A colonial regime

This exceptional measure was actually created in 1955 to counter Algerian independence revolutionaries at war against colonial France. Since then, the present circumstances mark only the third time that this exceptional measure has been applied. From 1985 to 1987, in New Caledonia, it was put in place against a pro-independence anti-colonial uprising. In 2005, it was again used when revolts broke out in French inner cities, following the deaths while being chased by the police of two youths of color. In all these cases the use of such an exceptional measure was to repress colonial subjects or their descendants who today are targeted by systemic racism, leftover from the colonial era.
When proclaimed by the government, the state of emergency is not supposed to last longer than twelve days. Any extension must be approved by a Parliamentary vote. It was on November 20, granting a three-month extension.
The law also authorizes a person be put under house arrest, with permission from the Interior Minister, if there are “serious reasons to believe that his behavior is a threat to public security and order” as long as the state of emergency remains in effect. Additionally, administrative searches, data seizures and even holding minors on the site of searched premises for up to four hours are authorized. Neither a warrant nor a formal charge is required.
France advised the European Council on November twenty-fourth of its intention to forego some of the provisions of the European Convention of Human Rights.
From the very first days of the state of emergency, some prefects and the Interior Ministry began to extensively apply these measures.

Brutal and abusives searches

According to the Magistrates Union, there were almost 400 house arrests made, of which not a single one resulted in an indictment. Amnesty International has denounced searches done by the French Police in homes, restaurants, sports clubs and mosques. And according to a report by the Parliamentary Investigation Commission on the means of fighting terrorism, of the 3,594 administrative searches done, only six resulted in trials.
The Rights Defender in France received several complaints denouncing abuses tied to the state of emergency and errors regarding erroneous addresses.
In January 2016, Human Rights Watch conducted interviews of 18 people who were believed to have been placed under house arrest or searched in an abusive manner. One witness says agents broke a disabled man’s teeth before noticing that he was not the man they were looking for. A single mother had her children taken and placed in foster care following a search. Several witnesses admitted being afraid of the police and experiencing rejection and suspicion by their neighbors.
But the state of emergency has not merely served its original purpose.
Coincidentally, the UN Conference on Climate Change in Paris (COP 21) began on November 29th.
Ecology activists were planning demonstrations to disturb the peace of the world leaders attending the event.
A few days before the opening of the COP21, twenty-four of the activists, having committed no crime, were placed under house arrest that wasn’t terminated until December 12th, the date the conference ended. It seems legitimate to call it a “hijacking.”
A few months later, the country was overrun by a strong opposition to a labor reform law proposed by the government, that gave rise to frequent and massive demonstrations.
Under the specter of a “terrorist threat” the Interior Minister decided to banish certain activists from protest marches. Ten or so people in the Paris region were forbidden to participate in the May 17th march.
The right to demonstrate is protected by the Constitution and therefore is impossible to revoke. The state of emergency is no more than a convenient pretext to derogate this principle.
Add to that calling into question the freedom of speech.

Freedom of speech threatened

Even before the January 2015 attacks, the government had taken a very restrictive stance on free speech in its anti-terrorist policy. In France, hate speech falls under a unique law governing the press. Since November 2014, all statements considered to be sympathetic to terrorism or inciting terrorism are repressed under penal law.
In the fifteen days following the January attacks in Paris, 117 persons were arrested and followed on the charge of being “terrorist apologists.”
For example, a man, stopped on a tramway because he didn’t have a ticket, yelled at the conductors, “The Kouachi brothers are just the beginning. I should have been with them, to kill more people.”
This outburst is legitimately shocking but it seems highly unlikely that this man had any real intention to take part in a terrorist attack. `Yet he was jailed for ten months.
Several young people were arrested for saying, “I am not Charlie.” In Nice, an eight-year old boy was summoned with his father to a local police precinct for having declared in front of his friends, “I am not Charlie. I’m with the terrorists.” An eight year old…
This ‘Terrorism apology” notion risks being used to criminalize comments made without the necessary intention to define the infringement of a law, and without the possibility of provoking the violence mentioned.

