followed by interviews, it was revealed that race is indeed part of the everyday understandings of how white French individuals construct their realities. The language used to explain who is French, how to integrate, and what is racism about contributes to the reproduction of a historicist racial state whereby whites maintain their hegemony. Racism continues to be understood as an individual problem and very few respondents were able to talk about the institutional effects of French social institutions on people of color. I argue in this research project that whiteness, a set of privileges awarded to whites consciously or unconsciously, contributes to an unnamed hegemonic oppression that is reproduced at the micro- and macro- levels and is expressed by whites through the lack of racial awareness. This unnamed but very real hegemonic oppression is also represented by the double-consciousness developed by people of color. Their social and racial experiences are seldom acknowledged because the French discourse about race remains centered on its social nonexistence. Many of the participants in this research showed their Eurocentric and white bias through use of language expressing that being part of a racial group was not linked to their position in French society but rather just as physical attributes carrying no social meanings. They also used many different terms which had no racial meanings on the surface but which in the socio-historical and legal context of French society meant that being French was equated with white, and foreigners, immigrants, visible minorities with people of color. Whiteness, embodied in the racial state, remains the norm by which people of color have historically been civilized by, and today’s France is no exception.

Keywords: race, racism, france, whiteness, white privilege

Suggested Citation

Juge, Tony S., Racism in France: The Civilizing Mission of Whiteness (November 13, 2009). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1505644 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1505644

Tony S. Juge (Contact Author)

affiliation not provided to SSRN ( email )

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