2023-07-04 09:00:00
Should we still be surprised at the articles charged to the New York Times against France? For several years, the American daily has seen French secularism as a form of racism that it hastens to criticize. Universalism? The newspaper prefers an identityist approach. He thus considers the death of Nahel, killed by a police officer on June 27 during a roadside check, as well as the riots that followed, as a debate on “race and identity”. Monday, July 3, the New York Times nevertheless surprised by operating in an article a questionable connection between the death of Nahel and the banning of the hijab in women’s football, confirmed by the Council of State on June 29.
For its correspondent in Paris, it is neither more nor less than “two faces of the racial divisions” which reign in our country. Laicity ? “Critics sometimes say it is used as a weapon to exclude Muslims, especially women who wear the veil, from public space.” And the American daily cites the example of the Hijabeuses, these soccer players who defend the right to play veiled in competition, despite the regulations (article 1 of the regulations of the French Football Federation prohibits “any wearing of signs or outfit ostensibly manifesting a political, philosophical, religious or trade union affiliation”, Editor’s note).
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The parallel between George Floyd and Nahel
In the wake of Newsweekwhich considers that “France is facing its George Floyd moment”, CNN draws a parallel between the death of Nahel in Nanterre and that of this African-American man who died in 2020 in Minneapolis after being tackled by a police officer for nearly nine minutes. To shed light on American viewers, CNN interviews journalist Rokhaya Diallo.
Heroine of the fight against discrimination for some, enemy of French-style universalism for others, she is a regular columnist for the Washington Post and has the advantage of speaking good English. According to her, “the riots are the consequence of systemic racism which mainly targets young people of color in France. They started because many young people identify with Nahel, which explains their anger”. Kim Brunhuber, the CNN journalist, agrees: “This feeling is familiar to many African-Americans here. “ Then he raises it on the police unions Alliance and Unsa police who speak of “fight against pests”.
For Rokhaya Diallo, “this illustrates the feeling of impunity” of the police and their “disrespect for the people they are supposed to protect […] and treated as if they were still colonized or animals to be feared”. The racialist discourse is launched. The CNN presenter adds: “France denies the existence of structural racism, which makes some say that it denies racial problems. The journalist and anti-racist activist agrees on the air: “Indeed, indifference to skin color (color blind in English, Ed) is also a tool of racism. Non-white people are still mistreated by the police and by institutions. They don’t have the same opportunities. This ideology of universalism often results in racism in France. »
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And Rokhaya Diallo to complain: “When I try to talk about it in France, I am accused of importing an American concept that does not exist in France. “It’s clearly wrong today,” argues the CNN reporter. Rokhaya Diallo can continue: “France is not yet ready to deal with the problem of racism. She prefers the comfort of denial. In any case, it confirms that colonialism has serious consequences on the lives of those whose ancestors were slaves or were colonized. »
Juan Branco, Channel 4 expert
In an article signed by his Paris office, the Wall Street Journal takes up the same antiphon against the French universalist model. The journalist of the business daily, which claims 3.7 million subscribers worldwide, has collected testimonies from people of North African or African origin who denounce the racist behavior of the police. “Young men of African and Arab descent across France are complaining of persistent police abuse, which ranges from racial profiling (“racial profiling” says the Wall Street Journal), harassment, assaults and shootings in the suburbs of the working class, where many French minorities live”, assures the editor. “Since we were little, it’s been the same for all of us: when we are arrested by the police, we have this feeling of fear, a knot in our stomach”, confides a person to him.
In the UK, Channel 4 is also passionate about Nahel’s death and the riots in France. To decipher the situation, the British public channel chooses to give the floor to a funny French expert: Juan Branco. The young lawyer and essayist with sometimes conspiratorial theories collaborates with Cran, a federation of associations responsible for defending populations of African and West Indian origin against all forms of discrimination, which is a civil party in the Nahel case, considering that is a racist crime.
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A racist crime?
“What do you think of the French government’s denials that there is a systemic problem of racism in the police? “Questions the journalist from Channel 4 from the outset. In duplex in a studio from Paris against the backdrop of the Eiffel Tower, Juan Branco unfolds his well-rehearsed speech: “Everyone knows that France is segregated. Part of the population who lives in the suburbs often has North African or African origins and there is a white elite who lives in the center of Paris, we also see this in Bordeaux, Lyon and Toulouse, ”attacks the essayist . And he continues: “The police are at the center of this problem. He is asked to find solutions to this segregationist policy […]. Juan Branco takes his crystal ball. He then predicts a continuation of violence, because we are witnessing, according to him, a “certain decompensation of society which produces violence to be heard and finally to be respected”.
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The Anglo-Saxon media finally see in the death of Nahel a resolutely racist crime which would justify, even excuse, the violence during the riots. They indulge in a victim discourse while forgetting the attacks of the rioters against journalists, firefighters or police officers and elected officials. Identity and racialist, this unique reading grid nevertheless contributes to an unbalanced and truncated vision of French reality.
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