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Randall Kennedy Portrait D'un Intellectuel Noir Décalé

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Randall Kennedy Portrait D'un Intellectuel Noir Décalé ART PRESS 2 NOV 12/JAN 13 8 RUE FRANCOIS-VILLON Trimestriel 75015 PARIS - 01 53 68 65 65 Surface approx. (cm²) : 2802 Page 1/7 RANDALL KENNEDY PORTRAIT D'UN INTELLECTUEL NOIR DÉCALÉ SYLVIE LAURENT Lorsque Randall Kennedy publie Nigger en 2003, il marque une date clé de l'historiographie afro-américaine et rompt, dans le même souffle, avec une carrière jusqu'alors conventionnelle de professeur de droit de la très exclusive université d'Harvard. Ne dans un Sud raciste (la Caroline du Sud) ou les Noirs ne pouvaient boire aux mêmes fontaines que les Blancs, Randal! Kennedy s'est émancipe du racisme et de sa propre colere en suivant une scola- rité brillante dans des ecoles majoritairement blanches (l'école privee St-Albans de Washington puis l'université de Princeton) ou il se forme a la pensée qui lui apparaît rapidement comme la plus conforme a sa quête d'équilibre et de réconciliation le droit Juriste reconnu, il est un des rares Noirs a pénétrer le sem des seins la Harvard Law School ll rejoint la f acuity (c'est-a dire le corps profes- soral) de l'emmente institution en 1984 ou son enseignement portera sur les questions raciales et la loi aux États-Unis1 Ses publications nombreuses et prestigieuses confortent une position unanime- ment saluée parmi ses pairs La publication, en 2002, de son livre le plus célèbre-en raison d'un titre qui scandalisa-, Nigger The Strange Career of a Tmublesome Word, change radicalement le cours de sa trajectoire profes- sionnelle en consacrant une etude polémique au mot le plus infamant et le plus insupportable aux oreilles des Noirs américains, il gagne une notoriété qui dépasse largement les cercles universitaires maîs lui aliène dans le même temps une bonne partie de l'élite afro américaine Randall Kennedy entre alors sur la scene du debat racial aux Etats-Unis et l'on voit en lui le chantre du conservatisme Cette tension originelle, dialectique peut être, est a l'image de sa carriere entière une alternance, com plementaire a ses yeux, entre une reflexion académique profonde et engagée sur les logiques raciales a l'œuvre dans la societe (incarcération, processus électoral, adoption, amour interracial ) et des incursions revendiquées sur les terres de la controverse mtellec- tuelle qui ne l'intimida jamais Randall Kennedy est a ce titre l'un des mtel- lectuels les plus stimulants de l'Ame- nc|ue con1;emPoraine brisant avec délectation l'image d'Epinal de l'um- versitaire noir-américain «liberal»2, «oblige de sa communaute» Lorsque Randall Kennedy entame sa carriere universitaire, les temps sont encore marques par les guerres cul- turelles nees des annees 1960 Les campus américains, et les départe- ments de droit singulièrement, sont en proie a de violentes polémiques raciales au début des annees 1990, le debat faisant rage autour du « multi- culturalisme» et de son application Randall Kennedy au monde universitaire d'un bout a (©u Gunther/sipa TEMPLON Eléments de recherche : GALERIE DANIEL TEMPLON : à Paris 3ème, toutes citations 3211524300508/GFS/AZR/2 ART PRESS 2 NOV 12/JAN 13 8 RUE FRANCOIS-VILLON Trimestriel 75015 PARIS - 01 53 68 65 65 Surface approx. (cm²) : 2802 Page 2/7 I autre du pays les representants des minorités (sexuelles ou ethniques) reclament un de centrement des enseignements qui sont selon eux prisonniers d'une logique de domination blanche et mascu- line Ils reclament non seulement la creation de départements multiculturels (d etudes afro améri- caines, féministes ou gays et lesbiennes) maîs aussi le recrutement de professeurs incarnant la diversite américaine Certains soutiennent alors qu'il existe une façon de percevoir le monde et de l'enseigner propres aux universitaires de couleur et qu'il faut qu elle soit promue jusque dans les bas lions les plus recules du conservatisme universitaire Les ecoles de droit ne sont pas les moindres exemples de ce conservatisme elitiste3 et la nomination de Randall Kennedy a Harvard doit se lire a cette lumiere Or, d emblée, ce dernier s'est désolidarise de cette vision « racialisee» des competences etde I impératif multiculturel Des 1989, dans un article de \aHarvard Law Review, il pourfend les avo- cats de cette these au nom d'un humanisme « aveugle a la race » (colorblind), affirmant qu'aucun de leurs arguments sur la discrimination a l'œuvre n est etaye réfutant de surcroît I argument de la valeur ajoutee intellectuelle apportée par un representant des minorités4 Cette charge positionne imme diatement et radicalement Randall Kennedy dans le camp des conservateurs et, pire encore, des Noirs déloyaux qui trahissent leurs freres de couleur En america n, on leur donne un nom se/tout dont Ken nedy, lui qui entendit souvent cette cruelle