Election time

I don't really know what to make of this. The municipal elections just passed, and I had to stop and take a picture of this poster next to our house. There's lots to say about it. First, I love how in France they have these boards where people still paste up poster with a bucket of glue. It reminds me of The Bicycle Thief. In France, some things just don't change because they already work well. It's kind of like, Why change it?

Second, this is a really confusing combo. The Front National is a right-wing party that my students tell me, is really racist. As with most economic crises, the party in power isn't doing enough. Two students told me today that the FN is gaining support, and they think if their leader Marine LePen wins the election, there will be a civil war in France. But despite the stats that show support for FN growing, I feel like everyone I talk to thinks they are a little bit fou. (Maybe I don't talk to enough old people?)

As most people know, the shootings at Charlie Hebdo in Paris brought about the hashtag Je Suis Charlie. People have printed and posted the logo everywhere - in school (interestingly enough), in cars, on store windows. I've read extensively in French news all about it, but the least talked about thing that I myself thought should be explored was how Muslims in France were pretty scared. My friend Sarah stayed home for a few weeks and said her parents told her to be careful since she wears the hijab. Among the things French papers did cover concerning the Muslim population's reaction was the emergence of Je Ne Suis Pas Charlie, a hashtag saying basically, I don't agree with Charlie Hebdo. Of course, in the simplified, symbolic discourse of modern politics, it was reduced to assuming that if you didn't support Charlie Hebdo, you don't support freedom of expression and you do support terrorism. That's unfortunate because Charlie Hebdo is actually really racist to everyone, sexist, crude and not even very clever in its approach to satire. (I'll talk about this more in another post. I have lots to say.)

What I want to know is, did the person who posted this say Je Ne Suis Pas Charlie to stand up to the FN? Or are they saying that the FN doesn't support Charlie? It's like a riddle.

I'm thinking it's the first one. Because the FN define being French very narrowly, and Charlie Hebdo, despite calling itself leftist, actually reaffirms racist stereotypes that also support that narrow nationalist idea and that the FN banks on to enflame fear and hatred to gain support. I myself feel more sympathy with the Je Ne Suis Pas Charlie crowd, because, while I know a publication like Charlie Hebdo must be allowed to exist for the sake of truly free expression, I don't like Charlie Hebdo. I wouldn't have supported or read it, because I insist on respecting other people. There's of course room for poking fun at stereotypes we all use as shorthand for each other's cultures - all in good fun. But the power dynamic of Charlie's cartoons has never been talked about in French media. Charlie, while claiming neutrality because it makes fun of "everyone" actually doesn't make fun of white, French, secular males unless they are politicians (which shows in any case who has influence). And that's mostly who ran the mag. More importantly, France's secular laws make it illegal to talk about religion in public. So while Charlie claims freedom of expression to target religion in public, no religion can defend itself in public. So Charlie and its freedom of expression is protected in a way its religious targets in particular are not. This might illuminate some of the frustration Muslims in France must feel. They're told to be French, but the definition is made pretty impossible for them. They are supposed to convert to a system whose freedom of expression is not available to them, even to defend themselves. So, while I absolutely don't think violence is justified, neither is blaming foreigners for the state of affairs in France. It's France, the French have the control and the "foreigners" (some of them second or third generation French-born non-Europeans) are not in the same position of power. Most of them are just trying to get by.