Mixed Race Studies

Brazil through French Eyes: A Nineteenth-Century Artist in the Tropics

University of New Mexico Press
October 2015
264 pages
59 halftones
6 x 9 in.
Hardcover ISBN: 978-0-8263-3745-0

Ana Lucia Araujo, Professor of History
Howard University, Washington, D.C.

In 1858 François-Auguste Biard, a well-known sixty-year-old French artist, arrived in Brazil to explore and depict its jungles and the people who lived there. What did he see and how did he see it? In this book historian Ana Lucia Araujo examines Biard’s Brazil with special attention to what she calls his “tropical romanticism”: a vision of the country with an emphasis on the exotic.

Biard was not only one of the first European artists to encounter and depict native Brazilians, but also one of the first travelers to photograph the rain forest and its inhabitants. His 1862 travelogue Deux années en Brésil includes 180 woodcuts that reveal Brazil’s reliance on slave labor as well as describe the landscape, flora, and fauna, with lively narratives of his adventures and misadventures in the rain forest. Thoroughly researched, Araujo places Biard’s work in the context of the European travel writing of the time and examines how representations of Brazil through French travelogues contributed and reinforced cultural stereotypes and ideas about race and race relations in Brazil. She further summarizes that similar representations continue and influence perspectives today.

France’s Approach to Fighting Racism: Pretty Words and Magical Thinking

The Huffington Post
2015-05-07

Crystal Fleming, Assistant Professor of Sociology
Stony Brook University, The State University of New York

I first came to France twelve years ago during my junior year abroad. I was the first person in my family to get a passport and I could barely contain my excitement. In the winter of 2003, two years before the riots that followed the untimely deaths of 15 year old Zyed Benna and 17 year old Bouna Traore, I landed in Paris bright-eyed and bushy tailed, armed with a very shaky grasp of French and a naive fascination with this beautiful country.

As an African-American, I was vaguely aware that France did not deal with issues of race the way we do in the United States. And when I happened to forget, French white people were keen to remind me. In one of the sociology classes I took at a university in the south of France, I hesitantly raised my hand to ask a question. The white French professor had been lecturing on youth and delinquency. I asked, in my broken French, if the dynamics he described had any relation to racial or ethnic belonging. “We don’t have that kind of problem here,” he said, adding: “This isn’t the United States.” Embarrassed and flustered, I nodded and continued taking notes. After class, one of the only other black students pulled me aside: “We do have those kinds of problems here. Hang out with me and I’ll tell you about it.”…

…In France, it is illegal for the government to include race or ethnicity on the census, as doing so is framed as a violation of so-called “Republican” values, which insist that the French Republic is “indivisible” and should not be distinguished in terms of race or ethnic origin. The problem with this is that the majority population fails to acknowledge that the Republic has been making racial and ethnic distinctions for a very long time. This, too, stems from denial and ignorance. The truth is that French people who cherish dominant interpretations of “colorblind” Republicanism help maintain the racial status quo. By refusing to support the collection of statistics that could be used to generate policies and measure their effectiveness, they undermine the work of minorities and activists who are working hard to counteract the tide of Republican denial.

While some argue that France doesn’t need more data to fight racism, this almost argument is never made concerning sexism. Most people are aware that sexism exists, but it would be absurd to say: “We already know sexism exists and therefore don’t need data on gender discrimination..” Yet, this is the same kind of magical thinking that prevails in much of the so-called “anti-racist” discourse one encounters in France…

Read the entire article here.

Race: An Introduction

Cambridge University Press
August 2015
272 pages
13 b/w illus. 4 tables
245 x 190 x 12 mm
Hardback ISBN: 9781107034112
Paperback ISBN: 9781107652286

Peter Wade, Professor of Social Anthropology
University of Manchester

Taking a comparative approach, this textbook is a concise introduction to race. Illustrated with detailed examples from around the world, it is organised into two parts. Part One explores the historical changes in ideas about race from the ancient world to the present day, in different corners of the globe. Part Two outlines ways in which racial difference and inequality are perceived and enacted in selected regions of the world. Examining how humans have used ideas of physical appearance, heredity and behaviour as criteria for categorising others, the text guides students through provocative questions such as: what is race? Does studying race reinforce racism? Does a colour-blind approach dismantle, or merely mask, racism? How does biology feed into concepts of race? Numerous case studies, photos, figures and tables help students to appreciate the different meanings of race in varied contexts, and end-of-chapter research tasks provide further support for student learning.

