Paris mayor to ban black feminist festival on grounds of racism

[Storebought]

From the Agence France-Press

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The Communist paper Liberation (in French) argues that the mayor has been trolled by a concerted Alt-Right Twitter campaign to have the festival cancelled on a "reverse racism" pretext.

***

Judging from the comments on Reddit, especially at the comments the Reddit forum community deliberately hid by negative ratings, Liberation's assertion is correct. The mayor even repeats the terminology used by the Front National spokesman verbatim.

Of course, a festival for "feminist Afrowomen" could very well be moved to a different venue, or being made private attendance only, but that would defeat the purpose of hosting as a festival and be a compromise of the organizers' rights to free association as French citizens.

They are also free to permit attendance by the general population, but that would pose a risk of real physical harm to the blacks/women/feminists in attendance, even beyond the issue of venues being disrupted by sexists and Neo-Nazis. This was not supposed to be a street rally.

I hope the venue agrees to host this festival since the opposition to it is completely disingenuous (being lectured to on the values of republicanism by the FN is an absolute joke).  

*corrected byline to AFP

[danny]

So what is your argument here? Are you against laws banning the exclusion of certain races in public events? Do you think they shouldn't apply if it's black people doing the exclusion? Do you think this festival doesn't violate the law?

Your post is just a lot of guilt by association and ad hominem attacks but isn't clear to me what you are complaining about.

[Storebought]

So what is your argument here? Are you against laws banning the exclusion of certain races in public events? Do you think they shouldn't apply if it's black people doing the exclusion? Do you think this festival doesn't violate the law?

Your post is just a lot of guilt by association and ad hominem attacks but isn't clear to me what you are complaining about.

You're arguing a strawman. No one is violating France's laws against racial segregation, and to imply that this festival's organizers are is grossly dishonest:

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The fact that not even the Guardian, nor the other news agencies besides Liberation reporting this, saw fit to even report this distinction, even though it is marked on the organizers' web site, shows how quickly and efficiently right wing tropes and lies spread online and how effective they are at influencing public policy.

[Helsinkian]

It's not "reverse racism", it's just racism, period.

[DavidB.]

It's not "reverse racism", it's just racism, period.

This.

[dead0man]

This is all very confusing to me.  Let me see if I have this right.
1.black ladies want to hold a black ladies only thing
2.they want do it in a facility owned by the French govt
3.non-racists and racists alike heard about this and was like...nu-huh
4.Paris mayor says nu-huh
5.black ladies say "racists online shut down our party!"

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I can't find any of this online.  Now, if it's true that they were only going to do the "black ladies (and lady assigned ladies) only" part on private property and only used the state property for the "mixed" part of their little art show then fine.  It's certainly not clear on their website.

[🦀🎂🦀🎂]

Hidalgo made the right decision.

[parochial boy]

This is all very confusing to me.  Let me see if I have this right.
1.black ladies want to hold a black ladies only thing
2.they want do it in a facility owned by the French govt
3.non-racists and racists alike heard about this and was like...nu-huh
4.Paris mayor says nu-huh
5.black ladies say "racists online shut down our party!"

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I can't find any of this online.  Now, if it's true that they were only going to do the "black ladies (and lady assigned ladies) only" part on private property and only used the state property for the "mixed" part of their little art show then fine.  It's certainly not clear on their website.

Agree with this basically, but I mainly wanted to point out that Libé has not been anything that you could call "communist" in a long time. Calling it Communist is about as nonsensical as calling the New York Times "communist".

L'Humanité is the "communist" newspaper.

[Storebought]

This is all very confusing to me.  Let me see if I have this right.
1.black ladies want to hold a black ladies only thing
2.they want do it in a facility owned by the French govt
3.non-racists and racists alike heard about this and was like...nu-huh
4.Paris mayor says nu-huh
5.black ladies say "racists online shut down our party!"

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I can't find any of this online.  Now, if it's true that they were only going to do the "black ladies (and lady assigned ladies) only" part on private property and only used the state property for the "mixed" part of their little art show then fine.  It's certainly not clear on their website.

The quoted part is from the Liberation article I linked to.

Yes, the hosting organization is apparently exclusive to black women only. Anyone not a black woman feminist can only join them by affiliation.

