kab reviewed Whites, Jews, and Us by Houria Bouteldja
Les Blancs, les Juifs et nous
2 stars
She talks about colonialist principles being applied to Europe in WWII (Césaire), conditional absorption into whiteness, and revisionist histories—in riddling analogies and immoderate irony. She writes more straightforwardly about internalised racism and white men in Europe claiming to stand up for women only when they can pin patriarchal oppression on (and as the exclusive domain of) the other. The last essay tries to tackle the false universality of western science, its linear idea of progress, Cartesian domination, secular individualism, but it's messy.
She is anti-imperialist but homophobic. She thinks feminism is only for white women—she lives in France, so fair enough. And yet Bouteldja may still, regrettably, be one of the better antiracist voices in France (less responsive to being bullied into silence), a country whose social justice discourse is stunted by design as it carries forward its neocolonialist crookery.
Notes: The translator needed an editor. There's no footnote about …
She talks about colonialist principles being applied to Europe in WWII (Césaire), conditional absorption into whiteness, and revisionist histories—in riddling analogies and immoderate irony. She writes more straightforwardly about internalised racism and white men in Europe claiming to stand up for women only when they can pin patriarchal oppression on (and as the exclusive domain of) the other. The last essay tries to tackle the false universality of western science, its linear idea of progress, Cartesian domination, secular individualism, but it's messy.
She is anti-imperialist but homophobic. She thinks feminism is only for white women—she lives in France, so fair enough. And yet Bouteldja may still, regrettably, be one of the better antiracist voices in France (less responsive to being bullied into silence), a country whose social justice discourse is stunted by design as it carries forward its neocolonialist crookery.
Notes: The translator needed an editor. There's no footnote about communautarisme either, which is a euphemism for extremism or non-submission into the invisibilised white French identity. Crystal Marie Fleming in Resurrecting Slavery: Racial Legacies and White Supremacy in France:
'In France, it is typical for minorities trying to organize and fight for their group’s interests to be branded communitauriste [sic], a word that translates roughly as “divisive.” People (or organizations) that are labeled [communautariste] are often portrayed as insufficiently French or poorly assimilated. For example, some of the activist groups that emerged in the 2000s to address the discrimination faced by black and brown people in France have been accused of communitarianism—a charge that aims to undermine the legitimacy of antiracist movements in the eyes of the dominant group.'