• Combines a broad historical overview (from the ancient world to the present day) with wide geographical and comparative coverage to show that race means different things in different contexts
• Detailed historical and ethnographic material in textboxes, figures, photos and tables demonstrates the operation of race in everyday life
• Offers an up-to-date, critical overview of a fast-changing field

Contents

• List of figures
• List of tables
• Preface
• Acknowledgements
• 1 Knowing ‘race’
  • 1.1 Chronology of race
  • 1.2 Is race defined by appearance, biology and nature?
  • 1.3 Culture, appearance and biology revisited
  • 1.4 Race, comparatively and historically
  • 1.5 Comparisons
  • 1.6 Race in the history of Western modernity
  • Conclusion: so what is race?
  • Further research
• Part I race in time
  • 2 Early approaches to understanding human variation
    • 2.1 Nature and culture
    • 2.2 Ancient Greece and Rome
    • 2.3 Medieval and early modern Europe
    • 2.4 New World colonisation
    • Conclusion
    • Further research
  • 3 From Enlightenment to eugenics
    • 3.1 Transitions
    • 3.2 Changing racial theories
    • 3.3 The spread of racial theory: nation, class, gender and religion
    • 3.4 Nature, culture and race
    • 3.5 Black reaction
    • Conclusion
    • Further research
  • 4 Biology, culture and genomics
    • 4.1 Darwin (again), genetics and the concept of population
    • 4.2 Boas and the separation of biology and culture
    • 4.3 Nazism, World War II and decolonisation
    • 4.4 UNESCO and after
    • 4.5 The persistence of race in science
    • 4.6 Race and IQ
    • 4.7 Race and sport
    • 4.8 Race, genomics and medicine: does race have a genetic basis?
    • 4.9 Race, genomics and medicine: racialising populations
    • Conclusion
    • Further activities
  • 5 Race in the era of cultural racism: politics and the everyday
    • 5.1 Introduction
    • 5.2 The institutional presence of race
    • 5.3 Race, nature and biology in the everyday world of culture
    • Conclusion
    • Further research
• Part II Race in practice
  • 6 Latin America: mixture and racism
    • 6.1 Introduction
    • 6.2 Latin America and mestizaje
    • 6.3 Colombia: racial discrimination and social movements
    • 6.4 Structural disadvantage, region and mestizaje: lessons from Colombia
    • 6.5 Brazil: variations on a theme
    • 6.6 Guatemala: racial ambivalence
    • 6.7 Performing and embodying race in the Andes
    • Conclusion
    • Further research
  • 7 The United States and South Africa: segregation and desegregation
    • 7.1 Changing US demographics
    • 7.2 Caste and class in segregated Southern towns
    • 7.3 Black reaction and ‘desegregation’
    • 7.4 Segregation in practice: ‘the ghetto’
    • 7.5 Latinos and brownness
    • 7.6 South Africa
    • Conclusion
    • Further activities
  • 8 Race in Europe: immigration and nation
    • 8.1 European histories of race
    • 8.2 Issues in post-colonial migration in Europe
    • 8.3 White Britons in Leicestershire
    • 8.4 Asian Leicester
    • 8.5 The Asian gang in London
    • 8.6 Geographies of race in black Liverpool
    • 8.7 Algerians in France
    • Conclusion
    • Further activities
  • 9 Conclusion
    • 9.1 Theorising race
    • 9.2 Globalising race
    • 9.3 The future of race
  • References
  • Index

Zélie Asava: mixed-race identities and representation in Irish, U.S. and French cinemas

African Women in Cinema Blog
2015-02-28

Beti Ellerson, Director
Centre for the Study and Research of African Women in Cinema

Interview with Zélie Asava by Beti Ellerson, February 2015.

Zélie Asava of Irish-Kenyan parentage with English citizenship, is a lecturer in film and media theory and national cinemas at Dundalk IT and University College Dublin. She explores mixed-raced identities and its representation in Irish, U.S. and French cinemas.