accusation, étudiera toutes les connotations dans un ouvrage eponyme de 2008 DE L'INDIFFÉRENCE RACIALE Son premier ouvrage, Race, Crime and the Law5, publie dix ans plus tard, est une dénonciation impi- toyable du mécanisme délétère qui mené a une surrepresentation des hommes de couleur dans les prisons américaines quinze ans avant le meurtre de Treyvon Martin, il affirme que si les Noirs consti tuent 44,8% des hommes incarcères aux Etats Unis alors qu'ils ne sont que 12% de la population totale e est a cause d une hyper pénalisation de la délinquance urbaine elle même liee a une peur paranoïaque savamment entretenue de l'homme noir americain L'ouvrage, salue par le prix Robert F Kennedy pose Randall Kennedy comme un universitaire résolument progressiste pionnier dans la dénonciation des permanences du racisme institutionnalise aux Etats-Unis Maîs, ici encore son approche rompt avec le ton militant et indigne de ceux qui, tels Jesse Jackson ou Al Sharpton6, accu- sent alors tout policier blanc d'être un raciste en uniforme ll pose, au contraire, comme préalable a son argumentation, que les hommes noirs commettent proportionnellement plus de crimes que les Blancs et qu'un certain degré de discrimination lors des arrestations, peut être juge « rationnel » ll démontre que c'est en réalité une attitude nocive, non seulement pour les Noirs maîs pour l'ensem- ble du systeme judiciaire americain a force d'injustices pénales et de violences policières non punies, l'amertume des Afro Américains progresse et nuit a la cohesion nationale Sans mettre en avant la moindre « fierté noire » ou « colere noire » propre a l'époque, Randall Kennedy se fait l'avocat de l'indifférence raciale et plaide, en somme, pour une societe post raciale En avance d une gene- ration, il paiera le prix de sa modération en étant souvent cloue au pilori par I intelligentsia noire Cette derniere exprima sa réprobation avec force invectives, en deux occasions marquantes de la vie intellectuelle audacieuse de Randall Kennedy lors de la publication de Nigger The Strange Careerofa Troublesome Word1, son ouvrage phare de 2002 et, six ans plus tard, lorsqu il publie Sel- /out8 Dans Nigger, il propose une analyse academ que brillante et pionnière d'un mot tabou, syno- nyme d'oppression et d'humiliation pour les Noirs américains Si I apport scientifique de l'ouvrage n est pas mis en cause, I inscription de ce terme-stigmate en couverture du livre et l'ouverture d'un debat public autour de deux syllabes que I on n'ose plus vraiment prononcer ont choque A contre- temps, Randall Kennedy y propose une reflexion dépassionnée et constructive pour progresser vers l'harmonie raciale, refusant de diaboliser ce mot en réalité riche d'ambivalences et d'ambiguïtés, telles que la litterature, la comedie ou la musique l'ont illustre Sur un sujet aussi polémique, son centrisme lui attire de nouveau les foudres des plus radicaux On l'accuse, entre autres, de sensationnalisme et de démagogie raciale Même ses collègues d Harvard le condamnent Le plus remarquable sans doute, est que malgre la virulence et I injustice de ces attaques. Ken- nedy a poursuivi ses collaborations auprès d'institutions ouvertement progressistes tels The Nation, Dissent ou The American Prospect, se définissant sans ambages comme un ntellectuel de gauche sans pour autant renoncer a prendre des positions bien différentes de celles que l'on attendrait d'un intellectuel noir liberal Lorsqu'il défend la figure honnie de Clarence Thomas, juge noir de la Cour suprême, dans son livre de 2008, il suscite de nouveau la controverse Clarence Thomas, hostile aux politiques à'affirmative action -de reparation pour les injustices faites aux Noirs (alors que lui même TEMPLON Eléments de recherche : GALERIE DANIEL TEMPLON : à Paris 3ème, toutes citations 3211524300508/GFS/AZR/2 ART PRESS 2 NOV 12/JAN 13 8 RUE FRANCOIS-VILLON Trimestriel 75015 PARIS - 01 53 68 65 65 Surface approx. (cm²) : 2802 Page 3/7 en a certainement bénéficié)-est devenu, pour nombre de gens de couleur, l'incarnation du «traître a sa race » • sellout Or, répond Kennedy, ce qualificatif insultant ne devrait pas s'appliquer à Thomas -il lui reconnaît le droit de défendre des positions conservatrices, n'en déplaise aux tenants d'une cause noire univoque, et refuse l'argument de la déloyauté dont il a lui-même éte victime tout au long de sa carriere Libre-penseur, Kennedy refuse de taire les errances et les prisons discursives dans les- quelles les Noirs eux-mêmes s'enferment en se discriminant les uns les autres, en accusant de traî- trise celui des Afro-Américains qui, par sa réussite sociale ou sa position de franc-tireur, ne complaît pas à la majorité LAMOUR IME VOIT PAS LA RACE ll n'est pas exagéré de lire la carrière et le travail de Randall Kennedy comme un signe avant-courrier de l'arrivée de Ba rack Obama sur la scène politique
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