| ID | 168183 |
| Title Proper | Are French people white? |
| Other Title Information | Towards an understanding of whiteness in Republican France |
| Language | ENG |
| Author | Beaman, Jean |
| Summary / Abstract (Note) | Based on ethnographic research of France’s North African second-generation, I bring together literatures on racial formation, whiteness, and race and racism in Europe to discuss how whiteness operates in French society. I discuss how respondents must navigate a supposedly colorblind society in which whiteness is default. Because these individuals are racialized as non-white, they are not seen as French by others. I discuss how they wrestle with definitions of French identity as white and full belonging in French society as centered on whiteness. I argue that salience of whiteness is part of France’s racial project in which differences among individuals are marked without explicit state-sanctioned racial and ethnic categories. This has implications for considering how whiteness is crucial to understanding European identity more broadly, including through the rise of the Far-Right, the recent Brexit and Leave campaigns, and anti-immigration sentiment throughout Western Europe. |
| `In' analytical Note | Identities: Global Studies in Culture and Power Vol. 26, No.5; Oct 2019: p.546-562 |
| Journal Source | Identities: Global Studies in Culture and Power 2019-10 26, 5 |
| Key Words | France ; National Identity ; Belonging ; Whiteness ; Race/Ethnicity ; Colorblind |