Peter Espeut
NON-WHITES in France have been on a rampage for weeks now claiming long-standing victimization and harassment by the police, and social and economic exclusion. Even though many are French-born and are French citizens (though their parents may be African or Arab or Muslim) they feel they have been herded into immigrant ghettos, been offered sub-standard education, and lower-end jobs (if any at all). Their grouse is that the ethnic French are not interested in multi-culturalism, but want immigrants to "assimilate", which means to give up their culture of origin and become culturally "French". This gives a new twist to the slogan, "Out of Many, One People": no matter from which of the many cultural backgrounds you may be from, you must become French, so that we have one French people.
WILL OF THE MAJORITY
This, of course, could be the will of the majority French, and in a democracy (we are told) the will of the majority must be respected. Suppose the majority French in France (or for that matter the majority English in England) want to preserve their culture and way of life from foreign cultural pollution? Students of democracy know that the dictatorship of the majority over the minority is only a caricature of democracy. Genuine democracy is predicated on human rights which may not be trampled upon even by a majority party in government. The majority must respect the minority, and the strong must respect the weak.
The thousands of cars and dozens of schools damaged and destroyed all over France these last many nights would seem to be a serious overreaction, but then I am some distance away. The powerlessness which many in ethnic minorities feel in the face if the long-term tyranny of the majority so often seems to spill over into violence. One thinks of the many civil rights-related riots in the U.S.A., because of the long-standing tyranny of the white majority over the black minority in the 1960s. The South African situation (and our own here in Jamaica) has been somewhat different. In South Africa under Apartheid, the tyranny was perpetrated by the white minority over black people in the vast majority (no pretence at democracy), but the effect was the same as if blacks were in the minority. The society, economy and polity of Apartheid South Africa were designed such that everything and everyone served the interests of the ruling elite. The ANC waged a bitter and violent war against Apartheid for years, until reason prevailed, and the whites abandoned Apartheid, and the situation became inverted: the ANC became the government.
LIFE AFTER APARTHEID
It could very well be that life after Apartheid has not been all that many black South Africans expected, for South Africa has one of the highest murder rates in the world, beaten into second place, I think, by a tiny little island in the Caribbean. Before Apartheid, inequality in South Africa was of colossal proportions: the majority black population were herded into ghettos, offered sub-standard education, and lower-end jobs (if any at all). Some analysts believe that the present colossally high murder rate in South Africa is related to the frustration felt by the black majority impatient at the slow reversal in economic and social change since Apartheid.
Like Apartheid South Africa, Jamaica under slavery saw tyranny perpetrated by a white minority over black people numerically in the vast majority (no pretence at democracy), but the effect was the same as if blacks were in the minority. The society, economy and polity of Jamaica under slavery were designed such that everything and everyone served the interests of the ruling elite. Some slaves waged a bitter and violent war against slavery for decades, until reason prevailed, and the whites abandoned slavery, compensating themselves (£8 million) for the loss of their property, and giving their former slaves nothing. Still, only those with property could vote, and be jurors, and it was hard to buy land. The education system put in place emphasised "manual training", not to promote social mobility, but to fit the former slave to continue to work on the plantation. The Morant Bay Rebellion (which took place 140 years ago last month) did away with the House of Assembly, but emancipation and independence have not delivered the expected improvement in economic and social fortunes. Elements of the majority black population have been herded into ghettos, offered sub-standard education, and lower-end jobs (if any at all). Now Jamaica has the highest murder rate (per capita) in the world. But the cars and the sub-standard schools are still intact.
Surely reasonable people could come together to deal with the social, economic and political injustice woven into the fabric that is Jamaica without the need to resort to violence?
Peter Espeut is a sociologist and is executive director of an environment and development non-governmental organisation.