Zélie could you talk a bit about yourself?

I was born in Dublin to Irish and Kenyan parents. Having lived in London previously, they decided to raise me there. As an adult I moved back to Ireland, to go home and develop my career in academia. While, Dublin is a fascinating city with a great cultural scene, I found the experience much more troubling than anticipated due to the growth in racism during the economic boom of the late ‘90s/early 2000s (see my piece for The Evening Herald newspaper).

As an undergraduate, I became involved in student anti-racism movements at University College Dublin and Trinity College Dublin, and worked with community groups. During my MA at the University of Sussex and PhD at University College Dublin I studied the representations of black and mixed-race characters in French and American cinema, while pursuing work as an actress and journalist. In my professional life I have also worked in politics and equal opportunities consultancy, and lived in Canada and France, before becoming a lecturer.

How has your identity influenced your interest in racial representations?

This personal and academic experience prompted me to explore what it meant to be black and Irish from a theoretical and social perspective. I studied the history of black and mixed-race people in Ireland and their representation onscreen, and began to develop research papers on the subject which finally became the book, The Black Irish Onscreen: Representing Black and Mixed-Race Identities on Irish Film and Television (Peter Lang, 2013).

Due to the cinematic context of my research, the mixed characters I analyse are mostly of African/European heritage, mostly female and mostly heterosexual (following dominant representations). By uncovering, deconstructing and critiquing these representations my work contributes to opening up spaces for new filmmakers, new screen visualizations of raced characters and new understandings of race and racism…

Read the entire interview here.

In France, a Baby Switch and a Test of a Mother’s Love

The New York Times
2015-02-24

Maïa de la Baume

GRASSE, France — When Sophie Serrano finally held her daughter, Manon, in her arms after the newborn, suffering from jaundice, had been placed under artificial light, she was taken aback by the baby’s thick tufts of hair.

“I hadn’t noticed it before and it surprised me,” Ms. Serrano said in an interview at her home here in southern France, not far from the Côte d’Azur.

Ms. Serrano, now 39, was baffled again a year later, when she noticed that her baby’s hair had grown frizzy and that her skin color was darker than hers or her partner’s.

But her love for the child trumped any doubts. Even as her relationship unraveled, in part, she said, over her partner’s suspicions, she painstakingly looked after the baby until a paternity test more than 10 years later showed that neither she nor her partner were Manon’s biological parents. Ms. Serrano later found out that a nurse had accidentally switched babies and given them to the wrong mothers…

…Ms. Serrano’s love for Manon, she said, grew stronger after she learned that the girl was not her biological daughter. She also said that, after meeting the girl she had given birth to, she felt no particular connection with her.

“It is not the blood that makes a family,” Ms. Serrano said. “What makes a family is what we build together, what we tell each other. And I have created a wonderful bond with my nonbiological daughter.”…

Read the entire article here.

Footprints of my other

2012
52 minutes

Claude Haffner

Born to a mixed race couple in the DRC, then Zaire, in the 1970s, Claude Haffner is part Congolese, part French.

From her family home in France, Claude Haffner embarks on a journey in search of her African identity. She is of mixed race, born in 1976 to a French father and a Congolese mother in Zaïre (today’s Democratic Republic of the Congo). Pierre Haffner, her father, passed away in 2000, and having become a specialist on African art and cinema, he left behind a collection of African art together with photos and taped accounts about Congo and Africa. This is the starting point of Claude’s investigation. She delves into their shared material, intellectual and psychological heritage. She interviews her mother who still lives in France about her country, her family and her history. In the search of answers to her questions she returns, alone this time, to Mbuji-Mayi, the capital of Kasaï and the centre of the diamond trade. Michou, her cousin travels with her to the heart of the diamond fields. Despite unemployment, poverty and lack of activity the inhabitants of Mbuji-Mayi remain hopeful owing to the new governor’s development policies.

