Abstract

    At its core this project is an in-depth exploration of perceptions of race and cultural identity.  Through a study of literature, film, government policies and grassroots organizations, we seek to explore how race is viewed in French society, particularly through the eyes of minority urban youth.  The study will involve intense research on the social and political climate through a theoretical and a practical approach.  On one hand, we will read novels written by authors of African, Caribbean and North African descent regarding their experience of integration into French society and the status of race relations in the country.  We will also consult critical texts that will provide a more synthetic and analytical rendering of the situation.  In addition, we will conduct research on governmental policies concerning race and immigration.  We will complete the theoretical aspect of our project with an exploration of the topic through film.
    In addition to these more theoretical forms of study, we will explore the topic from a practical viewpoint by volunteering in cultural programs for urban French youth in Paris, ages 15-21.  We will implement weekly 2-hour workshops where we will discuss race relations in France while drawing on certain aspects of the American experience.  Our final goal is to have the students explore race and culture through various artistic mediums and to create a project that captures their perception of the topic.  In addition, we will write a comparative paper relating the results of our literary and film-based research with the reality uncovered in the workshops.  Finally, we will also film our discussions and one-on-one interviews with the youth and produce a documentary that will lend voices and faces to the young urban minority’s experience in Paris.
 

Background

    This research project will study the challenges of racial integration in Parisian society.  The ethnic minority community in France consists primarily of Blacks and of Maghrébins.  This latter group encompasses three generations of people of North African descent, specifically from Algeria, Morocco, and Tunisia.  The first generation was born in the home country, and migrated to France in search of work in the 1960s and 1970s.  The second and third generations, the Beurs, were subsequently born on French soil.  Because the development of a Maghrébin community in France overlapped with the country’s history of labor shortages in the 1960s and 1970s, and ensuing waves of immigration, extensive research has been done on the Maghrébin experience in France.

    The Black community in France consists of people of African descent and others of Caribbean descent.  Very little work has been done to study the dynamics between these two groups as part of the minority community, and in relation to the majority groups.  The profile of French society has greatly changed since the first waves of Maghrébin immigration.  For instance, whereas Africans came to France in the 1960s to further their education, today a new wave of Africans migrate to France for financial reasons.  This new movement in population may have had an effect on the perception of the previous generations of Black people living in France, notably, people from the Antilles.  The Antilles are officially French departments and their inhabitants are therefore French citizens.  However, there are not necessarily visible differences between an Antillais and an African person.  The development of a new class of African work and asylum-seekers may have therefore had a negative impact on the perception of Antillais by the white majority in France.  It is important to study how these changes have impacted the relationship between Antillais and people of African descent in France within the greater scope of race relations in the country.  We therefore choose to focus on the Black experience specifically for this research project.

    It seems impossible to conduct a comprehensive study of race relations in Paris for the Black community without putting a certain emphasis on the Maghrébin influence, if only because delimitations in Parisian cités are not necessarily along racial lines, but rather along lines of the cité (roughly equivalent to the American “inner city”).  This phenomenon is a result of France’s Republican ideals, which command a policy of assimilation and integration of all components of French society.  Under this model, all people living in France should be “culturally” equal.  As a consequence, the government has concentrated its efforts on avoiding the development of ghettos.  In so doing, it has rendered delimitations of French society along racial lines impossible, and so instead, differentiation within French society is more along class lines.  A study that isolates the Black population and its experience without taking into consideration the other minority ethnic groups and the impact of their common socio-economic status (reflected in the cité in which they live) on their condition would therefore be seriously flawed.  For this reason, we will not isolate Blacks from the other minority youth in our project, but instead will study them through the dynamics within the entire minority community in a cité.  We will focus on:

    - the dynamics between people of African and Caribbean descent – how they view themselves as distinct
      cultural units, how they view each other, how they think others view them;
    - the dynamics between those two groups and the other minority groups and the white majority.
 

