Dreams and Illusions of an Antiracist Elsewhere:
Black People in Search of a Home in France and America
During the mid twentieth century, when the US was still deep in the Jim Crow era and on the edge of the civil rights movement, prominent figures like James Baldwin, Josephine Baker, Richard Wright, and Chester Himes left the US for France. They created a whole African American scene in Paris, fostering the idea of France as this escape from American racism. But although the reverse movement, from France to the US, is less well known, it has also been true. By leaving France for the US, many Black French people find a way out of France’s insistence that race doesn’t matter.
Source: US Census estimates
This 3-part audio documentary explores how an idea of an antiracist France was created by African Americans in France, how it actually is like for Black French people in France, and what Black French people find in exile in the US.
CHAPTER 1: THE MYTH OF A FRANCE FREE FROM RACISM
The first significant wave of African Americans in France were soldiers from the World Wars. They, and the African Americans who followed, cultivated and perpetuated a certain idea of France, a country that felt so different from Jim Crow America, a country seemingly not divided by color. Tyler Stovall is a prominent historian I talked to about this. He wrote a whole book about the history of Black Americans in France.
CHAPTER 2: BEING BLACK IN FRANCE
During her time in France, Jo, A Black American woman living in France, looked for Black spaces. That’s how she met Solaire Denaud. Solaire is Black French and Haitian. She grew up in France, and decided to leave France behind for the US. She now studies comparative literature at UC Santa Barbara.
CHAPTER 3: ESCAPING FRANCE FOR THE USA
Aissa Maiga, a prominent Black French actress, Rokhaya Diallo, a public French intellectual and journalist, and Solaire Denaud, faced with the reality of racism in France, have either travelled to the US for inspiration, or left for the US altogether, joining thousands of other Black French people who have also made that choice. Maboula Soumahoro, a French academic working on Black identity, has some ideas as to why.
Solaire Denaud (left), and Jo Blount (bottom), on our group call. Solaire is Black French and left France for Santa Barbara, CA, and Jo is Black American and left the US for Paris, France.
Production: Arno Pedram
Editing: Alia Malek, Isoke Samuel
Scoring: audionautix.com and bensound.com
Music: Choke Me Benalla by Mokish
Dubbing: Dominic Mitchell, Jill Shah, Sylsphée Bertili, Arno Pedram
Bibliography: Paris Noir: African-Americans in the City of Light, Tyler Stovall
Special thanks to Yasmina Edwards, Aissa Maiga, Rokhaya Diallo, Maboula Soumahoro, Tyler Stovall, Solaire Denaud, and Jo Blount for their help in telling that story.