{"id":25537,"date":"2012-09-22T21:02:22","date_gmt":"2012-09-22T21:02:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mixedracestudies.org\/wordpress\/?p=25537"},"modified":"2015-07-10T14:08:00","modified_gmt":"2015-07-10T14:08:00","slug":"for-minorities-in-france-obama-still-casts-a-spell","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/?p=25537","title":{"rendered":"For minorities in France, Obama still casts a spell"},"content":{"rendered":"

For minorities in France, Obama still casts a spell<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

France 24: International News<\/a>
\n2012-08-09<\/p>\n

Jon Frosch<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Though his reputation among blacks and Arabs in France is showing ever-so-slight signs of wear and tear, US President Barack Obama remains a powerful symbol for French citizens of colour. France24.com takes a closer look.<\/em><\/p>\n

When Barack Obama<\/a> was elected in 2008, Anthony Borval, a black Frenchman of Caribbean descent, was elated.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was intense, I felt almost American,\u201d the 29-year-old office manager confided. \u201cObama indirectly sent us a message that anything was possible, a message of hope for minorities in France, where it\u2019s difficult for us to succeed.\u201d<\/p>\n

Four years later, as Obama spends the end of his tumultuous first term fighting a tough re-election battle against Republican challenger Mitt Romney<\/a>, the US president is still a hero for Borval. \u201cHis victory taught French people of colour to believe in ourselves,\u201d he said. \u201cToday, I still feel great pride that an African-American is running the world\u2019s superpower.\u201d<\/strong>…<\/p>\n

…Perhaps more common than that bluntly pragmatic view is a sense among some French minorities that Obama is an admirable figure who has not fully lived up to his promise. Aziz Senni, 36, is a Moroccan-born Frenchman who founded an investment fund specialising in economic development in the \u201cbanlieue\u201d. Like many people of colour in France, Senni says he was captivated by Obama\u2019s rise and impressed with Americans for voting a black man into the White House just decades after the civil rights movement<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But Senni also noted that \u201clike all new things, time goes by, the shine fades, and there are disappointments\u201d. He cited Obama\u2019s failure to advance the Mideast peace process, something that has tarnished the US president\u2019s image among Arabs around the world. \u201cWe had a lot of hope after his Cairo speech, but he\u2019s mainly been the same as his predecessors on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict,\u201d Senni assessed. \u201cThat\u2019s the reality of being an American president.\u201d…<\/p>\n

…French mistrust of multiculturalism has deep roots: since the French Revolution<\/a>, the country has clung to the notion that a common French identity could override differences in race and creed. The problem, according to Ndiaye, is that \u201cFrenchness\u201d has not always been as inclusive in practice as it is in principle. \u201cAfter France\u2019s colonies became independent, France thought of itself as essentially white,\u201d the historian stated. \u201cAnd many French people feared that immigration from former colonies would cause the republic to be fractured.\u201d<\/p>\n

The result is a theoretically colour-blind country in which close-knit ethnic and religious groups are often viewed warily, politicians avoid referring to specific communities of voters, and disdain for affirmative action (known here as \u201cpositive discrimination\u201d) is common on both sides of the political aisle.<\/p>\n

According to Ndiaye, however, it is affirmative action that could eventually help France create conditions from which a French Obama might one day emerge. \u201cObama didn\u2019t come out of nowhere,\u201d he explained. \u201cThere is a critical mass of 10,000 elected black officials in America, from sheriffs to mayors to Congressmen to the president. Affirmative action helped. We need that in France.\u201d…<\/p>\n

Read the entire article here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For minorities in France, Obama still casts a spell France 24: International News 2012-08-09 Jon Frosch Though his reputation among blacks and Arabs in France is showing ever-so-slight signs of wear and tear, US President Barack Obama remains a powerful symbol for French citizens of colour. France24.com takes a closer look. When Barack Obama was […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,63,28,8,26,20],"tags":[96,12097,12096],"class_list":["post-25537","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles","category-barack-obama","category-europe","category-media-archive","category-politics","category-usa","tag-france","tag-france-24-international-news","tag-jon-frosch"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25537","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=25537"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25537\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=25537"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=25537"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=25537"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}