Description
Book SynopsisIn
Black France / France Noire, scholars, activists, and novelists address the paradox of race in France: the state does not acknowledge race as a meaningful category, but experiences of antiblack racism belie claims of color-blindness.
Trade Review"
Black France / France Noire is the most comprehensive and urgent anthology regarding the questions of citizenship and belonging in France since Pierre Bourdieu's
The Weight of the World. There's also a salutary combination of scholarly and personal narratives in this book, which elevates it to the stature of a groundbreaking manifesto, the controversial nature of which will be discussed for years to come."—
Manthia Diawara, author of
African Film: New Forms of Aesthetics and Politics"
Black France / France Noire is the most recent and best record of an ongoing and important international scholarly conversation on issues of color, race, ethnicity, exclusion, and belonging. With essays by both French and American scholars, the collection addresses some deeply challenging questions about how prejudice manifests itself in French life. Some of the French contributors are hesitant to employ ethnic categories, as is the case in the United States, as ways to speak of identity, justice, and injustice in French society. But most of them realize that to eliminate color prejudice in France they must talk about color. This collection is essential reading for scholars who study France, Europe, and the politics of racial discourse more broadly."—
Herman Lebovics, author of
Imperialism and the Corruption of Democracies"Black skin may be officially invisible to France's government bureaucrats, statistics-gatherers, and devotees of French republicanism, but as a lived experience, blackness in France is very real. People of color routinely endure discrimination and find it difficult to gain full acceptance as French. Race matters in France, and the more that people talk and write about it, the more salient a social and political phenomenon race and racism in 'color-blind' France becomes.
Black France / France Noire makes a major contribution by directly addressing experiences of blackness and anti-blackness in France."—
Edward Berenson, author of
Heroes of Empire: Five Charismatic Men and the Conquest of Africa"In
Black France / France Noire, leading thinkers and intellectuals raise challenging questions about how France's history of slavery and colonization, and immigration from its former colonies, are shaping the important, increasingly public discourse about blackness and racism."—
Valérie K. Orlando, author of
Francophone Voices of the "New" Morocco in Film and Print: (Re)presenting a Society in Transition“This volume makes an important claim for the field of Black French studies as a bridge between constructions of Black identity in France to African American studies…. It is my hope that this particular approach will contribute to a deepening historical and cultural address to the complex implications of black Diasporic subjectivity.” -- Peter J. Bloom * French History *
“
Black France/France Noire is a must read for any serious scholar of Black French Studies, or indeed, of Black European Studies. This text could also be successfully employed in undergraduate and graduate seminars.” -- Julin Everett * Contemporary French Civilization *
“
Black France / France Noire offers a valuable snapshot of the vexed status of blackness in present-day France and illuminating historical genealogies for its reemergence and significance.” -- Alexander G. Weheliye * Black Scholar *
“
Black France / France Noire: The History and Politics of Blackness… uses a nuanced approach to discuss and problematize variously identified questions by relying on solid contributions from a diverse group of authors to form a well-rounded interpretation of race issues in France…. It offers an ideal introduction to complicated issues involved in formulating a black French identity. It skillfully combines theoretical analyses with personal narratives and historical accounts and represents a meaningful contribution to black French studies.” -- Yasmina Muthoki Martin * Africa Today *
“The collection, as a whole, is dense but richly rewarding….
Black France/France Noir shows how the past has shaped present outcomes, debates, and difficulties in France but does not draw overly simplistic conclusions or too-easy morality stories. These features, along with the methodological richness of the collection, make it an important read for scholars of France, the French empire, and the black Atlantic. They also make it a strong candidate, almost mandatory reading, for any graduate seminar on modern France, the black Atlantic, or empire.” -- Rachel Anne Gillett * History: Reviews of New Books *
Table of ContentsForeword. Black . . . A Color? A Kaleidoscope! / Christiane Taubira ix
Acknowledgments xv
Introduction. Blackness Matters, Blackness Made to Matter / Trica Danielle Keaton, T. Denean Sharpley-Whiting, and Tyler Stovall 1
Part I. Theorizing and Narrating Blackness and Beloning
Black France: Myth or Reality?: Problems of Identity and Identification / Elisabeth Mudimbe-Boyi 17
The Lost Territories of the Republic: Historical Narratives and the Recomposition of French Citizenship / Mamadou Diouf 32
Eurafrique as the Future Past of Black France: Sarkozy's Temporal Confusion and Senghor's Postwar Vision / Gary Wilder 57
Letter to France / Alain Mabanckou 88
French Impressionism / Jake Lamar 96
Part II. The Politics of Blackness—Politicizing Blackness
The Invention of Blacks in France / Patrick Lozès 103
Immigration and National Identity in France / Dominic Thomas 110
"Black France" and the National Identity Debate: How Best to Be Black and French? / Fred Constant 123
Paint It "Black": How Africans and Afro-Caribbeans Became "Black" in France / Rémy Bazenguissa-Ganga 145
The "Question of Blackness" and the Memory of Slavery: Invisibility and Forgetting as Voluntary Fire and Some Pyromaniac Firefighters / Michel Giraud 173
Part III. Black Paris—Black France
The New Negro in Paris: Booker T. Washington, the New Negro, and the Paris Exposition of 1900 / Marcus Bruce 207
The Militant Black Men of Marseille and Paris, 1927–1937 / Jennifer Boittin 221
Reflections on the Future of Black France: Josephine Baker's Vision of a Global Village / Bennetta Jules-Rosette 247
Site-ing Black Paris: Discourses and the Making of Identities / Arlette Frund 269
Coda: Black Identity in France in a European Perspective / Allison Blakely 287
About the Contributors 307
Index 311
