the ignominy of the minority
a nice piece in the nytimes on the pied noir struck me for a few reasons:
1) I love the work Jacobin and all its derivations. There is no word to me that better calls into question what democracy is, means, should be, has been.
2) For some reasons French nationalists will always be associated with the last of the violent throes of colonialism (I shall not suggest colonialism is gone, that would be naive, rather I think, for France at least, the war violence associated with colonialism is gone) and Algeria in particular. Pontecorvo is owed a debt of gratitude for this I suppose, though I suppose Camus is as well. Le Pen and his ilk are racists first I think, and nationalists second, but I think the period of colonialism was more complicated.
For me the otherness of the pied noir and really the south of France - Provence I suppose more than anywhere else is perhaps the easiest for an American to relate to - to have some sense of familiarity with.
In any event:
3) The line that struck me was the reference to the French, mostly French but not entirely French (but still French), pied noir as minorities. It got me to thinking how we as Americans are moving this direction and how we will look at each other and to others over the next decades.
What I appreciated from the tone of the comment was the implication of awareness that there is a paradigm shift occurring and that some react differently than others to it.
I guess my take away from this is that people who currently think about things in terms of "minorities" are likely stuck there and always will be, but they're also already nearly inconsequential to the next status quo.
As such the ignominy of the minority is that there is failure to recognize the majority of 21st century America will not recognize the term. Or put another way the ignominy is that there is a desire for the term to continue to mean what it means to people now.
1) I love the work Jacobin and all its derivations. There is no word to me that better calls into question what democracy is, means, should be, has been.
2) For some reasons French nationalists will always be associated with the last of the violent throes of colonialism (I shall not suggest colonialism is gone, that would be naive, rather I think, for France at least, the war violence associated with colonialism is gone) and Algeria in particular. Pontecorvo is owed a debt of gratitude for this I suppose, though I suppose Camus is as well. Le Pen and his ilk are racists first I think, and nationalists second, but I think the period of colonialism was more complicated.
For me the otherness of the pied noir and really the south of France - Provence I suppose more than anywhere else is perhaps the easiest for an American to relate to - to have some sense of familiarity with.
In any event:
3) The line that struck me was the reference to the French, mostly French but not entirely French (but still French), pied noir as minorities. It got me to thinking how we as Americans are moving this direction and how we will look at each other and to others over the next decades.
What I appreciated from the tone of the comment was the implication of awareness that there is a paradigm shift occurring and that some react differently than others to it.
I guess my take away from this is that people who currently think about things in terms of "minorities" are likely stuck there and always will be, but they're also already nearly inconsequential to the next status quo.
As such the ignominy of the minority is that there is failure to recognize the majority of 21st century America will not recognize the term. Or put another way the ignominy is that there is a desire for the term to continue to mean what it means to people now.
posted by aram shumavon at 8:46 AM
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