Forbidden Expressions: An Examination of Black Expression within the Context of Modern-Day French Racial Politics

• In Event: Colonial and Post-Colonial Realities: Theoretical and Cultural Resistance

Abstract

Historically, the politics of identity and expression have been the battle ground for a plethora of fiery political debates and tactics. This paper seeks to examine how the politics surrounding expression – particularly that of Black and Brown people – has been used to police them in the context of modern day France. This paper will dissect the policing of expression that is carried out under France’s strict Hijab ban. It will interrogate the ways in which this ban has changed the way that Black and brown communities construct identity and practice, preserve, and express culture. This paper aims to use the French Hijab ban as a reference point for how Islamophobia affects Black women specifically and how they are often lost in conversations concerning it.
This paper aims to illuminate how policies such as these have shaped the relationship that Black and Brown communities in France have with both their hair and personal expression. This paper will assess how the construction of identity is limited by criminalization and Eurocentric professionalism. This examination is crucial to properly contextualizing and combatting the attitudes that have hindered Black and Brown creativity and expression to this day. At its core, this paper will attempt to discern the compatibility of Eurocentric ideas of professionalism and respectability with the cultures and lifestyles of other ethnicities, particularly those of the African diaspora. I will employ a historical method in my research so as to best understand the progression of how policies such as the Hijab ban have affected minority communities from their first inceptions in the early 2000s to present date.

Author

• Victoria Peters, University of Florida