Project Description

    The project will consist of two components – a theoretical examination of the situation, and a practical hands-on assessment of it.  From the theoretical perspective, we will analyze literature and films by artists of African and Caribbean descent.  From their works, we will attempt to determine the dynamics they perceive within and between their respective communities and formulate questions and axes along which to frame the practical aspect of our research.  We will also research the governmental measures put into place to deal with racial integration and race issues overall in France, as well as their top-down implementation.  This research will take place at the Quai D’Orsay (the Ministry of Foreign Affairs – relevant immigration policy) website, its documentation centers, and other governmental sources.

    The practical aspect of the project will occur through volunteer work in Foyers de jeunes, MJC (Maison pour les Jeunes et la Culture) or other organizations that serve as meeting places for youth of different ethnic backgrounds but from the same community in the 18th district of Paris.  We have chosen this area because of the ethnic variety in its population.  We will be working with youth between the ages of 15 and 21.  Our time will be used to:

        a) observe the grassroots approach to the racial integration issue – is it at all addressed?  What role does it play in the programs’ definitions?  What is its part in the effectiveness of these programs?

        b) conduct interviews of the youth participating in these community activities in order to obtain their perspective of the situation.  Do they view racial integration as an issue?  How do they perceive their racial/cultural identity?  How do they feel it is perceived by others?  How are their relationships with other ethnic groups?  How effective do they find the measures put in place by organizations or the government?  What do they think could be improved?

        c) Set up weekly workshops with the youth (discussed at length below).

    We will begin to volunteer in the organization for three weeks prior to the start of our project.  That time period will allow us to understand the functioning of the organization, as well as to establish a base of trust with the youth participating in the programs.  The volunteering will continue throughout the summer, but after the initial three weeks, we will introduce a weekly 2-hour workshop with the youth that will last until the ending stages of our research.

    The ultimate goal of these workshops will be for the youth to come up with a creative project that expresses their personal views on racial integration issues.  The project will illustrate their perception of their cultural identity, as well as the perception they think the “outside world” has of them.  The format will be much like that of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Seminar taught at MIT by Tobie Weiner during the Independent Activities Period (IAP).  The initial session will be an opportunity for us, as coordinators, to present the group with background materials which examine and explore race and culture in the United States through the mediums of writing, music, and art.  We will for instance play music clips that we feel represent the viewpoint of a significant portion of minority youth in the US, and after translating the lyrics, discuss their content.  We will read of our own writing regarding our experience as young Black women in the US, and will also share works by other minority American writers.  This first session will provide a glimpse of the American experience.

    During the next session, we will turn the tables by asking the participants in the workshop to bring pieces of music, writing, or art that they feel reflect their experience as minority French youth. We will also watch clips of the documentary made by Professor Johann Sadock (MIT, Foreign Languages & Literatures), which shows interviews he conducted of minority youth in Paris, concerning their views on race relations, and we will then discuss all the material.  This session will provide us with some introduction to the French viewpoint.

    The following session will begin the comparative phase of the workshops. We will view “Bronx-Barbès” together, a film that adapts the situation for “inner-city” youth in New York’s Bronx with that in the cité of Barbès to a ghetto in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire.  During the next session, we will go over the content of the previous week’s film.  The youth will have to formulate their own questions regarding race relations in the two countries, and these will be discussed during the workshop.  The following two sessions will be spent brainstorming about the creative project itself.  They will allow us to bring together all the information we will have covered until then, internalize it, and then determine how to synthesize it for public access.  By the end of this brainstorming period, the youth will have been dealing with race relations for two months.  We will then begin to work on the execution of the project, and this stage will occupy for the next four weeks, until the end of our project in late August.  All the discussions will be filmed, and in addition to the discussions, we will also conduct one-on-one interviews of the youth.

    The goals of the exercise are therefore to provide a forum for the youth to discuss the important issues of race and ethnicity in France, show them a glimpse of the situation in the US, and then give them an opportunity to express their point of view creatively.  Each will express his/her point of view, but will also converse with others, and together, they will come up with a project that best reflects their interpretation of the challenges currently facing integration in Paris.

