Anti-Racist Activism and the Memory of Colonialism: Race as Republican Critique after 2005

Lotem, I. 2016. Anti-Racist Activism and the Memory of Colonialism: Race as Republican Critique after 2005. Modern and Contemporary France. 24 (3), pp. 283-298. https://doi.org/10.1080/09639489.2016.1159188

TitleAnti-Racist Activism and the Memory of Colonialism: Race as Republican Critique after 2005
TypeJournal article
AuthorsLotem, I.
Abstract

In 2005, French public debates increasingly focused on coming to terms with the memory of colonialism. This new interest in the country’s colonial history owed a great deal to the activity of a new kind of anti-racist organisations that prioritised the need to trigger a broad public debate about issues of race and memory. This article will examine the emergence of two of these organisations: Les Indigènes de la République and the Conseil représentatif des associations noires (CRAN). Both organisations were founded in 2005 and established themselves as well-known actors in France’s anti-racist scene through the appropriation of different aspects of France’s memory of colonialism. Indeed, their interventions concentrated on the way colonial legacies influenced contemporary Republican discourse and especially on the role of ‘race’ in contemporary France. Simultaneously, however, these organisations differed in their goals and understandings of activism. Through their cases, this piece will argue that anti-racist activists initiated a public debate on the memory of colonialism in order to find new ways to combat contemporary discrimination in France rather than thematising memory for the sake of remembrance.

Keywordsmemory, anti-racism, colonialism, activism
JournalModern and Contemporary France
Journal citation24 (3), pp. 283-298
ISSN0963-9489
Year2016
PublisherTaylor & Francis
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)https://doi.org/10.1080/09639489.2016.1159188
Publication dates
Published07 Apr 2016

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