An endless extension

Despite this climate, denounced by numerous international organizations, the state of emergency has been extended three times since the November 20th law.
On January 19th, five special UN rapporteurs called on the French government to not extend the state of emergency any further, deploring the fact that the application of the voted measures were no longer in sync with the “specific objective that inspired them.”
Notwithstanding, it was once again extended for three months on February 26 and again for two months on May 26 because of the European Soccer Championship.
During his Bastille Day speech on July 14, President Hollande announced the end of the state of emergency, saying “It would make no sense for us to prolong the state of emergency eternally. That would mean that we are no longer a republic, with a law capable of being applied in all circumstances.”
The terrible attacked committed that same evening caused the president to retract his earlier statement. On July 21, Parliament voted a six-month extension of the state of emergency.
And Prime Minister Manuel Valls has just announced his intention to once again prolong it, for which the highest administrative authority in the land, the State Council, has issued a warning indicating that “this state of crisis not be indefinitely reneAnti-terrorist specialists when asked during an parliamentary investigating commission, stated that a state of emergency in not an effective instrument; and this one, in effect since November 2015 will last until January 2017. More than a year of an exceptional state in a democratic country. What might happen if an extreme right party that could abuse this institutional imbalance at will comes to power in 2017? In the hands of an authoritarian regime, a state of emergency could be a dangerous weapon.
The trivialization of a state intended as an exceptional measure that gives excessive powers to the police constitutes a danger because it allows a disproportionate, even rogue use that saps citizens confidence in their institutions. In such a climate of defiance, hate and extremism prosper.
On the eve of an uncertain future, France, purportedly the country of human rights, must show the world that it is a healthy democracy, sure of itself and its values and able to protect the fundamental rights of its citizens.

Translation: Alberta Wilson

How do you deal with the fact of not fitting to the norm? When you’re black and live in a world designed for men and white people? When you don’t look French enough although you feel every inch Parisian? How do you make the world acknowledge who you are?

THE VIDEO IS BELOW

Adama Traore was a Black man.

While the eyes of the world have been riveted on the United States where in the same week, two Black men, Alton Sterling and Philandro Castile died at the hands of policemen, the death of a French Black man in similar circumstances does not seem to provoke the same reaction.  In the political sphere, the voices of extremists were heard spouting their nauseating gall in condemnation of  truth-seeking demonstrators. 

Tous unis avec nos policiers qui font face à la haine des émeutiers-délinquants de #BeaumontSurOise.

— Marion Le Pen (@Marion_M_Le_Pen) July 20, 2016

#BeaumontSurOise Soutien aux forces de l’ordre et à la population face aux racailles !

— Florian Philippot (@f_philippot) July 20, 2016

Artists and everyday citizens are the ones who sent messages of solidarity to the family.

On perd encore un Frere Adama Traoré paix à son âme que la terre lui soit légère #Persan #BeaumontSurOise bon courage à la famille

— #SONSOFAFRICA (@Mokobe113) July 20, 2016

Toutes mes prières pour Adama Traoré, toutes mes pensées pour ses proches. Que justice soit faite en sa mémoire. Qu’il repose en paix.

— Omar Sy (@OmarSy) July 21, 2016

Most of the media coverage has come from activists on the ground.

“Où sont les médias ? Pr parler des voitures brûlées y a du monde mais pour le reste y a personne”#BeaumontSurOise pic./woTnoJlwTJ

— Sihame Assbague (@s_assbague) July 20, 2016

La gendarmerie est sortie et a gazé et matraqué tout le monde sans sommation.
#BeaumontSurOise pic./B5oW6FltKq

— Sihame Assbague (@s_assbague) July 20, 2016

And when the media does mention this tragedy, the racial aspect is systematically omitted.  Why keep the evidence quiet?  

Adama Traore was a young Black man who lived in the inner city.  

Undoubtedly, this cost him his life.  In France, this description corresponds to the profile of those unfortunates who lose their lives each year during or following a police intervention;  this has been denounced by Amnesty International for several years.

In our country where the racism of American police are promptly denounced for being racist,  I am stunned by this incredible ability to omit the obviously racial aspect of this kind of tragedy when it occurs on our soil.

A few days after marching in New York by the sides of my #BlackLivesMatter comrades, I note with immense sadness that once again in France as in the US, racism shows itself to be the product of a system that needs urgently to be dismantled.

Justice for Adama!

Translated by Alberta Wilson

Oscar winner Lupita Nyong’o is a member of the remarkable cast, in the lead role but the other talents are impressive as well:  Pascale Armand, Akous Busia, Zainab Jah and Saycon Sengbloh.
The powerful script is well rendered by the impeccable interpretation of these women that we would love to see more often and on the big screen.
If you are in New York or are just passing through, I recommend you see it!

Translated by Alberta Wilson

The performance opens up on a jail-like setting, four cells in which black men are locked up. One of them played a melancholic melody on the saxophone: the sound of Terrace Martin. You could also see black men out of these jail cells, in chains and shackles, walking up the stage in rhythm, led by the artist himself. At a time when black artists are seriously considering boycotting award shows due to the lack of diversity, Kendrick Lamar caused quite a stir by performing “The Blacker the Berry”, in a set that brings to mind middle passage of the slave trade. By staging such a painful chapter of American history, he chose to shine the spotlight on the black narrative and reclaim it on prime time National television. The jail décor echoed the slavery imagery embodied by the chains and shackles, suggesting that the mass incarceration of black males is a form of modern day slavery, with inmates’ underpaid labor benefitting big corporations.