     In this phase of this project, we will also study the representation of race relations in popular music produced by ethnic minorities.  We chose music specifically because of the wide variety available, and because it will offer a different, but also realistic, take on the situation.  Rap music by Maghrébins and Black artists, Raï music by Maghrébins, Afropean music, Soukouss, and Zouk will all be valuable resources in determining some of the dynamics between different ethnic groups within Parisian society.  The questions we will be asking the youth participating in our workshops will include the following:

        - What kind of music do you listen to?
        - Are the artists based in Paris or France, or are they in Africa or the Antilles?
        - What determines your choices in music?  How do social pressures to listen to a particular genre affect your
            choices?
        - How do you listen to the music?  Is it a solitary activity?  Do you listen to music in a group?  In nightclubs?

    By knowing which type of music a particular group listens to, the reasons they listen to that music, and the context in which they listen to it, we will be able to better understand the dynamics surrounding and affecting cultural identity in Parisian society.
 
    Drawing upon both the theoretical and the practical phases of our project, we will attempt to draw a comparison between the two.  To what degree do they agree with each other, to what degree do they disagree?  What are the observable differences depending on the artist’s descent?  What could be possible causes of any discrepancies found between the literary and filmed works and reality? The final objectives for the project will be to:

        - produce a video documentary of the discussions and interviews conducted over the span of the project as part of the research findings;
        - compile the creative achievements of the youth throughout the project;
        - write a paper highlighting the representations of racial and ethnic identity in France, as shown by Francophone writers, and contrast those representations with those observed during our time as volunteers and through our discussions with the youth in the programs.
 

Personal motivation for the project

Mélissa

The first time I went to France I was six.  I had gone to visit some family in Paris.  It was my first time travelling alone, and the Air Afrique flight attendant was very attentive to my needs.

The second time I went to Paris, I was thirteen years old.  I was travelling with my grandmother so she would not have to make the trip to her daughter’s house by herself.  At customs at Orly airport, we ran into some trouble.  Apparently, there was something missing in my grandmother’s immigration documents.  My aunt had the missing items, but it would take a while for her to get them from her house and return to the airport.

My grandmother held a Togolese passport; I, on the other hand, always travel as an American citizen. I remember how distinctly rude the men working at the booth had been.  How they shouted at my middle-aged aunt, how they dismissively ordered my grandmother and me to go sit “over there” until they had time to deal with us.  The conversation had been in French and because I looked older than my age, I had been involved and acknowledged in the squabble.  For some reason, when the customs officers came back to “deal with us”, I switched to English.  Their demeanor drastically changed, and all of a sudden it was “Mademoiselle” this, “Mademoiselle” that.

Reading back on my journal entry following the episode at the airport, I realize how much it marked me.  Why was it that when I was an African coming to France I commended no respect, but when I was an American I did?  I had been living in the United States for a year when this incident occurred, and never had I experienced anything like that there.  Was it racism or merely a demonstration of stereotypical French rudeness?  I have not yet been able to obtain a definitive answer to that question.  Based on my personal experiences in France since then, I tend to think that racism may be somewhat more prevalent there than in the US – without denying that racism exists in the States.  Some say that the French were really racist but that the situation has greatly improved over the past five years.  But I have also heard the viewpoint completely opposite to mine – that in the United States, race is constantly an issue, whereas it does not play a role in France.  The opinions I have informally gathered over the years often differed according to the color of my interlocutors’ skin and their social status.  My Black cousins living in France will tell you in a heartbeat that the French are as racist as can be.  Lighter-skinned and well-off people tended to find the French welcoming.

This project on race relations in Paris is yet another, more substantial, attempt to come to a definitive answer to the question I have had on my mind for the past five years.  It will provide me with the perspective of those I have not had the chance to question until now – poor ethnic minorities from my age group.  Are their experiences coherent with mine?  Is the French social climate hostile to ethnic minorities?  Maybe it used to be that way but things are changing now?  Or is race really not an issue in French society?

Over the past couple of months I have read works by North African authors about their experiences as immigrants in France.  Being originally from Togo (in West Africa), I have a strong interest in the Black African experience of integrating French society.  Hence my desire to focus this project on the Black perspective, while taking into consideration the other ethnic minority groups.

Some of my main qualifications for this project are my language skills and my cultural background.  French is my native language.  The cultural background issue is a little more complicated.  I am African, and technically, I am also American (I was born in the United States, even though I did not live here until 1995).  I am nonetheless, not African-American.  But here I am lumped into the “Black” category, and so my experiences as I go through life in the United States are to a certain extent shaped by my blackness rather than by my country of origin.

