Disrupting Whiteness in Contemporary France
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Disrupting Whiteness in Contemporary France A Radical, Multifaceted and Intersectional Approach to (De)Constructing French Identity Lise Lalonde A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy University of Washington 2018 Reading Committee: Maya Smith, Chair Richard Watts Nancy Bou-Ayash Program Authorized to Offer Degree: The French & Italian Studies Department ©Copyright 2018 Lise Lalonde University of Washington Abstract Disrupting Whiteness in Contemporary France A Radical, Multifaceted and Intersectional Approach to (De)Constructing French Identity Lise Lalonde Chair of the Supervisory Committee: Maya Smith French & Italian Studies Department This dissertation aims at making visible the pervasiveness of white supremacy in contemporary France. In order to do so, I deconstruct French national identity by critically engaging with the French Republic’s universalist and colorblind stance. In the first section, I take stock of France’s knowledge production on questions of identity, identifying problems in the conflation of race with immigration studies and noticing the relative absence of racial studies. In the second section, I consider the ways in which the French education system is an ideological apparatus of forceful inclusion by analyzing issues of knowledge production and destruction within the French education system. In the third section, I discuss the racialization of religion in France and historicize the concept of laïcité, France's word for its brand of secularism, in order to show how it has become a technology to oppress Muslims and perceived Muslims in France. In the fourth section, I am focused on issues of representation, recognition and state antiracism in France, questioning and historicizing the French colorblind antiracist institutions through an analysis of two critically acclaimed films, Intouchables and Bande de filles. In the last section, I look at the place of language in the construction of French identity. I discuss how it became such an essential aspect of French identity by looking at its colonial context, and I address what that context might mean for non-white, non-heteronormative contemporary French speakers. TABLE OF CONTENTS PREFACE ................................................................................................................................................. 1 1. INTRODUCTION: FRENCH KNOWLEDGE PRODUCTION ON QUESTIONS OF IDENTITY ............................ 4 THE MYTH OF COLORBLIND FRANCE .................................................................................................................... 4 ACADEMIA’S ROLE IN THE CONSTRUCTION AND PERPETUATION OF THIS MYTH .......................................................... 13 ON IMMIGRATION ......................................................................................................................................... 23 FROM SOCIAL TO RACIAL/RACIST IN FRENCH SCHOLARSHIP ................................................................................... 27 WHITENESS STUDIES IN FRANCE ....................................................................................................................... 34 ISLAMOPHOBIA ............................................................................................................................................. 38 INSTRUMENTALIZING NATIONAL IDENTITY .......................................................................................................... 44 LE COMMUNAUTARISME ................................................................................................................................. 47 A PROJECT INVESTED IN THE WORK OF DECOLONIZING ......................................................................................... 51 THE MAP OF THIS PROJECT .............................................................................................................................. 55 BIBLIOGRAPHY 1 ........................................................................................................................................... 57 2. EPISTEMIC RACISM IN/OF THE FRENCH EDUCATION SYSTEM ............................................................ 64 THE INVISIBILITY OF WHITENESS IN THE EDUCATION SYSTEM ................................................................................ 67 Selective Universalism ......................................................................................................................... 68 Whose Objectivity ............................................................................................................................... 75 Knowledge Transmission .................................................................................................................... 79 NATIONALISM, RACISM AND THE VIOLENCE OF EPISTEMICIDES .............................................................................. 87 La culture humaniste ........................................................................................................................... 87 The Violence of Making White ............................................................................................................. 95 EPISTEMICIDES AND THEIR IMPLICATIONS: POLITICAL CONSIDERATIONS .................................................................. 100 Epistemicides in the Name of the National Ideal ............................................................................... 100 On Colonial Denial ............................................................................................................................. 104 CONCLUSION: ON THE NEED FOR DECOLONIZING FRANCE’S EDUCATION SYSTEM ..................................................... 100 BIBLIOGRAPHY 2 ......................................................................................................................................... 100 3. ISLAMOPHOBIA IN LAÏCITÉ: THE RACIALIZATION OF RELIGION IN FRANCE ....................................... 120 ONE DEFINITION, COMPETING INTERPRETATIONS .............................................................................................. 123 THE ‘BATTLE’ FOR SECULAR FRANCE STAGED BY THE MEDIA ................................................................................ 126 LOVE AND HATE IN/FOR THE REPUBLIC ............................................................................................................ 130 La France, on l’aime ou on la quitte .................................................................................................... 130 The Muslim Veil as ‘Sticky’ Object ...................................................................................................... 135 Laïcité as a Sticky Concept .................................................................................................................. 138 ON SELECTIVE INTEGRATION AND BOUNDARY MAKING ....................................................................................... 142 The Willful Muslim Woman ................................................................................................................ 142 La femme ‘libérée’ in the Service of White Patriarchal Supremacy ................................................... 144 The Limits of Diversity & State Antiracism .......................................................................................... 148 WHITE SOLIDARITY & THE CONSTRUCTION OF THE MUSLIM TERRORIST ................................................................. 154 Predatory Identities ............................................................................................................................ 154 On Corrupted Solidarity: “Je suis Charlie” ........................................................................................... 160 CONCLUSION: LAÏCITÉ, FRANCE’S BRAND OF ISLAMOPHOBIA ................................................................................ 162 BIBLIOGRAPHY 3 ......................................................................................................................................... 166 APPENDIX .................................................................................................................................................. 173 4. WHITE STORIES ABOUT BLACK PEOPLE: ON REPRESENTATION AND STATE ANTIRACISM IN FRANCE ................................................................. 174 IT IS 100% ABOUT RACE ............................................................................................................................... 176 Intouchables (2011) ............................................................................................................................ 176 Bande de filles (2015) ......................................................................................................................... 180 NEOCOLONIAL PRACTICES AT WORK IN INTOUCHABLES AND BANDE DE FILLES .......................................................... 185 Assimilation & De-historicization ........................................................................................................ 185 On State Violence ............................................................................................................................... 191 Brown Patriarchy on Trial in Bande de filleS ...................................................................................... 198 Economic Violence & Hypervisibility in InTouchableS ........................................................................