Nation must confront colonial past, Black scholar says

PARIS — A Black French scholar and expert on U.S. minority rights movements who’s taking charge of France’s staterun immigration museum says it’s “vital” for his country to confront its colonial past so that it can conquer present racial injustice.

“The French are highly reluctant to look at the dark dimensions of their own history,” Pap Ndiaye said in his museum, initially built to display colonial exploits but now meant to showcase the role of immigration in shaping modern France. Ndiaye was named to head France’s National Museum of the History of Immigration at a crucial time, as his country is under pressure to reassess its colonial history and offer better opportunities for its citizens of color, in the wake of Black Lives Matter and other racial justice movements.

Following George Floyd’s death in the U.S. last year, thousands took to the streets across the country expressing anger at racism and discrimination in

French society, particularly toward people from the country’s former colonies in Africa.

What happened in the U.S. “echoes the French situation,” Ndiaye said.

The upcoming trial of a former police officer charged in Floyd’s death will be closely monitored in France, Ndiaye said, because “it tells about the reality of police violence, and we would like very much for this reality of police violence to be discussed the same way in France.”

Many young French are increasingly pushing back against a national doctrine of colorblindness, which aims at encouraging equality by ignoring race altogether — but has failed to eradicate discrimination.

They “are disappointed in many ways in the French promise of equality and opportunities for all,” Ndiaye said. “We must go beyond the official discourse and acknowledge reality.”

These issues “have to be discussed. They have to be measured also through the use of statistics,” Ndiaye said, also urging “more effective policies” targeting discrimination in the job and housing markets.

These are bold statements for a top governmentappointed official in France, where collecting data based on race or ethnicity is frowned upon, and where the farright has brought antiimmigrant rhetoric to the mainstream. President Emmanuel Macron has promised more steps to fight discrimination and has trod carefully on how to address colonial wrongs.