Myths of ‘Superiority’ and How to De-Essentialise Social and Historical Conflicts
Myths of ‘Superiority’ and How to De-Essentialise Social and Historical Conflicts
This chapter analyses racism in France and Australia. It shows how accusations of racism can mask an ontology of superiority in which the victims of racism, here a French Polynesian anticolonial writer, are themselves accused of being racist by people who identify with the colonial power. Indigenous people as well as migrants, especially Muslims or Gypsies in France, are accused of racism for laying claim to their history and culture while coming from past French colonies in Africa and Indochina or current French territories in the Pacific or Caribbean islands. In Australia despite a multicultural policy, refugees are incarcerated if they are not selected by the UN HCR channel. Aboriginal people are criminalised and many succumb to death-in-custody. Claims to difference are reduced to hierarchical models or denied recognition in the name of universalism as opposed to cultural relativism. Glowczewski, shows that a third option is possible. If France and Australia– each in their own way – deny their citizens the right to be different, initiatives emanating from civil society promote innovative ways of envisioning a multidimensional society in which the recognition of differences and specific rights have their place at the same time as universal human rights are respected. Unpublished keynote paper, 2012.
Keywords: Colonisation, Conflict, Criminalisation, De-essentialisation, French overseas territories, Refugees in Australia, Migrants in France, Muslims, Racism
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