II.3.5.j. SUDDENLY VISIBLE BLACKS

MENU: 2.3.5.j. Suddenly visible Blacks

PEOPLE OF COLOR ARE NO LONGER IGNORED

Parisians have traditionally welcomed African-American performers...

Gospel has been sung and taught in Paris for years.

Wiki Timbres / Entrée to Black Paris for many more

Monique Wells

...most visibly Josephine Baker...

Claude Abron

Inauguration of the place Josephine Baker, 14th, with the district Mayor and the American singer Ursuline Kairson (in 2000)

...who entered the Panthéon...* 

(On November 30, 2020)

* France's secular mausoleum

Entry to Black Paris, March 21, 2021

On that occasion a journalist of the television station France 24 interviewed Monique Wells, an American Black who publishes Entry to Black Paris and guides visits about African-Americans.

...was recalled in an ad and in street art...

   

Bus stop in the 13th, november 2023; decor 2024 (Facebook, Jill Danger)

...by a coin (in 2024)...

Facebook (Ricki Stevenson)

...and by street art:

    169 boulevard de l'Hôpital, 13e (Facebook, Ricki Stevenson) 

# # #

Inserting hip hop in a classic opera goes farther because rather than ad to the current culture, it renews tradition... 

(En octobre 2019)

Les Indes galantes by Jean-Philippe Rameau, 1836, at the Opéra Bastille

...and the Marseillaise:

Axelle Saint-Cirel, of Guadeloupean origin, on the roof of the Grand Palais during the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games (in 2024).

These pages observe that change.

 

In brief 

• The City honors heroes of color

• Ads reveal the shift 

• Marketing experts advance step by step

• Is there a downside to ads' racial mix?

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Next,

The City honors heroes of color

THE CITY HONORS HEROES OF COLOR

SUDDENLY...

Of the 15 "Mariannes"* whose photos surrounded the Panthéon

to honor Women's Day, three were Black...

(In 2021)

* Marianne: the symbol of the French Republic 

 

Three Black Mariannes, " Entrée to Black Paris," March 2021

 

• Fatoumata Kébé, daughter of a Malian cleaning woman, is an astrophysicien specialized in spatial waste. 

• Others: of the film-maker Fanny Glissant and the judo champion Clarisse Agbeguenon, of Martinican and Togolese heritage respectively.

# # #

Two sculptures of Black heroes appear at the same time.

(At the General Catroux park, 17th)

• General Alexander Dumas Davy de la Pailleterie,* the herculean general of whom Napoleon was jealous. He was born into slavery as the son of Marie-Cessette Dumas, a West Indian slave, and as a child was briefly sold into slavery himself.

He is the father of Alexander Dumas.

*Podcast: Dumas and Napoleon in "Noble Blood"

Irons by Driss Sans-Arcidet / zoom

The irons evoke slavery in his memory.

General Dumas (zoom) and his statue (of 1906), demolished during the Occupation (zoom)

Black past with a short biography

• Solitude, a slave hanged for participating in a Guadeloupean revolt that Napoleon repressed (en 1802):

   By Jacky Poulier / zoom with a short biography (in French) 

The attitude she confronted

"And since nothing stops people without education, of whom violence is the essence of character, they indulged in the greatest excess [...]. Thirty thousand were in full insurrection and had already burned down 2018 sugar plantations and massacred 300 whites [...]. The merchants Le Havre and other ports offered all their armed ships for the transport of troops." 

-- Memoirs of Madame the Duchess of Tourzel, governess of the children of France,

 1957 ed, pp. 251-252

Her biography, The mulatto Solitude by André-Schwarz-Bart (1972), is fictionalized since little is known of her. But the context is real. 

The hanging took place the day after she gave birth, because the baby was valuable as a slave. 

This is the only statue of a Black woman in Paris. 

WikiTimbres / Entry to Black Paris

    This stamp appeared at the same time.

# # #

The Senate's recognition of the slave trade and slavery

as crimes against humanity is commemorated each May 10... recently with drama.