Slavery imagery suggesting mass incarceration

The verse he chose to perform depicts quite a few stereotypes assigned to black men, “the bottom of mankind”, and the racial animosity that has been expressed towards coloreds for centuries. His verse is punctuated by the voice of reggae DJ Assassin singing the chorus and chanting: “every race start from the black, remember that”. The chorus comes as a liberation as all prisoners break free from their chains before entering in a dance trance by Krumping and Flexing. Anybody familiar with both dance styles would tell you that Krumping is a style which originated in LA and aims at channeling pain, rage and anger in a constructive way through dancing. Flexing, also known as Bone Breaking, consists in defying your body’s limits by performing extreme contortions. Both involve exorcising some type of pains, whether it is mental or physical.

In this short piece, we witness the display of Hip Hop at its greatest: MC with the chorus by DJ Assassin with a strong black message, Dancing, Graffiti with glow in the dark colors painted on the costumes; the DJ is replaced by a live band for the background music. What if Hip Hop was the last 40+ years’ gospel?

I can’t help but recall his acceptance speech for best rap album just a few minutes earlier, in which after thanking God, his parents, his fiancé, TDE and Top Dawg himself for taking him and his TDE colleagues out of “Compton … to be the best they could be”, he paid tribute to past classic Hip Hop albums and veterans: Ice Cube, Snoop’s “Doggystyle” and Nas’ “Illmatic”. He concluded by the following quote: “we will live forever, believe that”. Quite an ode to an art form which started from nothing.

African-looking village

The next setting is an African-looking village to perform “Alright”. We have everything from drums, dancers in traditional garments to a blazing fire – “next time” (a nod to James Baldwin maybe): back to Roots for a minute. This song seems to have become the hymn of Civil Rights Movement 2.0 all across America, as it was chanted during police harassment protests in Cleveland or during the 20^th anniversary of the Million Man March, just to name a few occurrences. This song embodies a cry of hope for a community that has witnessed quite a few atrocities in the past few years. Scratch that, centuries. A new generation of activists can relate to Kendrick Lamar’s music and even use it as chants in a similar way “We Shall Overcome” was a rallying anthem to the African-American Civil Rights Movement.

References to the black struggles

In the last part of his performance, he is alone on stage and performs what seems to be a prayer or a contemplation on the night Trayvon Martin died:

“On February 26, I lost my life too (…) and for our community, do you know what it does? Add a trail of hatred, 2012 was taken from the world to see, set us back another 400 years, this is modern day slavery”. The performance goes full circle; we are back to square with a reflection on what the mass incarceration and killing of back people do to disseminate the black community.

The reality is, Kendrick Lamar’ repertoire contains numerous references to the black struggle: “Martin had a dream, Kendrick have a dream” (“Backseat Freestyle” in Good Kid, M.A.A.D City album. Or even in “HiiiPower” (Section.80” album), where he is referring to Huey P. Newton, Bobby Seale and Fred Hampton, just to name a few.

There is so much to say about this performance. His artwork has rekindled a lifetime conversation for generations to come. The more I listen to his music or watch his performances, the more I keep unfolding layers. Lamar has depth. His catalogue is a solid social commentary in a time where racial tensions and racialized discourse are even more present in the public eye. Mr. Lamar’s rap sparks essential questions within the black community, which leads to instilling pride, while still questioning its flaws. In my opinion, Kendrick Lamar’s latest album is part of the soundtrack of the Civil Rights Movement of this generation. And for this, I thank him.

The revolution is now being televised.

Dr Eddie Glaude, Jr, , Ph.D. – Author and Chair of Princeton University’s African-American Studies Department and Taylor Branch – Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, author and historian best known for his award-wining trilogy of books chronicling the life of Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Civil Rights Movement, were among the panelists. AT the standing room only event,  our moderator, Brian Lehrer, asked each of us  to share our views  on racism and white privilege.
It was a magical moment!

As the latest edition of Afro-Punk Fest comes to a close, let’s have a look at a phenomenon that has gone global in less than a decade.

This year’s New York festival featured such heavyweights as Lauryn Hill and Grace Jones, among others under the Brooklyn sun.  A few weeks earlier, the first ever edition outside of the US took place in Paris to a packed house at the Trianon.

The story begins with a young Black American.

James Spooner loved a kind of music that many believed was only appreciated by Whites. Punk Rock in the 80s belonged to a universe and used formulas that didn’t seem to correspond socially, culturally or musically to Black artists at that time.

James Spooner was bicoastal before settling in New York with his family at the age of 14.  In the abounding and creative metropolis, he met other young music fans.  Like him, they were hardcore punk rockers and like him, they were young Blacks who loved the Clash and the Sex Pistols.  His racial identity quest would send Spooner to the four corners of the country.  The result was a documentary, Afropunk: A rock n roll n***r experience, that was about far more than music and in the purest DIY punk rocker fashion, became a cult reference at film festivals and the point of departure for the AFRO-PUNK  movement.