I went to a Togolese school in Togo, to a French school and a Zimbabwean school in Zimbabwe and to the French International High School in Washington, DC.  I have therefore been in contact with Togolese and other African cultures, French culture, American, and African-American culture.  This combination should give me a little more understanding of the challenges facing the young people we interview and work with throughout the course of our research project.

My cultural background makes me who I am and dictates my reactions to everyday life.  It sometimes gives me a completely different perspective than that of Jovonne, my project partner, and combined with hers, it will allow us to reach more enlightened conclusions from our research.
 
 

Jovonne

The I of who I am has, at most points in my life, been very connected to the Black.  My identity is a symphony-in-the-making played between a quintet of my gender, my age, my family and friends, my passions and my race.  Each of them is essential to make the notes of my life music.  My love, pride and understanding of these parts allows the music to go on, the song to be written.  The music has stopped.  There is sound, just no music.  The strong, proud instrument that was once my blackness decrescendoed until it could no longer be heard.  When? Why? I came to MIT.  I once believed that black culture was full of identity; foods, vernacular, music, dance … black was beautiful!  Then, I met black people who weren’t just black.  They were Haitian, Jamaican, Guyanese, Panamanian, Bajan …  They looked like me, but they had music, food, language, music, dance, instruments, carnivals, countries, flags … they even had flags.  Plus, they had all those things that defined blackness for me.  They had culture.  They had identity.  What did I have?  I am black … what does that mean?

I imagine that at some point in time every Black American has questioned his or her culture. While I cannot say that America is a place that ”celebrates” diversity and accepts differences, it does not pretend that differences don’t exist.  This at least provides a space where difference can be questioned and explored, understood and debated.  In high school I was active in many organizations and programs that explored and celebrated Black culture.  Black United Students. Upward Bound. Young Scholars.  Some focused on academics, others on sports, still others on arts.  Their focus may have been different, but their goal was the same.  They tried to show us why being Black was significant, a culture to be proud of, something inexhorably tied to our identity.  We were taught to define who we are by our own terms, not by what society told us in magazines or on television.  As urban Black youth we were taught that we were neither stereotypes nor statistics.  We were taught the importance of our culture and at the same time the appreciation of any culture.  Accepting ourselves allowed us to be more accepting of others. Every Black person doesn’t learn these lessons … how does that affect them?

France and everything related to it has always fascinated me.  I suppose that’s why I studied it for six years before I came to MIT.  The language, the art, the literature, the history, the culture, the people; I loved it all.  It was foreign, exotic.  My vision of it was one of grandeur … it was also incomplete.  Thinking back, I am struck by the fact that I never questioned where the Black people in France were.  Who were they? How were their lives different or similar to mine?  I remember learning about the MJC’s in Paris from my French text, they seemed similar to the programs that I attended.  I never saw a Black face in those pictures.  Throughout my six years of study, I don’t ever remember the question of race being raised seriously, beyond the fact that there were some Black people in France.  Coming from a school where race was almost always a topic of exploration, how did it manage to fall out of this one course of study?  Were there no struggles with race in France?

I am an artist.  I dance, sing, play various instruments, make jewelry and other crafts, and I write and I write.  Writing is my most passionate medium.  I am incomplete without the others, but without it I’m not sure that I would be.  It is as an artist and a writer especially that I rediscovered my interest in France.  Artists, and Black artists in particular have often been more welcomed in France than in America.  From musicians like Charlie “Bird” Parker and Josephine Baker to writers like James Baldwin and Richard Wright, there has been a refuge found in France like no other.  There these artists have been loved and celebrated in ways that America has yet to fully share in.  Why is this?  Were the French more accepting of Blacks, or were they just more accepting of Black Americans?  Did they feel the same for the Blacks that were native to France?  I don’t know, because I’ve never heard much about it.  It is as if being Black in France is an issue only discussed in relation to Blacks who came from America.  But what about the Blacks there … who are they and how do they feel?  Is race a non-issue for them?

