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REBEL: Author Leila Slimani Explains Why She Doesn't Like The Word 'Race'
By
Rebecca Carroll
Published Feb 27, 2019
Modified Feb 27, 2019
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Catherine Hélie / Editions Gallimard
By
Rebecca Carroll
Published Feb 27, 2019
Modified Feb 27, 2019
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REBEL is Rebecca Carroll's regular conversation on race and pop culture. You can hear Rebecca talk about these issues with guests on Wednesday mornings on WNYC, or participate in one of Rebel's regular conversations in The Greene Space.
When bestselling French-Moroccan author Leila Slimani, whose novel, Adèle, is one of the most anticipated releases in 2019 told me "I don’t believe in race" during this week’s REBEL conversation, I was kind of stunned.
“In France, we never use this word,” she said. “You have a nationality, or you have maybe an ethnicity, an identity, but I don’t like this word.”
I recognize, of course, that race is an American-centered social construct, but even if you are from another country, it seems to me that its power and impact should be acknowledged. So I turned to one of my oldest friends, Sarah, who is a dual French and American citizen, lives and works as an educator in France, and previously lived in Gabon, Africa, for over a decade. I knew she would have some salient thoughts on notions of race abroad
“In France,” Sarah said, “children in middle school are taught that races of humans do not exist scientifically. Races of animals exist, but humans are all homo sapiens and therefore the word ‘race’ is not used in relationship to people.”
I’m sorry, what now? But don’t they learn about race and racism in America? I asked her.
“They learn about racism in the U.S. and in France, using the word racism, but not classifying people using the word ‘race’—when I have taught teens about race relations in the U.S. they are shocked that they use the word race, as they find it unhuman.”
None of this means that Leila Slimani is obliged to write black and brown characters into her novels, but it did make me wonder if our insistence on holding onto the meaning of race in America is hurting us more than helping us—and whether France’s insistence that race doesn’t exist, much less matter, is dismissive or enlightened. Ultimately, though, race in America, and the world over, continues to demarcate and impact people in deeply institutionalized ways. It’s more than a word or a construct, and the way we talk about it — in both fiction and nonfiction, in America and abroad—is fraught, but remains, especially now, a necessary part of the global conversation.
Listen to Rebecca Carroll's REBEL conversation with Leila Slimani, covering race, 'Adèle,' and more:
Rebecca Carroll is a cultural critic and Editor of Special Projects at WNYC, where she develops, produces and hosts a broad array of multi-platform content, including podcasts, live events and on-air broadcasts. Rebecca is also the author of several interview-based books about race and blackness in America, including the award-winning Sugar in the Raw, and her personal essays, cultural commentary and opinion pieces have been published widely. Her memoir, Surviving the White Gaze, is due out from Simon & Schuster in 2020.
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