Hacker Cinema
Un racisme à peine voilé
2004 · Film · documentary · 75 min
Directed by Jérôme Host
October 2003, Alma and Lila Levy are excluded from the Lycée Henri Wallon in Aubervilliers solely because they were wearing a headscarf. What follows is a deafening political and media debate, justifying in most cases the exclusion of girls wearing head-scarves to school. February 2004, a law was eventually passed by the National Assembly. "A thinly veiled racism" is about this controversy since the affair of Creil in 1989 (where two schoolgirls were excluded for the same reasons) and attempts to "reveal" that maybe what hides behind is the desire to exclude these girls. This film gives them a voice as well as others - teachers, community activists, feminists, researchers - gathered around the group "A School for You-All" fighting for the repeal of this law they consider sexist and racist ... This movie was censured in Septembre 2004 in France.
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> The state does not oppress muslims
In France, yes of course. And it's not exactly a new thing. In several colonies, the "indigenous" used to have a special non-citizen status such as "Français Musulman d'Algérie". As part of the colonial enterprise, France ran "unveiling campaigns" for muslim women [0].
Lately, the laws against religious symbols claim all religions are treated equally, but:
- they are advertised as a means to fight against islamic terrorism (apparently a piece of cloth is terrorist propaganda in some people's views), therefore explicitly targeting islam
- as another commenter pointed out, wearing a christian cross around your neck would very rarely if ever get you into trouble; many people in France will defend the idea that it's not the same, because France supposedly has judeo-christian roots [1]
Likewise, the laws against covering your face in public space voted under Sarkozy did not mention islam; however the entire campaign and debate around them was centered on veiled muslim women as islamist propagandist and potential terrorist. If you don't think that's a fair interpretation (???), the burkini case [2] is even more obvious and more widely documented in the english-speaking world.
The ban of young muslim girls from schools started in the 80s with "far-left" (marxist-leninist) teachers whose anti-religious ideas led them to battle for young girls to be kicked out of school. The excellent documentary "Un racisme à peine voilé" [3] from 2004 explains the roots of this topic uniting some parts of the far left and most of the far right, and the logical fallacy behind their reasoning:
- the teachers painted these young girls as victims of islamic indoctrination and male domination, so they need access to secular public education to become free individuals
- because they're refusing to remove their clothing, we'll get kicked them out of school so they don't receive education and remain "victims" of islamic patriarchy [4]
This also raises the question: who does our body belong to? By claiming to prevent muslim patriarchs from controlling women's bodies, we end up giving power to the police to control women's bodies. How is a morality police requiring you get more cloth (such as in Iran) any different from a morality police requiring you remove more cloth (like in France)? In both cases, the patriarchal establishment has empowered an armed force to dictate women's clothing.
In 2005, after the police hunted down two innocent teenagers (Zyed & Bouna, who were coming back home from a football game during ramadan) until they died in an electric power station [5], there were huge riots across France to denounce police brutality and racism. The population was upset because not only did the police generate this situation, but when they saw the young people climb into the power station, instead of calling for electrical/medical help (there were safety procedures available to shut down the station), they called for police reinforcements and made jokes about them dying on the radio with their colleagues; the two youngsters died 10 minutes later. Three days later, just as the riots were cooling down, the police in Clichy-sous-Bois threw a teargas canister inside a local mosque [6], triggering a new wave of outrage and riots.
We could take a long time to discuss the racist doctrines permeating french public life, the emergence of the "great replacement" [7] far-right narrative in public discourse and how it fueled terrorist actions across the globe [8], how public television gave tribune to Eric Zemmour for years to spill his racism over the air (until he defended the idea of deporting muslims from France [9]), how the attacks on Charlie Hebdo and Hyper Cacher fueled a new wave of islamophobic attacks and further entrenched the far-right ("riposte laïque") definition of secularism as absence of religion (not neutrality of State in matters of religion as was the original definition) in public State discourse and proposed laws, etc.
But i'm no historian and i've given you enough to read so let's just take a minute to mention recent developments. The french government has banned (without a decision from a judge) a french human-rights non-profit providing legal council and information of anti-muslim discrimination and hate crimes (CCIF) [10]. The government also closed down (without a decision from a judge) dozens of mosques [11] across France.
