French universalist disparities: A racial capitalist reading of French universalism

Abstract

This article unveils how the French political ideology of universalism benefits from the perpetual racialization of others. Drawing from various definitions and understandings of racial capitalism, I demonstrate how the success of universalism relies on the racialization of French society to strengthen its homogenizing cultural hegemony. Cedric Robinson notes that European civilization has historically demonstrated a tendency to differentiate social, cultural, and linguistic differences along racial lines and therefore becomes a distinctive subject of how racism and capitalism intersect in the form of a political ideology. I understand racial capitalism as a process where one derives social or economic value from the racial identity of another person. In this manner, I propose that universalism gains social and economic value by maintaining a racialized and differentiated social and working consciousness. To reinforce these observations, this article will examine various cultural events of the early 21st century where individuals of color and their labor are positioned as profitable entities for the Republic. These examples will highlight how certain French political agents employ universalism to assign socially tangible value to non-White bodies who adopt Republican values. The essay unfolds over three sections: firstly, an overview of the French universalist model and its contemporary crisis in light of a postimperial, pluralistic society; secondly, a theoretical reading of how racial capitalism and universalism intersect to produce and reproduce systemic inequalities that universalism purports to erase; and lastly, an analysis of various cultural examples that showcase how the institution of universalism, a cultural superstructure, depends on the infrastructure of non-White bodies to maintain its hegemony.