Colonial authorities forced Europeans into a stark for-or-against choice at the outset

Evidence

From the very beginning, the colonialists would attack us, would ask us point-blank to choose, to be for or against the fellagha, to be for France or “anti-France.” In the beginning we still were bewitched. Refusing to take a position on the problem, we took refuge in protests against the brutalities of the repression. — Frantz Fanon, A Dying Colonialism, 545

Categorization

  • XREF: connects to: The FLN deliberately refused to showcase European participants to avoid colonial-style tokenism; Affirming Europeans’ free choice to leave defuses their colonial anxiety and enables honest dialogue; Colonial troops faced a forced choice between joining insurgents or dying (+2 more)