Pied noir racism toward Algerians was rooted in indifference rather than overt hatred

Evidence

If the pied noir attitude to the indigenous Algerian could be summed up in a word, it was, simply, indifference. He was regarded, says Pierre Nora, “as an anonymous figure of whom it sufficed to know that one provided his welfare, so that one had no need to be concerned about him”. In so far as he supplied the labour essential for exploiting the country, he was simply “a part of the patrimoine immobilier [real estate inheritance]”. At best he would be treated with paternalism, fairness and a kind of formal acceptance of his different religion and culture. But too often he was regarded with disdain, and from a vantage of superiority; which manifested itself in many different ways, and more insidiously among the poorer levels of whites where the frictional contact was closest. Bicot, melon, figuier, sale raton — there was a plethora of derogatory slang for an inferior race that sprang all to readily to the lips. Equally a host of preconceived inherited notions about the Algerian were accepted uncritically, without examining either their veracity or causation: he was incorrigibly idle and incompetent; he only understood force; he was an innate criminal, and an instinctive rapist. — Horne, Alistair, A Savage War of Peace- Algeria 1954-1962, 161

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the reader’s theme of dehumanization enabling colonial violence, paralleling accounts of ‘savage war’ ideology. — connects to: Pied noir beliefs about lazy Algerian workers masked malnutrition’s effects; Pied noir soldiers balked at shooting Muslim demonstrators to save Algérie française; Pied noir settlers related to Algerians through indifference and paternalism (+7 more)

Related

• Pied noir settlers related to Algerians through indifference and paternalism (similarity 0.91)
• Pied noir soldiers balked at shooting Muslim demonstrators to save Algérie française (similarity 0.88)
• Pied noir beliefs about lazy Algerian workers masked malnutrition’s effects (similarity 0.88)
• Pied noir survival in Algeria was untenable even without O.A.S. violence (similarity 0.81)
• Pied noir culture contained a capacity for reflex violence. (similarity 0.81)
• Muslims and pieds noirs were separated by incompatible religious, cultural and economic orientations (similarity 0.81)
• Pieds noirs actually wanted economic privilege, not formal French Algeria (similarity 0.81)
• Pied noir denial and metropolitan complacency froze Algeria into a vicious deadlock (similarity 0.80)
• Pieds noirs and metropolitan French spoke different political languages. (similarity 0.80)
• Algerian hierarchy ranked contempt downward from French to Arab (similarity 0.80)
• Pieds noirs never honestly wanted Algérie française but a protected white-ruled Algeria (similarity 0.80)
• Je vous ai compris carried implicit racial equality that eventually insulted the pieds noirs (similarity 0.79)
• Mediterranean sun and excess shaped the pied noir temperament more than Cartesian reason (similarity 0.79)
• Pied noirs justified Frenchness by blood shed in two world wars (similarity 0.79)
• The pieds noirs, not Muslims, triggered the events sealing Algérie française’s fate (similarity 0.79)

Broader Connections

• Pied noir denial and metropolitan complacency froze Algeria into a vicious deadlock #qualifies (0.60) — Horne, Alistair, A Savage War of Peace- Algeria 1954-1962, 332
• A lingering Algerian hatred of French rule simmers until it erupts into war #contradicts (0.55) — Horne, Alistair, A Savage War of Peace- Algeria 1954-1962, 63