We've been here before in history. Please read about the 1930s in Europe and how Jews were treated, and take lessons from the past so we don't end up in a new genocide. In particular, you can see how left-wing anti-clericals were mostly insensitive to the oppression of Jews because it was about "religion not race". History repeats itself. The "Islamophobia in France" [12] page in Wikipedia is very incomplete. I hope we can find time to improve it.
[0] https://fpif.org/deep-colonial-roots-frances-unveiling-muslim-women/
[1] That's arguably true, if we put aside the fact that the catholic church systematically oppressed and eradicated all other cultures and religions for centuries (except for the jews, who apart from specific periods of extermination, were discriminated from most jobs but were not assimilated into christianity).
[2] https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/can-europe-make-it/defending-indefensible-france-burkini-affair-and-further-mainstre/
[3] https://invidious.fdn.fr/watch?v=6lPxYYmio38
[4] I personally don't agree with this interpretation that all veiled women are victims of the patriarchy; it defies my experiences exchanging and engaging in political activities with veiled muslim women, many of whom identify with feminist politics
[5] https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2005/11/14/timeline-france-riots/
[6] https://www.versobooks.com/blogs/3507-the-colonial-gas-machine-teargas-grenades-secular-humanist-police-and-the-intoxication-of-racialized-lives
[7] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Replacement
[8] https://foreignpolicy.com/2019/03/16/the-inspiration-for-terrorism-in-new-zealand-came-from-france-christchurch-brenton-tarrant-renaud-camus-jean-raspail-identitarians-white-nationalism/
[9] https://www.rt.com/news/216703-television-muslims-deported-france/
[10] https://blogs.cuit.columbia.edu/rightsviews/2021/05/14/macron-laicite-and-a-fight-for-the-rights-of-french-muslims/
[11] https://www.rt.com/news/508562-france-76-mosques-closure-darmanin-extremism/
[12] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islamophobia_in_France
> France has a Gini coefficient in line with other OECD countries.
We could debate whether Gini is a good measurement, but we'll probably agree that in any case it could be better? We have resources to house and feed all, yet people die from cold/heat on the streets or from lack of food, in france, in 2021.
>> one of the most racist countries on earth
> Citation needed.
I don't have a scientific measurement of it. However, it's not exactly a secret France has a long history of colonization and racial hierarchies, and using "women's rights" as a decoy for oppressing foreign people. So not only it's racist, but it's not "just" lightweight xenophobia as you would find in many places.
As for a direct quote saying France is the most racist country on Earth, i would refer to this short documentary about the struggles of undocumented people: https://youtube.com/watch?v=MMgxpU5Jyv4 (to watch with your favorite invidious instance)
EDIT: There was also a nationwide debate about a decade ago about removing equality of races from the constitution, arguably because since races don't exist biologically they should not be mentioned. That should be a redflag.
> I don't see how that's racist. No religious symbol are allowed in school, even christian cross are banned.
Denying people their identity is racist. Or fascist, whichever you prefer. Also, on paper, no religious symbols are allowed, but in practice christian symbols are widely accepted and only muslim symbols cause "problems". That's what's especially racist about it.
Laïcité (secularism) is the principle which states the State cannot mandate what you must or must not believe. Under pressure from the "far left" (teachers unions) and the far right ("ripost laïque", "génération identitaire"), the word has been redefined to mean that you cannot have displays of religion in public spaces (unless they're christian displays). That's the exact opposite of the content/spirit of the 1905 law of separation of Church and State which i strongly recommend you to read. The documentary "Un racisme à peine voilé" may also offer you some perspectives on this topic to see beyond the newspeak.
> Why would residing in a country grant you citizenship?
It's in the etymology: citizenship is derived from the "city" where you reside, unless you're a slave in which case you don't have such status. It's only natural that you enjoy political rights wherever you live your life, don't you think?
Most countries have provisions for granting citizenship to foreigners. The french conditions are tough and require to know quite a lot about the (imperial, not popular) history of France and show allegiance to the authoritarian principles of the State typical of a far-right agenda. As a french person with anarchist politics, i could not pass the test (same goes with many other french people).