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Moments after the victory of the French men's football team at the 2018 FIFA World Cup, TV commentators likened the victory to the birth of their first child and the liberation of Paris from the Nazis , nothing less. Meanwhile, millions of fans, dressed in the national colors of blue, white and red crowded the streets of all major cities to celebrate in a strong, joyous and brawling way. It was 20 years since the first victory of the French team in the World Cup and a whole generation seemed categorical by increasing the bet.
I do not want to rain on this parade and I must emphasize that the team offers not only a positive and generous face, but also a multi-ethnic face of the country. This in itself is a source of celebration, especially in the face of the racist attacks that team members have been facing – both outside the country and indoors – in various stages. and online. That Kylian Mbappé, a 19-year-old black Frenchman from the former French colonies of Cameroon and Algeria, may be the new national hero, with people of all ages chanting his name and his projected face on the planet. 39, Arc de Triomphe. Satisfaction.
However, the mood in France is appalling and does not seem to allow for a dissenting view of the World Cup and the post-victory celebration. People who say that French President Emmanuel Macron turns a blind eye to human rights violations in Russia, the host country, and his own drastic and inhumane migration policies disagree with the very makeup of the country. French team are considered killings.
Macron has already tried to take advantage of this sporting event, knowing that former President Jacques Chirac attributed his own reelection to the World Cup victory in 1998 and that France's GDP would increase until the end of the season. at 1 point. He thus transforms the victory into a great public relations operation. It seeks to project the image of a dynamic young winner, an image that flatters the French ego to the point of driving its regressive social policies into a collective (but only momentary, hopefully) forgetfulness.
France President Emmanuel Macron kisses Paul Pogba at the Luzhniki stadium in Moscow, Russia. Credit: Christian Hartmann / Reuters
This suspension of common sense and the use of superlative platitudes as to the achievement of immortality by the team on behalf of the celebration is not the most disturbing aspect of the French victory. Football, like cricket in India, serves as a substitute for war and the vocabulary used to comment on the sport is distinctly martial. Didier Deschamps, the team manager, was often nicknamed "the general", while the players were presented as "his soldiers under the flag, ready for battle". This bbad warrior-like spectacle might well be a harmless and cathartic expression of a bloody collective, but the circumstantial nationalism of the country and the consequent unanimity requirement negate it. reality the deep problems of France with racism and badism
. White, Beur
After the victory in 1998, the football team was celebrated as the generation "Black, White, Beur" (black, white and butter – a familiar term referring to the original people north African). But in twenty years, nothing has changed much for "beurs". In 2018 again, the ethnic diversity of the team is duly celebrated. However, it is not representative of the inclusion of French society as a whole. On the contrary, it projects a sympathetic but misleading image of how minorities are treated.
The recurrent targeting of people of color – usually men – by the police is a very good reminder of the situation in the United States that led to the Black Lives Matter movement. On July 3, 1965, a police officer shot and killed a 22-year-old man in the neck during a routine check. The victim, Aboubakar F., had a record, but did not threaten immediately, according to preliminary reports. Aboubakar was black. Such tragedies occur with troubling frequency and usually lead to endless political speculation and sometimes even riots.
Children born and raised in France are still called "immigrants" when they are the descendants of the second, third, or fourth generations of people born in the former French colonies of North Africa and the United States. ;Sub-Saharan Africa. These children, when they study outside major cities, face intense institutional discrimination when they go to the best universities in Paris for example. Once they enter the job market, they are four times less likely to find a job than a white man.
Football, the Holy Grail
In this context, football is often considered the only way out, the only area where excellence will be encouraged and welcomed. That football has become the Holy Grail and that the heroes of its practitioners are showing something deeply concerned about the scarcity of opportunities for large sectors of society.
The celebration of the various circles of the football team foreshadows the hypocrisy of daltonism and fiction. which religion, clbad or color comes second to a broader notion of citizenship. According to a survey conducted by Ipsos for the BBC, 45% of French people attribute social tensions to immigrants, 45% to religious diversity and 35% to ethnic diversity, not differences in income or divergent political opinions. The diversity of the team, the joy shared by people of all races and beliefs are of course positive signs, but the fact that the World Cup is the only example of this national pride and inclusion is also somewhat disturbing.
Finally, the celebrations of victory resulted in the badumption of public space by dominant men, often naked or half-naked, and the molestation of a disturbing number of women who had chosen to celebrate in the street. When feminists dare to point out, when LGBTQ activists denounce the irony of the fact that people do not see anything wrong with nudity provided it is straight, mainstream and white, they are dismissed as anti -national pedants.
This victory is not the victory of France, its values or its systems – it is simply the victory of a sports team. A team of great professional athletes probably, but just a team nonetheless and not a whole nation. If the French women's team wins the FIFA Women's World Cup in 2019, will players be celebrated as heroes by millions? Will they suddenly embody an entire country? Will the toxic masculinity go back as France celebrates and opportunistic nationalism will it show again? In the meantime, will France create more opportunities for its citizens of color and be more welcoming to foreigners? Unlikely. And if by simply underlining the illusion that the current celebratory atmosphere is entertaining, I am considered an anti-national partypooper, so be it. After all, to borrow the words of Orwell, if the serious sport is "less war shooting", the celebrations of the French World Cup are definitely politics without thought.
Ingrid Therwath is a French-Indian journalist based in Paris and holds a doctorate in political science.
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