Race and Racisms: A Critical Approach

Oxford University Press
2014-08-01
528 pages
7-1/2 x 9-1/4 inches
Paperback ISBN: 9780199920013

Tanya Maria Golash-Boza, Associate Professor of Sociology
University of California, Merced

Race and Racisms: A Critical Approach engages students in critical questions related to racial dynamics in the U.S. and around the world. Written in accessible, straightforward language, the book discusses and critically analyzes cutting-edge scholarship in the field. Organized into topics and concepts rather than discrete racial groups, the text addresses:

• How and when the idea of race was created and developed
• How structural racism has worked historically to reproduce inequality
• How we have a society rampant with racial inequality, even though most people do not consider themselves to be racist
• How race, class, and gender work together to create inequality and identities
• How immigration policy in the United States has been racialized
• How racial justice could be imagined and realized

Centrally focused on racial dynamics, Race and Racisms also incorporates an intersectional perspective, discussing the intersections of racism, patriarchy, and capitalism.

Table of Contents

• List of Excerpts
• Letter from the Author
• About the Author
• Preface
• Part I: The History of the Idea of Race
  • 1. The Origin of the Idea of Race
    • Defining Race and Racism
    • Race: The Evolution of an Ideology
    • Historical Precedents to the Idea of Race
    • Slavery Before the Idea of Race
    • European Encounters with Indigenous Peoples of the Americas
    • Voices: The Spanish Treatment of Indigenous Peoples
    • The Enslavement of Africans
    • The Need for Labor in the Thirteen Colonies
    • The Legal Codification of Racial Differences
    • Voices: From Bullwhip Days
    • The Rise of Science and the Question of Human Difference
    • European Taxonomies
    • Scientific Racism in the Nineteenth Century
    • The Indian Removal Act: The Continuation of Manifest Destiny
    • Freedom and Slavery in the United States
    • Global View: The Idea of Race in Latin America
  • 2. Race and Citizenship from the 1840s to the 1920s
    • The Continuation of Scientific Racism
    • Measuring Race: From Taxonomy to Measurement
    • Intelligence Testing
    • Eugenics
    • Voices: Carrie Buck
    • Exclusionary Immigration Policies
    • The Chinese Exclusion Act
    • The Johnson-Reed Act of 1924
    • Birthright Citizenship for Whites Only
    • Naturalization for “Free White People”
    • How the Irish, Italians, and Jews Became White
    • The Irish: From Celts to Whites
    • The Italians: From Mediterraneans to Caucasians
    • The Jews: From Hebrews to White
    • African Americans and Native Americans: The Long, Troubled Road to Citizenship
    • African Americans and the Long Road to Freedom
    • Native Americans: Appropriating Lands, Assimilating Tribes
• Part II: Racial Ideologies
  • 3. Racial Ideologies from the 1920s to the Present
    • Voices: Trayvon Martin
    • The 1920s to 1965: Egregious Acts in the Era of Overt Racism
    • Mass Deportation of Mexicans and Mexican Americans
    • Internment of Japanese and Japanese Americans
    • Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment
    • Voices: Fred Toyosaburo Korematsu
    • The Civil Rights Movement and the Commitment to Change
    • Rosa Parks and the Montgomery Bus Boycott
    • Sit-Ins
    • Freedom Rides
    • Old Versus New Racism: The Evolution of an Ideology
    • Biological Racism
    • Cultural Racism
    • Color-Blind Universalism
    • Global View: Cultural Racism in Peru
    • The Maintenance of Racial Hierarchy: Color-Blind Racism
    • Four Frames of Color-Blind Racism
    • Rhetorical Strategies of Color-Blind Racism
    • The New Politics of Race: Racism in the Age of Obama
  • 4. The Spread of Ideology: “Controlling Images” and Racism in the Media
    • Portrayals of People of Color on Television and in Other Media
    • Portrayals of Blacks
    • Portrayals of Latino/as
    • Research Focus: The Hot Latina Stereotype in Desperate Housewives
    • Portrayals of Arabs and Arab Americans
    • Portrayals of Asians and Asian Americans
    • Portrayals of Native Americans
    • Racial Stereotypes in Films
