Resurrecting Slavery

Paperback, 286 pages

English language

Published Oct. 17, 2017 by Temple University Press.

ISBN:: 978-1-4399-1408-3
OCLC Number:: 948338981

(1 review)

How can politicians and ordinary citizens face the racial past in a country that frames itself as colorblind? In her timely and provocative book, Resurrecting Slavery, Crystal Fleming shows how people make sense of slavery in a nation where talking about race, colonialism, and slavery remains taboo. Noting how struggles over the meaning of racial history are informed by contemporary politics of race, she asks: What kinds of group identities are at stake today for activists and French people with ties to overseas territories where slavery took place?

Fleming investigates the connections and disconnections that are made between racism, slavery, and colonialism in France. She provides historical context and examines how politicians and commemorative activists interpret the racial past and present. Resurrecting Slavery also includes in-depth interviews with French Caribbean migrants outside the commemorative movement to address the everyday racial politics of remembrance.

Bringing a critical race perspective to the …

How can politicians and ordinary citizens face the racial past in a country that frames itself as colorblind? In her timely and provocative book, Resurrecting Slavery, Crystal Fleming shows how people make sense of slavery in a nation where talking about race, colonialism, and slavery remains taboo. Noting how struggles over the meaning of racial history are informed by contemporary politics of race, she asks: What kinds of group identities are at stake today for activists and French people with ties to overseas territories where slavery took place?

Fleming investigates the connections and disconnections that are made between racism, slavery, and colonialism in France. She provides historical context and examines how politicians and commemorative activists interpret the racial past and present. Resurrecting Slavery also includes in-depth interviews with French Caribbean migrants outside the commemorative movement to address the everyday racial politics of remembrance.

Bringing a critical race perspective to the study of French racism, Fleming’s groundbreaking study provides a more nuanced understanding of race in France along with new ways of thinking about the global dimensions of slavery, anti-blackness, and white supremacy.

1 edition

kab reviewed Resurrecting Slavery by Crystal Marie Fleming

Resurrecting Slavery

4 stars

This is a dissertation work on collective memory and commemorative activism. Although there are stretches of empirical research to wade through, it is fortunately also explicitly polemical. France is not unique as a country that refuses to acknowledge racial oppression (unless it's in America or unless it's 'reverse racism') and it clings to revisionist denial even as people justify its history of racism. This project is the start of hopefully many works of critical race theory looking at France that will infuse understanding of the racial legacies of colonialism and transatlantic slavery, connect these legacies to present-day power relations, and inspire resisting and dissolving the racial status quo.

Appendix note: I appreciated enormously her thoughts on emotional labour and the importance of affect in knowledge production.

Subjects

Race relations
Race identity
Blacks
Whites
History
Slavery
French colonies

Places

France