My interest for this project comes out of all these questions that I have asked about race and culture.  Questions that I raise as a young Black woman raised in an urban setting, as a student of race and culture, and as an artist.  Despite all that I’ve studied about French culture, I feel that my picture is incomplete.  As a Black person, I know the impact that race and definition of culture have on me and I am positive that these issues reach far beyond my experience. While I have been lucky to be in places where questions about these topics were raised and explored, everyone is not so lucky; the necessity is still there.  As an artist, many of my works, through song, dance and writing have explored my race and these explorations have proved invaluable to me.  They have helped me understand myself and they have also helped me explain myself to others.  As a student in the Department of Urban Studies and Planning my studies have focused primarily on urban issues, especially those relating to minorities and people lacking power; this is the life I am most familiar with. I feel that these various parts of my identity will help me understand the issue of race in a culture than I am both familiar with and new to.
 
 
 

Novels by African authors or authors of African descent on immigration in France

Beyala, Calixthe. Lettre d’une Afro-française à ses compatriotes. Paris: Mango Pratique Fontaine, 1999.
Beyala, Calixthe. Le petit prince de Belleville. Paris: Albin Michel, 1992.
Biyaoula, Daniel. L’Impasse. Paris: Présence Africaine, 1996.
Biyaoula, Daniel. Agonies. Paris: Présence Africaine, 1998.
Ben Jelloun, Tahar. Les Raisins de la galère. Paris: Fayard, 1996.
Bessora. 53cm. Paris: Le serpent à plumes, 1999.
Etoké, Nathalie. Un amour sans papiers. Paris: Cultures Croisées, 1999.
Mabanckou, Alain. Bleu Blanc Rouge. Paris: Présence Africaine, 1998.
 

Novels by Antillais authors on cultural identity in France

Condé, Maryse. Désiderada. Paris: Havas Poche, 1999.
Dracius-Pinalie, Suzanne. L’autre qui danse. Paris: Seghers, 1989.
Pineau, Giselle. Un papillon dans la cité. Paris: SEPIA, 1998.
 

Novels by Beur authors on assimilation and integration

Belghoul, Farida. Georgette! Paris: Barrault Bernard, 1986.
Begag, Azouz. Le Gone du Chaâba. Paris: Seuil, 1986.
Begag, Azouz. Béni ou le paradis privé. Paris: Seuil, 1989.
Bouraoui, Nina. La Voyeuse interdite. Paris: Gallimard, 1993.
Sebbar, Leïla. Shérazade. Paris: Stock, 1982.
Sebbar, Leïla. Parle mon fils parle à ta mère. Paris: Stock, 1984.
 

Critical texts on immigration, integration and assimilation of ethnic minorities in France

Begag, Azouz. Ecarts d’identité. Paris: Seuil, 1990.
Ben Jelloun, Tahar. L’Hospitalité française: racisme et immigration maghrébine. Paris: Seuil, 1984.
Fall, Mar. Les Africains noirs en France.  Des tirailleurs sénégalais aux Blacks. Paris: L’Harmattan, 1986.
Hargreaves, Alec. Voices from the North African Immigrant Community in France; Immigration and Identity
                             in Beur Fiction. Oxford: Berg, 1991.
Rosello, Mireille. Declining the Stereotype.  Ethnicity and Representation in French Cultures. Dartmouth: New
                           England Press, 1998.

            *  These books were recommended by Prof. Odile Cazenave, our faculty advisor *
 

Life in the American and French “inner city”
De Latour, Eliane. Bronx-Barbès.  2000.

Race relations in France
Chibane, Malik.  Hexagone.  1994.
- - - - - - - - - - Douce France.  1995.

Denis, Claire.  J’ai pas sommeil.  1994.

Kassovitz, Mathieu.  Café au Lait.  1993.
- - - - - - - - - - - -    La Haine. 1995.

Ouedraogo, Idrissa.  Le Cri du Coeur.  1995.

Sadock, Johann. Black, Blanc, Beur: parlons-en! .  1999.
 
 

 Project Timeline

We plan to arrive in Paris on Tuesday May 22.  Our project will begin that week and run until August 20, 2001.  The timeline will be: