Being black in France and in the United States : a comparison

Résumé du document

"Penser et agir par nous-mêmes et pour nous-mêmes, en Nègres..., accéder à la modernité sans piétiner notre authenticité". That is how the famous thinker of the "Négritude", Leopold Sendar Senghor, described the challenge that fell on black people in the whole world at the dawn of the 21st century. If the 20th century had been the time of fights for liberty against oppressions of any kind, the next era should leave its mark as the time of recognition and respect. The new awareness concerning black people must be developed in two contradictory ways, considering them as a whole community that has taken its revenge on history, racism and murderous stupidity, as well as a kaleidoscope of unique, different and equal individuals who seek, like everybody else, identity and consideration. This unavoidable dialectic makes the demands of black people complex and latent, all the more so, since they concern people that have been suffering from uncountable oppression during history and that still know discriminations. They also arise in countries that have very different conceptions of their minorities, and history, traditions of political philosophy and the burden of the past are combined to create a national policy for black people

Extraits

[...] Reports showed that 4,743 blacks were killed by lynching in the United States between 1882 and 1968, when the practice stopped, after a decade when it dwindled sharply. We can see that black had to wait for the Civil Rights Movement to win their total liberty. Before that, despite an official emancipation, the United States had showed schizophrenic policies that were mainly directed against black populations and that led to an explosion of resent held back for a long time. [...]

[...] That ideal of multiplicity and pluralism within American society is underpinned by the principle of tolerance, inherited of Locke's thought, and that we have already mentioned with Denis Lacorne. Still, we can say that multiculturalism is only an incomplete form of pluralism. Indeed, the latter is tantamount to a perfect “melting-pot” an ideal abandoned for long time in the United States- and to the respect of all differences in both public and private spheres. In that case, the hypothesis of a perfect equality of treatment between the communities must be verified. [...]

[...] With no access to universal healthcare, access to medical care in the United States depends on income level and employment status. Consequently, African-Americans, who are disproportionately poor and unemployed, are often more uninsured than non Hispanic whites or Asians[24]. For a great majority of African Americans, healthcare delivery is limited, or nonexistent. And when they receive healthcare, they are more likely than others in the general population to receive substandard, even injurious medical care. Besides, many inner hospitals have been closed recently and even when they remain open, access to care is denied. [...]

[...] They had to wait until the sixties to bring their legitimate demands of total liberation in the public space and to appropriate the individual rights that everyone should have. Now, in a country where the word "multiculturalism" is not a taboo, they apparently achieve to be equal to all American citizens in numerous fields and aspects, whereas some are still fighting to be recognized as unique because of their blackness. sola, o mores", the country of blindness equality is even more responsible for the claims of its black community considering its history. [...]

[...] They are sometimes even more deceitful than the greatest lies and cannot reflect the whole complexity of the issues. The accurate appreciation of the integration of black people in France is made very difficult thanks to a republican taboo that forbids distinguishing, even for objective statistical and scientific ends and under the cover of anonymity, the situation of the immigrants and of the citizens coming from the DOM-TOM with the one of the so-called French of “pure root”. Despite the recent debates on that question Nicolas Sarkozy giving very clearly his opinion on the subject, strongly advocated for the “ethic counting”, but certainly for reasons that are not ours-, that principle, graved in the marble of the Constitution seems to be absolute and unchallengeable[13]. [...]