The French Suburban House and Field Negro
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House vs. Field Negros
On November 9
th,
1963, Malcolm X gave his
“Message to the Grass roots”
, a speech in which he described the two differentkinds of slaves living in 18
th
century oppressive, cruel America. X looked back at the history of slavery and found strikingresemblances between what he called Negro slaves and the African-American people of the 20
th
century. This is how heportrayed this fascinating duality within the slave community:
“
Back during slavery there was two kinds of slaves, two kinds of Negros. There was the house Negro and the field Negro, thehouse Negro always looked out for his master. When the field Negros got too much out of line he held them back in check, he put them back on the plantation. The house Negro could afford to do this because he lived better than the field Negro, he atebetter, he dressed better and he lived in a better house, he lived in the house of his master in the attic or the basement, he atethe same food his master ate and wore his same clothes and he could talk just like his master, good diction. And he loved his
master more than the master loved himself. That is why he didn’t want hi
s master hurt. If the master got sick, the house Negrowould say: "What's the matter, boss, we sick?" We sick! He identified himself with his master more than his master identified with himself. If the master's house caught on fire, the house Negro would fight harder to put the blaze out than the master would. They would give their life to save the master's house quicker than the master would. But then you got some field Negroswho lived in a hut, they had nothing to lose. They wore the worst kind of clothes, they ate the worst food and they caught hell,they felt the sting of the lash. The field Negro hated his master. I say he hated his master. He was intelligent. If the master got sick he prayed that the master died. If the
master’s house caught on fire h
e prayed for a strong wind to come along. This was thedifference between the two. And today you still have house Negroes and field Negros
…I am a field Negro!”
Malcolm X was right; today you still have house and field Negros, and the dichotomy between both types of slaves duringslavery cannot only be compared to
the differences in today’s Afro
-American community but also reflects on Muslims insuburbs of major Western European cities, like Amsterdam and Paris. This distinction in reaction to oppression can clearly benoticed in France within its Muslim community. Conscious of the religious and social injustice, French Muslim youth have alldeveloped a different mentality in coping with their situation,
and have fallen into opposites that don’t attract
. The HouseNegro Mentality could be found in the French Ikhwan Muslimoun (the French Brotherhood Muslims) who exert all effort tobecome model French citizens, often entirely assimilating into the French culture and leaving the suburbs to achieve higherstatus within French society, in this way hoping to receive some equal treatment. The typical Ikhwani is represented as beingthe clean shaven Arab dressed in suit and tie thinking his social disguise will grant him freedom by his French Sayyid. On theother hand you have the Salafis who mainly live in HLM buildings, the modern equivalent to the huts their old field Negro
brothers used to live in. They are not trying to look or sound French, they don’t dress French
, nor do they care about whatFrance expects from them. They realize that being in
France or being born in France doesn’t mean you’re French. It isn’t
thedark red passport that makes you French, what makes you French is your state of mind. Salafis refuse to play the
‘
oui bono
’
game, they have a flowing beard and dress nicely in Islamic robes
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. The Salafi finds pride in all aspects of Islam, whereas hisIkhwani brother is ashamed of the Islamic rules and principles that go against western values.Ethnologically, the Afro-American and the European-Arab have a lot in common. Although Arab immigrants left their countriesout of free will, they were accepted in the European continent according to the roughness of their palms and fingers
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. The firstblack slaves had been selected according to their physical strength and were kidnapped from the African continent and putonto slave ships. French colonization was far from being as brutal and destructive as American slavery, but the comparison stillholds, since both African slaves and Arab immigrants have been brought into prosperous promised lands to build up a countryand boost its local economy. After World War II Muslims were invited into the European host-countries to do the
‘
dirty
’
workEuropeans did
n’t want to do
, thus resolving their mass problem of labor shortage.
The coal mines and car manufacturing plantshave replaced the cotton fields,
Kunta Kinte
is now called Monsieur Momo and the metal shackles of the slaves have becomemental ones the Western Arab
can’t get rid of
. In America it all had to do with color; in France the problem is socio-religious.French converts who dress according to Islam are being discriminated against in the same way their Arab brothers are. And aclean shaven Mohamed in tight jeans will have a better chance of finding a good job than his brother Jacques who embracedIslam and now has a full-grown beard and white turban.
2
Many of this is based on the verse in Sourah Al Baqara: “The Jews and Christians won't be pleased with you until you follow their religion”
3
This was a way to know whether the person was used to hard work; people with soft inner hands were rejected
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