France on Tuesday marked the national day of the abolition of slavery, but non-governmental organizations see a long road of reparation ahead.<\/p>\n
In 2006, then-President Jacques Chirac proposed May 10 as the National Day for the Remembrance of the Slave Trade, Slavery, and Their Abolition. It has been celebrated ever since, and was marked on Tuesday with a ceremony presided over by President Emmanuel Macron in Paris\u2019 Jardin du Luxembourg.<\/p>\n
Like many western countries, France had a long history of enslaving people, mostly from the African continent, and a colonial empire whose tentacles reached far across the globe \u2013 to Guadaloupe, Martinique, and as far away as L\u2019Ile de la Reunion in the Indian Ocean.<\/p>\n
Slavery was first abolished on the mainland and in the territories between 1782 and 1784, only to be brought back by Napoleon in 1803.<\/p>\n
Slavery was then abolished again in 1848 but was hardly eradicated in total. In its place was the Native Code, a set of practices and methods of treatment throughout the nation in which certain indigenous people could be sanctioned, deported, or otherwise penalized – all because of the color of their skin. It has been compared to Apartheid in South Africa.<\/p>\n
The Native Code was finally abolished in 1946 – the same year, it should be said, that women obtained the right to vote in France.<\/p>\n
But the vestiges of being an \u201cother\u201d remain, and systemic racism is alive and well in France. Patrick Lozes, founder and president of the Representative Council of Black People in France (Le CRAN), realizes this all too well.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn terms of fashioning a civil society, the day is a very, very important symbol, but more than this, we need concrete action. There is discrimination in work, in access to healthcare, in getting housing. The latter is a huge problem in France,\u201d Lozes told Anadolu Agency.<\/p>\n
Fight against racism<\/strong><\/p>\n Born in Benin, Lozes now lives between Normandy and Paris\u2019 4th arrondissement. Le CRAN has been active in France for almost two decades, fighting racism and pushing forth the effort to make reparations.<\/p>\n \u201cI founded the group because all of these very important questions weren\u2019t really talked about. I found it almost offensive to the country. I wanted to make France the place that I love, one that\u2019s proud of its history and all of its citizens,\u201d he said. \u201cI also wondered, how could there not be a group like this already?\u201d<\/p>\n Lozes said that when the national day of recognition was established, many of the French did not understand the reason for its existence and thought that handling racism was the responsibility of politicians. Diversity was recognized \u2013 and an awareness of the many skin colors in France \u2013 but convincing the elites that there was really an issue was difficult.<\/p>\n \u201cPeople didn\u2019t want to accept that we had a huge story of slavery on this soil. It has been a fight to make this country accept it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cWe want this whole story to be talked about, every side of it. We should help people learn more about what happened in the past.\u201d<\/p>\n Lozes said that there is discrimination going on every day \u2013 in the workplace, in the housing market, in the healthcare sector. \u201cEspecially when someone is refused housing, it is hugely difficult, for their family, their children,\u201d he emphasized. \u201cWe need to fight against it. Talk is not enough; we need action.\u201d<\/p>\n One way Le CRAN takes direct action is by publishing data on their website and in the media.<\/p>\n Data collection is said to be forbidden by law in France but only if those in a survey or published matter are named. In 2007, Le CRAN made a first effort by publishing a tally of the number of Blacks living in France, and the amount of discrimination they faced.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was a massive shock,\u201d Lozes said. \u201cAlmost all black people surveyed say they face discrimination nearly every day. I\u2019m so sad to say that this country that I love so much isn\u2019t showing the reality of what is going on.\u201d<\/p>\n \u2018Difficult situation\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n Ghislain Vedeux, a board member and chairperson of Le CRAN since 2014 and vice chair of European Network Against Racism for the past five years, said the real issue is to support the lives of the people who are struggling with work, police violence, and matters of everyday life.<\/p>\n \u201cThe situation is quite difficult here in France but there are many cases of racial violence. We don\u2019t talk about it. Two years ago, we had the case of George Floyd, and it was in all the newspapers. But here in France each month we have cases that don\u2019t make the newspaper.\u201d<\/p>\n Vedeux went on to list the grim statistics: In 2017, there were 36 people killed by the police, 28 in 2018 and 26 in 2019.<\/p>\n \u201cIf you\u2019re Black – or even a person of color, you have an 80% chance of being chased by the police more than if you were not. Racial profiling is real in France,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n What\u2019s needed now, he emphasized, is concrete action and real legislation to fight against racism.<\/p>\n \u201c\u2018La France is indivisible\u2019\u201d is the national anthem. \u201cWe are all the same. But in reality, we know that we are not,\u201d Vedeux said.<\/p>\n \u201cWe have a duty to elevate our community – and everyone in it. This is no longer a matter of being only Black, of being only Asian, of being only a woman,\u201d Vedeux said.<\/p>\n For his part, Lozes said: \u201cThe work ahead is just massive but we will do it. The fight has just started.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" France on Tuesday marked the national day of the abolition of slavery, but non-governmental organizations see a long road of reparation ahead. In 2006, then-President Jacques Chirac proposed May 10 as the National Day for the Remembrance of the Slave Trade, Slavery, and Their Abolition. It has been celebrated ever since, and was marked on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":21478,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_post_source_name":"","_post_source_url":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[56,1441],"tags":[4836,1648,4899,7207,12661,6573,6001,7960,8924,287,11555,7823,7396,9520,12328,524,9505,5455,3545,5575,6351,6352,11715,8342,1362,2502,9515,10560,10342,6220,414,10742,11973,1253,5911,421,11698,3805,6350,504,9523,6353,244,7931,10329,8206,3954,5273,5320,10415,594],"class_list":["post-21477","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-features","category-religion","tag-access","tag-africa","tag-african","tag-asian","tag-benin","tag-black","tag-blacks","tag-case","tag-chance","tag-children","tag-citizens","tag-code","tag-data","tag-discrimination","tag-elites","tag-emmanuel-macron","tag-european","tag-family","tag-founder","tag-france","tag-french","tag-ghislain-vedeux","tag-housing","tag-indian","tag-indian-ocean","tag-jacques-chirac","tag-killed","tag-la","tag-law","tag-love","tag-macron","tag-market","tag-one","tag-paris","tag-patrick","tag-police","tag-politicians","tag-president","tag-president-jacques-chirac","tag-racism","tag-reunion","tag-slavery","tag-south-africa","tag-territories","tag-trade","tag-treatment","tag-will","tag-woman","tag-women","tag-work","tag-who"],"blocksy_meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21477","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21477"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21477\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21478"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21477"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21477"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21477"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}