    • Global View: Racial Stereotypes in Peruvian Television
    • New Media Representations
    • Video Games
    • Social Media
    • Voices: I Am Not Trayvon Martin
    • Media Images and Racial Inequality
    • Raced, Classed, and Gendered Media Images
  • 5. Colorism and Skin-Color Stratification
    • The History of Colorism
    • Research Focus: Latino Immigrants and the U.S. Racial Order
    • The Origins of Colorism in the Americas
    • Does Colorism Predate Colonialism? The Origins of Colorism in Asia and Africa
    • The Global Color Hierarchy
    • Asia and Asian Americans
    • Latin America and Latinos/as
    • Voices: The Fair-Skin Battle
    • Africa and the African Diaspora
    • Voices: Colorism and Creole Identity
    • Skin Color, Gender, and Beauty
  • 6. White Privilege and the Changing U.S. Racial Hierarchy
    • White Privilege
    • Research Focus: White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack
    • Whiteness, Class, Gender, and Sexuality
    • Whiteness and Racial Categories in Twenty-First-Century America
    • Latino/as and the Multiracial Hierarchy
    • The Other Whites: Arab Americans, North Africans, Middle Easterners, and Their Place in the U.S. Racial Hierarchy
    • Multiracial Identification and the U.S. Racial Hierarchy
    • Voices: Brandon Stanford: “My Complexion Is Not Black but I Am Black”
    • Will the United States Continue to Be a White-Majority Society?
    • Global View: Social, Cultural, and Intergenerational Whitening in Latin America
    • Changes in Racial and Ethnic Classifications
    • Revisiting the Definitions of Race and Ethnicity
• Part III: Policy & Institutions
  • 7. Understanding Racial Inequality Today: Socio logical Theories of Racism
    • Racial Discrimination, Prejudice, and Institutional Racism
    • Individual Racism
    • Voices: Microaggressions
    • Institutional Racism
    • Global View: Microaggressions in Peru
    • Systemic and Structural Racism
    • Systemic Racism
    • Structural Racism
    • Research Focus: Systemic Racism and Hurricane Katrina
    • Racial Formation: Its Contributions and Its Critics
    • White Supremacy and Settler Colonialism
    • Research Focus: Applying Settler Colonialism Theory
    • Intersectional Theories of Race and Racism
  • 8. Educational Inequality
    • The History of Educational Inequality
    • Indian Schools
    • Segregation and Landmark Court Cases
    • The Persistence of Racial Segregation in the Educational System
    • Affirmative Action in Higher Education
    • Educational Inequality Today
    • Research Focus: American Indian/Alaska Native College Student Retention
    • The Achievement Gap: Sociological Explanations for Persistent Inequality
    • Global View: Affirmative Action in Brazil
    • Parental Socioeconomic Status
    • Cultural Explanations: “Acting White” and Other Theories
    • Tracking
    • Social and Cultural Capital and Schooling
    • Hidden Curricula
    • Voices: Moesha
    • Research Focus: Rosa Parks Elementary and the Hidden Curriculum
  • 9. Income and Labor Market Inequality
    • Income Inequality by Race, Ethnicity, and Gender
    • Dimensions of Racial Disparities in the Labor Market
    • Disparities Among Women
    • Disparities Among Latinos and Asian Americans
    • Underemployment, Unemployment, and Joblessness
    • Voices: Jarred
    • Sociological Explanations for Income and Labor Market Inequality
    • Voices: Francisco Pinto’s Experiences in 3-D Jobs
    • Individual-Level Explanations
    • Structural Explanations
    • Research Focus: Discrimination in a Low-Wage Labor Market
    • Affirmative Action
    • Entrepreneurship and Self-Employment 260
    • Global View: Racial Discrimination in Australia
  • 10. Inequality in Housing and Wealth
    • Land Ownership After Slavery
    • Residential Segregation
    • The Creation of Residential Segregation
    • Discriminatory and Predatory Lending Practices
    • Research Focus: The Role of Real Estate in Creating Segregated Cities
    • Neighborhood Segregation Today
    • Voices: A Tale of Two Families
    • Wealth Inequality
    • Inequality in Homeownership and Home Values
    • Wealth Inequality Beyond Homeownership
    • Explaining the Wealth Gap in the Twenty-First Century
  • 11. Racism and the Criminal Justice System
    • Mass Incarceration in the United States