• In 2021 President Macron came to the ceremony but remained silent, though a speech by the President is traditional. A few days before he had given an oration in praise of Napoleon, who restored slavery that revolutions in the Antilles had abolished.

• Christiane Taubira, the former Minister of Justice, deputy from Guyana and driving force behind the law just mentioned, walked out in protest.

# # # 

In autumn 2022, Black popular arts appeared at...

• The City Hall métro station

Photos by Baudoin Mouanda

"Sapeurs" of Congo-Brazzaville mocked the white conquerors by exaggerating their dress, and now make overdressing an art.

• The Louvre

 "Wax" prints are worn throughout sub-Saharan Africa and almost nowhere else.

• In 2022 and again in 2023, a celebration of American Black music:

"Black legends" sign outside the 13th's mall 

 

• In 2023, Creole music on Bastille Day

    Announcement on a street in the 13th

 "JULY 14 Paris celebrates its overseas departments" 

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Next,

Ads reveal the shift

ADS REVEAL THE SHIFT

BEFORE FEBRUARY 2020, FRENCH ADS ALMOST NEVER SHOWED A PERSON OF COLOR

Then this image not only included a Black, but had him dominate a group of whites:  

         M° Arts et Métiers

Though later images were much more timid, models of color became universal.* The ads below come from the métro or the lower-middle-class 13th, so address a mass public (the last image excepted).

*The blogger Monique Wells noticed the change: For her presentation of metro posters in February 2020, please click.

# # #

In March and April 2020 models were almost entirely Black or

North African but...

• Most were single figures, which skipped rapport with whites:  

Rue Nationale

 Boulevard Vincent Auriol

Corner rues de Tolbiac / Albert Moureu

Place d'Italie

• For mixed couples, the white dominated:

Rue du Château des Rentiers

Corner rues Jeanne d'Arc / Clisson

Then came a pause: In April most ads were zooms on products, with an occasional white model.  

# # #

In September models of color returned and included Asians.

• The first image was of a baby... 

Corner, rues de Tolbiac / Château des Rentiers

• ...who became part of a wider picture, where races and genders were mixed but the white boy commanded:

Pharmacie au carrefour rue de Tolbiac / avenue de Choisy

• Then whites dominated more subtly, by being in the foreground or advancing a knee:

 

M° Nation

Avenue des Gobelins

       The Italie Deux mall

• When the figures were equal... 

 

• The Black was reassuring: pale, his coiffure dated and his outfit classic...

                      M° Châtelet

• ...unless the image targeted a progressive clientele: 

Naturalia, avenue de Choisy

"Bio:" organic

# # #

The year's end brought a multitude of Blacks. Their subordination was subtle:

• The Scandinavian sweater contradicts the butler image, camouflaging the figure's subordination...

Naturalia, rue de Tolbiac

• ...and reversing the usual heights of the man and woman attenuates the white's domination, who also advances her foot: 

Bus stop, rue de Tolbiac 

• The first image to show equality did so through children, who do not threaten (like the Asian baby above)...

The cash register at the Franprix behind rue de Tolbiac

• ...by emphasizing conventional gender roles... 

Rue de Tolbiac

• ...or by being enigmatic. The green hair and European traits make the origin of the light brown youth who dominates the group uncertain:

Rue de Tolbiac

# # # 

A single image broke the rules: The Black's careless pose, sullen expression and coiffure evoked the street. But since he wears a tux and his companion an evening gown, he is worthy of the clients... 

Most ads last a week. This one hovered over the city center, then moved to the Tuileries gardens next to the Louvre. At the start of 2021, it occupied the full last page of the influential daily Le Monde.   

 

 

 

The shiver attracts the rich.

# # #

In spite of images' ambiguity,

 Including models of color

suggests a public open to racial diversity. 

Train of thought:

This demonstration of the Yellow Vests

during the presidential election of 2022

does not mention immigration, racism or xenophobia:

Rue de Tolbiac, 13th, April 22, 2022 

This sign shows the bigoted leader Marine Le Pen

and says,"Let's get rid of this!"

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Marketing experts advance step by step