The documentary’s objective was to show young Blacks, who like the director had lived in an environment where they felt isolated, that they were not alone – that Punk Rock was not a musical genre reserved for a single ethnic group.

Furthermore, referring to Black music as a genre, tends to put Black artists is a monolithic bloc as if their music was all the same.  Afro-Punk was born to showcase an artistic diversity that mainstream media did not adequately recognize. And to remind us that the roots of rock are in the music that Blacks created.  This reappropriation is a small revolution, in the true sense of the word:  a return to the original inspirations of the music that has been “whitened” by history.

Today, twelve years after the first festival in Fort Greene, Brooklyn, the movement has become huge and international.  Afro-Punk is an unprecedented creative alternative platform where musicians, dancers, painters, filmmakers, designers, photographers and other Black punk rock artists can freely express themselves.  And, like other big music festivals such as Coachella or the iconic Woodstock, Afro-Punk is an explosion of styles and trends both on stage and among the audience.

More than a just music festival, Afro-Punk has become a real movement whose actions are both  sociocultural and political in scope.  It was conceived as a safe space where even the most outlandish individual expressions can feel secure. The rules are:  No Sexism, No Racism, No Ageism and No Discrimination based on Handicaps.  A veritable manifesto!

The safe space notion continues on the web with about 450,000 Facebook followers.  The articles deal with current subjects such as the recent spread of police violence in the US.  Visitors have even been able to contribute to Color of Change to help finance an independent investigation into the death of Sandra Bland while in police custody in Texas.  The Afro-Punk page also softly influences the collective imagination through its Daily Afro photos, featuring natural hairstyles.

Punk is not dead! Quite the contrary! But if as far as the music is concerned – Jimi Hendrix of course,  and protest ideology – breaking down traditional codes, the links are well established but what about punk rock fashion influences from the seventies?

Let’s be real:  the trashy mohawks and the London black and white looks were not fashion high points.  And we can have a sigh of relief that Afro-Punk artists and followers seem more inspired by Vivienne Westwood, icon of London 70/80s style than by Sid Vicious, founding member of the Sex Pistols.

As we can see in the photography of Phill Knott and with the collective, ArtComesFirst, or the very hip inspired by the style of Basquiat, black and white is still alive.

Leather and the hardcore esthetic show up in rocker jackets and accessories as well as in tattoos.

But color is often more important and brings with it a joyful wave of creativity that sweeps away any possible confusion with an aggressive or exclusive punk rock.  As a stylist, I am thrilled to note this creative and diverse generosity.   It is a total freedom of expression that causes unusual and sometime improbable style mixtures.

We find numerous traditional African influences in the jewelry, fabrics and hairstyles. These are looks that translate our generations’ willingness to show the most beautiful and the most majestic infuse with an individual  flamboyance. “Come as you are,” is one of the festival’s slogans.

Because of this, each look has its own imprint.  It is difficult to define an “Afro-Punk style.”  It’s free, emancipated from any past or present dictates yet full of personal history.

However, don’t be fooled, this does nt mean that in a society dominated by a marketing where alternative is a style, that Afro-Punk is not a style.  So it is not surprising to find the wacky and colorful pairings of Afro-Punk kids on the pages of Vogue or Tatler or in ready-to-wear ads.

How can we be mad at the major brands for their infatuation with Afro-Punk?  Woodstock shook the mentalities of Nixon’s America in the 70s and left an indelible mark on the style esthetic of the following decades,  Let’s wish long life to Afro-Punk!  Punk is not dead!!!!!

Gayanée PIERRE with Rokhaya DIALLO

Many thanks to SainaSix for her beautiful illustrations

Translated by Alberta Wilson

A year later, Sunday August 9, activists from around the country came together to remind the world of the banal cruelty of the loss of hundreds of Black lives, snatched with impunity in a most brutal and inhuman manner.  Between emotion and reverence, in a heavily spiritual  atmosphere, grave faces surrounded the families of victims of police crimes.

Several hundred people, some young, some not so young, Americans of diverse origins, all observed four and  a half minutes of silence (a painful echo of the four and a half hours that Michael Brown’s body laid on the ground when no help was allowed near him) before going to the Greater St. Mark’s Church.

That same evening, the Police shot another 18 year-old boy.

The next morning, during a peaceful demonstration by church representatives, there was a massive and incredible arrest of 57 people including Dr. Cornel West and my friend, the activist Rahiel Tesfamariam.

I’ll keep you posted on the latest this week-end in my latest article for REGARDS.  I’ll also tell you about women activist who are making a difference – the Rosa Parkses of today – in an upcoming issue of the French ELLE.

Translated by Alberta Wilson