A Short History of the French #BlackLivesMatter Movement

Description

Tristan Cabello, a historian of American cultures and politics and associate program director in the Johns Hopkins Advanced Academic Programs, will give a talk titled "#LesViesNoiresComptent: A Short History of the French #BlackLivesMatter Movement." This event is hosted by the Advanced Academic Programs Committee on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion.

This talk will analyze the history of modern French anti-racist movements (#BlackLivesMatter, Le Comité Adama, and other grassroots organizations). Following the murder of George Floyd in May 2020, the French uprisings, led by the Comité Adama, were regarded as responses to the American Black Lives Matter movement. In this talk, Tristan Cabello will discuss France's anti-racist movements' local developments, own political dynamics, contextual environments, and historical trajectories, which are not always connected to U.S. anti-racist movements. This talk will also compare current anti-racist campaigns in France and in the U.S. Finally, we will show how French anti-racist movements have fundamentally altered France's intellectual and political Left, opening new complex avenues for political discourses, in a country preparing for an upcoming presidential election, and struggling to define égalité and laicité in the 21st century.