    • The Rise of Mass Incarceration
    • Mass Incarceration in a Global Context
    • Race and Mass Incarceration
    • Global View: Prisons in Germany and the Netherlands
    • The Inefficacy of Mass Incarceration
    • Voices: Kemba Smith
    • Mass Incarceration and the War on Drugs
    • Race, Class, Gender, and Mass Incarceration
    • Institutional Racism in the Criminal Justice System
    • Racial Profiling
    • Sentencing Disparities
    • The Ultimate Sentence: Racial Disparities in the Death Penalty
    • Voices: Troy Davis
    • The Economics of Mass Incarceration
    • Private Prisons
    • The Prison-Industrial Complex
    • Beyond Incarceration: Collateral Consequences
    • The Impact of Mass Incarceration on Families and Children
    • The Lifelong Stigma of a Felony: “The New Jim Crow”
    • Research Focus: Can Felons Get Jobs?
  • 12. Health Inequalities, Environmental Racism, and Environmental Justice
    • The History of Health Disparities in the United States
    • Involuntary Experimentation on African Americans
    • Free Blacks as Mentally and Physically Unfit
    • Explaining Health Disparities by Race and Ethnicity Today
    • Socioeconomic Status and Health Disparities by Race/Ethnicity
    • Segregation and Health
    • Research Focus: Health and Social Inequity in Alameda County, California
    • The Effects of Individual Racism on the Health of African Americans
    • Life-Course Perspectives on African American Health
    • Culture and Health
    • Global View: Health and Structural Violence in Guatemala
    • Genetics, Race, and Health
    • Voices: Race, Poverty, and Postpartum Depression
    • Environmental Racism
    • Movements for Environmental Justice
    • Voices: The Holt Family of Dickson, Tennessee
  • 13. Racism, Nativism, and Immigration Policy
    • Voices: Robert Bautista-Denied Due Process
    • The Racialized History of U.S. Immigration Policy
    • Race and the Making of U.S. Immigration Policies: 1790 to 1924
    • Global View: Whitening and Immigration Policy in Brazil
    • Nativism Between 1924 and 1964: Mass Deportation of Mexicans and the McCarran Internal Security Act
    • The 1965 Immigration and Nationality Act and the Changing Face of Immigration
    • Illegal Immigration and Policy Response
    • The Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 (IRCA ) and Nativism
    • Proposition 187 and the Lead-Up to the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996 (II RIRA)
    • The 1996 Laws and the Detention and Deportation of Black and Latino Immigrants
    • Voices: Hector, a Guatemalan Deportee
    • Nativism in the Twenty-First Century
• Part IV: Contesting & Comparing Racial Injustices
  • 14. Racial Justice in the United States Today
    • Perspectives on Racial Justice
    • Recognition, Responsibility, Reconstruction, and Reparations
    • Civil Rights
    • Human Rights
    • Moving Beyond Race
    • Intersectional Analyses: Race, Class, Gender
    • Racism and Capitalism
    • Struggles for Racial Justice
    • Racial Justice and the Foreclosure Crisis
    • DREAMers and the Fight for Justice
    • Voices: Fighting Against Foreclosures: A Racial Justice Story
    • Racial Justice and Empathy
  • 15. Thinking Globally: Race and Racisms in France, South Africa, and Brazil
    • How Do Other Countries Differ from the United States in Racial Dynamics?
    • Race and Racism in France
    • French Colonies in Africa
    • The French Antilles
    • African Immigration to France
    • Discrimination and Racial and Ethnic Inequality in France Today
    • Voices: The Fall 2005 Uprisings in the French Banlieues
    • Race and Racism in South Africa
    • Colonialism in South Africa: The British and the Dutch
    • The Apartheid Era (1948-1994)
    • The Persistence of Inequality in the Post-Apartheid Era
    • Research Focus: The Politics of White Youth Identity in South Africa
    • Race and Racism in Brazil
    • Portuguese Colonization and the Slave Trade in Brazil
    • Whitening Through Immigration and Intermarriage
    • The Racial Democracy Myth in Brazil and Affirmative Action
    • Racial Categories in Brazil Today
    • Research Focus: Racial Ideology and Black-White Interracial Marriages in Rio de Janeiro
• Glossary
• References
• Credits
• Index

