LE CAS ADAMA TRAORÉ: A COLOR-BLIND SOCIETY AND ITS RECKONING WITH RACE?

Abstract

This thesis deals with race as a concept, also a lived reality, and how it has been defined, propagated and institutionalized over the course of the decline of the French Monarchy, the creation of an Empire and now the current Republic, with emphasis on the periods during which the French were conducting the Atlantic slave trade, then colonization and finally the current situation in metropolitan France. This is prompted by the global marches that were ignited as an act of solidarity to denounce racism, anti-blackness and global anti-African capitalism and imperialism – because of the murder of George Floyd in America, which resembled the way Adama Traoré in France had been killed in 2016, by police brutality. It is important to look at the historical context that enabled for a system which instigates violence, consistently, on a certain group of people, exploits them – through their labor – casts them into predefined stereotypes, and a hierarchy, but at the same time builds a foundation on the principles of ‘liberté, égalité et fraternité’, promising to treat all men – and women – the same way, because it supposedly sees them the same exact way. Therefore, it is important to dive into the historical arc of France to see how such a universally fair system can create a world in which a young black man can be killed by an entity sworn to protect, serve and defend all – the police.