The Limits of Resonant Frames: Racial Frames of Racially Biased Policing in France and the United States

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Abstract

Social movement scholars have long pointed to the importance of frame resonance for the successful achievement of various movement goals. However, even resonant frames are not always successful. This study asks under what conditions do resonant frames fail? To answer this question, this study focuses on the case of racial frames in France and the United States. Taking a comparative approach, this paper examines how anti-racist social change organizations draw upon national repertoires of race to frame their work fighting racially biased policing. These two countries are often described as exemplifying opposing approaches to race. While France is typically described as officially color-blind, the US is often depicted as race-conscious in their official approaches to race. This study draws upon nearly three years of fieldwork including ethnographic observations, interviews with individuals representing 52 organizations, and analysis of hundreds of pages of textual data. The author examines how anti-racist organizational actors implement racial frames in three arenas: protest politics, policymaking, and strategic litigation. American actors employ two main racial frames: a racial empowerment frame and a racial discrimination frame. In the United States, we find a consolidated repertoire of racial frames; racial frames are less varied and less frequently contested. In France, we observe a more varied set of frames: a colorism frame, a racial privacy frame, an anti-essentialist frame, and a racial discrimination frame. Each of these frames resonates with French ideals of republicanism and color-blindness, however they are not employed consistently, and there is contestation about when and where to use which frames. In France, resonant frames do not always succeed. The findings suggest that frame consolidation is key for resonant master frames to be successful.

Author

• Nicole Arlette Hirsch, University of Southern California