In 1983—as France struggled with race-based crimes, police brutality, and public unrest—youths from Vénissieux (working-class suburbs of Lyon) led the March for Equality and Against Racism, the first national demonstration of its type in France.
As Abdellali Hajjat reveals, the historic March for Equality and Against Racism symbolized for many the experience of the children of postcolonial immigrants. Inspired by the May ’68 protests, these young immigrants stood against racist crimes, for equality before the law and the police, and for basic rights such as the right to work and housing. Hajjat also considers the divisions that arose from the march and offers fresh insight into the paradoxes and intricacies of movements pushing toward sweeping social change.
Translated into English for the first time, The Wretched of France contemplates the protest’s lasting significance in France as well as its impact within the context of larger and comparable movements for civil rights, particularly in the US.
Table of Content
Acknowledgments
List of Abbreviations
Introduction: The Protest March as an Index of Social and Racial Tensions in France
1. The Laboratory of Les Minguettes: The Micro-History of a Working-Class District
2. Riots or Rebellions? ‘Urban Youths’ on the Borders of the Political
3. The Fear of Rebellion
4. The Unlikely Construction of an Anti-Racist National Consensus
5. The Ambiguities of the Parisian Apotheosis
6. Divided Memories
Conclusion: After the March: The Challenges of Postcolonial Politics
Afterword: From 1983 to 2020: Reflections on an Enduring Problem of Racism and Revolt
Appendices
Bibliography
Index
About the author
Abdellali Hajjat is Associate Professor of Sociology at the Université Libre de Bruxelles and member of the Group for Research on Ethnic Relations, Migration and Equality. He published Les frontières de l”identité nationale’ and (with Marwan Mohammed) French Islamophobia: How the Elites Forged the ‘Muslim Problem’.
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