Science in support of racial mixture: Charles-Augustin Vandermonde’s Enlightenment program for improving the health and beauty of the human species

Endeavor
Available online 2013-12-25 (Corrected Proof)
DOI: 10.1016/j.endeavour.2013.11.001

Clara Pinto-Correia
Instituto de Investigação Científica Bento da Rocha Cabral, Lisboa, Portugal
Centro de Estudos de História e Filosofia das Ciências, Évora, Portugal

João Lourenço Monteiro
Departamento de Ciências Sociais Aplicadas
Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Portugal

In 1756, while he was regent of the Faculté de Médecine in Paris, Charles-Augustin Vandermonde published his Essai sur la Manière de Perfectionner l’Espèce Humaine. This treatise was situated within the French-led medical movement of meliorism, meant to increase public health by boosting the medical arrangement of marriages from all strata of society. What made Vandermonde different from his colleagues is that he was not just looking for a way to improve the health of society: he was also proposing a series of measures meant to increase the beauty of humankind. And, for the first time in the history of European medicine, he advocated mixed-race couplings as a means to obtain the best results. This latter development is so unexpected in the global setting of the Enlightenment that we could arguably hail Vandermonde as the founding father of what Michel Foucault later called ‘biopolitique’.

Read or purchase the article here.

The Métis of Senegal: Urban Life and Politics in French West Africa

Indiana University Press
2013-03-18
296 pages
9 b&w illustrations, 5 maps
6 x 9
Paperback ISBN: 978-0-253-00674-5
Cloth ISBN: 978-0-253-00673-8
eBook (PDF) ISBN: 978-0-253-00705-6

Hilary Jones, Assistant Professor of History
University of Maryland, College Park

The Métis of Senegal is a history of politics and society among an influential group of mixed-race people who settled in coastal Africa under French colonialism. Hilary Jones describes how the métis carved out a niche as middleman traders for European merchants. As the colonial presence spread, the métis entered into politics and began to assert their position as local elites and power brokers against French rule. Many of the descendants of these traders continue to wield influence in contemporary Senegal. Jones’s nuanced portrait of métis ascendency examines the influence of family connections, marriage negotiations, and inheritance laws from both male and female perspectives.

Table of Contents

• Introduction: Urban Life, Politics, and French Colonialism
• 1. Signares, Habitants, and Grumets in the Making of Saint Louis
• 2. Métis Society and Transformations in the Colonial Economy (1820-1870)
• 3. Religion, Marriage, and Material Culture
• 4. Education, Association, and an Independent Press
• 5. From Outpost to Empire
• 6. Electoral Politics and the Métis (1870-1890)
• 7. Urban Politics and the Limits of Republicanism (1890-1920)
• Conclusion
• Appendix: Family Histories
• Notes
• Bibliography
• Index

Exclusive: Sonia Rolland talks activism, new film

Euromight: Your Guide to Afro-Europe
2013-04-15

Epée Hervé Dingong

Sonia Rolland, (Miss France 2000), is an actress and model who has been outspoken about racial issues in the film and fashion industries, and in the media. In this exclusive interview she talks about her work, politics and what it means to be “black” in France.

After being Miss France how did you become a successful actress?

It took a lot of work because I had to convince the acting community that a beauty queen could be an actress. I always wanted to act, but becoming Miss France wasn’t the right way to pursue that goal. When you’ve been Miss France you have always that label. Determination and willingness were the keys and today people talk about me as an actress…

…Do you think you would have more roles in if you were not black or a woman?

It’s not clear-cut when you are mixed race because they don’t know where to put you. If I was totally black I would be put in that category, but I’m mixed, so that’s another thing for them to deal with. However, I was Miss France. Though advantages can mean more difficulties, but that doesn’t stop me. It makes me stronger. I’ve done many projects including Desordres, (her new film) and this summer I’ll be in Michigan shooting a movie called “Radio Days” where I play a French Senegalese woman, then I’ll appear in French filmmaker Tavernier’s movie Quai D’Orsay. I also do the Mixa commercial on TV, which gives me permanent visibility…

Read the entire interview here.