Critical Voices in Critical Times
An Interview with Mireille Fanon Mendes France
on race, Islam, social transformation
Are Muslims in France becoming racialized in a way similar to people of African descent?
-They try to change the narrative of the structural racism
saying there is no more structural racism
"We are not racist."
But at all levels of society there is an expression of structural racism
And they try to deny that be inventing a new category of "metisse" people.
metisse means half-breed, metissage is crossbreeding
Even if is they agree to say all of us are coming from Africa, but that's all
Africa does not have culture or traditions
Africans just emerged to the modern world when the colonizers arrived
It's terrible but it's exactly what it is in the minds of the people.
and it's very deeply rooted.
With people of Muslim origin it's something different,
because they cannot invent a new category. They are stigmatized regarding their religion.
This Islamophobia is coming from the history of Europe,
and particularly of France.
I remember I was a literature teacher in a school in Paris, in a very close suburb of Paris .
A long time ago, almost 20 years ago.
And if you were aware of who you have in front of you,
you could count that more and more young people with a migrant
or refugee background, were in the classroom.
and of course all these young people grew up.
The profile of the French population changed, totally changed.
And they did not pay attention.
Suddenly the discovered, "Oh my God! We are not anymore, a country with French roots!:
In fact it means white roots, white.
I'm sure here in the Luxenbourg Garden,
If we ask anybody, if we make an inquiry,
I'm sure a lot of them have Muslim or Arab surnames.
They refuse to see that.
Their only concern is to keep the white supremacy intact.
They try to consider these French people because, all of them are French...
Of course, they are born in France...
they can get French citizenship by blood.
And they have their own traditions.
They are coming from outside of France and they have their traditions.
And the French people, the different French governments,
refuse to take into consideration these traditions.
They totally ignore these traditions.
They consider all these people, these French people, not as citizens,
but through their religion.
They don't see the French population other than Christian, white Christian.
With the Eurocentric perspective,
and Eurocentric culture.
They cannot admit that because they are the first in the world.
And they refused to see this change and now they're surprised
Because all these people are there, they want their place.
They want work, they want to have fun, they want to buy, they want to live!
The person of Muslim origin is targeted as the enemy.
And for that they have a very good reason, terrorism.
But the don't want to ask who is building the terrorism, and for what?
They cannot breath in this country.
They cannot live, they are not allowed to live.
Do you see parallels between the situation of Muslims in France and African Americans in the United States?
We could make some parallels but not completely.
Because the situation for African-American, and I know the situation pretty well...
the working group of People of African Descent of the UN made a country visit...
The situation is really more violent and difficult in the U.S.
Of course we have police violence here...
We have the death of young people, but not at the same level.
We don't have Jim Crow, we never had segregation.
I read the book by Michelle Alexander, "The New Jim Crow"
We don't have such laws.
Of course we have some laws affecting parts of the society, but not at the level as the U.S.
It's absolutely terrible.
In the U.S. there is really institutional violence against African Americans
Here, we cannot say that.
Of course, when they wee a black person in the street they are suspicious.
But they don't arrest systematically.
But of course, it's not a reason to not try to build international movements,
If we don't defeat the racial racialism, and therefore the structural racism,
we will never get the opportunity for social transformation.
Because it is the basis of the system
Your late father-in-law the politician Pierre Mendes France, has a statue here in the Luxenbourg Garden. Can you show us?
He was a real socialist.
Not like the socialists are now.
He was shorter than me.
You see, Pierre Mendes France
Interviewed, shot and edited by Linda Herrera
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