Their upcoming event is intended primarily, but not exclusively, for a black feminist audience.

The "exclusive" events for the black women feminists will be held in a private venue. The events open to the general public, inclusive of men and white people, will be held in a Paris cultural center.

The controversy is based on false premise that the entire festival is prohibited to white people and that the organizers will use public property as a space to engage in discrimination. I say that this false premise was spread with malicious intent.

[DavidB.]

An event "primarily, but not exclusively" for white men would never be considered acceptable for a public cultural center, even if the truly "exclusive" parts of the program would be held in a private venue.

Of course this group should feel free to organize an event "slegs vir nie-blankes" in a non-subsidized private space.

[Storebought]

An event "primarily, but not exclusively" for white men would never be considered acceptable for a public cultural center, even if the truly "exclusive" parts of the program would be held in a private venue.

Of course this group should feel free to organize an event "slegs vir nie-blankes" in a non-subsidized private space.

I disagree with your first contention. "Folk festivals" are exactly that -- public events thrown by private clubs with ethnically delimited memberships.

The big picture is that the mayor is basing her decision on an outright lie (an event "prohibited to white people" is going to be held on public property!), and a defamatory one at that. It's simply not true -- the cultural center would have rejected outright this feminist group's use of their space if it entailed crude segregation. Decisions that curtail individual rights should not be made on false precepts.

[DavidB.]

Okay, so it's an event that's only partly prohibited for white people and the part that's prohibited for white people doesn't take place in a public venue... but it's not strange for Hidalgo to tak into account the admission policy of the whole event, and not just the parts in the public venue. It's the same event.

[Storebought]

Okay, so it's an event that's only partly prohibited for white people and the part that's prohibited for white people doesn't take place in a public venue... but it's not strange for Hidalgo to tak into account the admission policy of the whole event, and not just the parts in the public venue. It's the same event.

But they do have a rationale for hosting it in their way. From experience, an event based on feminism, let alone black feminism, attracts many trolls and hooligans. There is a nontrivial probability that the participants of this event will face retaliation if it were held completely in public.  Organizers likewise have a right not be heckled for their race and gender, things they cannot control, as opposed to their beliefs in radical feminism, which are of course debatable.

[SUSAN CRUSHBONE]

pure concern trolling is what this is

[Atlas Has Shrugged]

Soon the blue-blazer crowd I've discussed a lot lately will start trying to be edgier than even now and form a "white student safe space" or something stupid like this. This sorta thing will become a slippery slope and backfire on them.

I mean, no young white male Young Republicans clubmember wouldn't want to attend this sorta thing until they tell him he can't. These problems can be avoided by simply not seeking banning other people. Who'd want to go where they aren't welcome?

Safe-spaces aren't entirely a bad concept. I like the idea of LGBT safe-spaces where gay and transpeople can meet to discuss issues that pertain only to them without interference. But when you take these things along racial lines, the situation becomes much trickier.

[Green Line]

France is a beacon of liberty and sanity.  Every day this becomes more and more clear to me.

[nicholas.slaydon]

It's not "reverse racism", it's just racism, period.

[MASHED POTATOES. VOTE!]

It's not "reverse racism", it's just racism, period.

This.

Yes, let's dispel with increasingly popular yet ridiculous option racism is exclusively white. We may argue about the scale, number of incidents, but not the principle.

[Vosem]

France is a beacon of liberty and sanity.  Every day this becomes more and more clear to me.

[Storebought]

The Mayor's office has backed off from calling off this festival, and having the organizers arrested for violating French anti-segregation laws. From Time:

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I bear no hard feelings to the Mayor for her retraction. She made her initial decision in haste, based on a concerted online Alt-Right smear campaign that was easy enough to discern and easier still to dispel. I'm glad she regained her sense of reason.

Sorry -- well, not sorry -- that these French Afrofeminists didn't give you the satisfaction of saying "Black people are racists, too!", the message that the Alt-Right was so obviously trying to propagate in their slander of these women.

[Intell]

It's not "reverse racism", it's just racism, period.

[Storebought]

It's not "reverse racism", it's just racism, period.

Which this event never was. You all get over yourselves.

[dax00]

death, taxes, french surrender.
that it's open to all in the part hosted on public land makes the event no less racist or sexist.