Both sides in French antiracist disputes weaponized universalism against each other

Evidence

In 1971, for example, when a fifteen-year-old Algerian, Djellali Ben Ali, was killed by the husband of the concierge of his apartment block, Le Droit de Vivre seemed to place an equivalence between the two parties. Also in 1971, the LICA denounced the Association de solidarité francoarabe for targeting only anti-Arab racism, arguing that ‘Antiracism does not divide’. Ironically, this was exactly the same argument used against the LICRA in 2004 for singling out antisemitism, except that it was being used by pole two against pole one rather than vice versa. Similarly, in 1981 the LICRA was accused in the immigrant-leftist magazine Sans Frontière of making an artificial distinction between racism and antisemitism, leading to a ‘morbid competition between peoples so as to know which has the most deaths’. So, typically of the broader discourse of French antiracism, both the LICRA in 1971 and its critics in 1981 and 2004 sought to claim the moral high ground of universalism for themselves, attributing baser, particularist motives to the opposing side. — James Renton, Ben Gidley (eds.), Antisemitism and Islamophobia in Europe, 1356 (#expands, via linked claim)

Thus, while antisemitism and Islamophobia have both been realities in modern France, so have struggles against them. Moreover, those struggles do not have to be considered as zero-sum games. Rather, at their best, they have gone together. Broadly this study supports Hargreaves’ contention that, recent narrow factionalism notwithstanding, ethnic separatism is weak in France. A strong universalist thread runs through the histories of many of the movements considered here. In particular, there is a strong emphasis within many of these histories on altruism, rather than self-­interested identity politics. While it is easy to criticise this universalist approach as paternalistic and, as we have seen, often open to political manipulation, we might also ask: Is there not something admirable in its refusal to see the world in ethnic categories? What, in short, is wrong with altruism? — James Renton, Ben Gidley (eds.), Antisemitism and Islamophobia in Europe, 1400 (#complicates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Today’s French identity-politics divide derives from Cold War ideological debates.; Both sides in French antiracism disputes weaponized the accusation of particularism. — James Renton, Ben Gidley (eds.), Antisemitism and Islamophobia in…, 1356; French anti-racist activism linked antisemitism to Islamophobia beneath surface divisions (+2 more)

Broader Connections

• Both sides in French antiracism disputes weaponized the accusation of particularism. #expands (0.92) — James Renton, Ben Gidley (eds.), Antisemitism and Islamophobia in Europe, 1356
• French antiracist struggles against antisemitism and Islamophobia have often advanced together, not as rivals. #complicates (0.76) — James Renton, Ben Gidley (eds.), Antisemitism and Islamophobia in Europe, 1400
• French anti-racist activism linked antisemitism to Islamophobia beneath surface divisions #complicates (0.75)
• Antiracialism is whiteness by another name disarming antiracist struggle #complicates (0.74) — David Theo Goldberg, The Threat of Race, 126