A 'black Parisian' march in remembrance of slavery

On the 10 May 2008, approximately 2000 people marched through|the center of Paris proclaiming that, 'Slavery has been abolished, but prejudices not!' Based on participant observation of this march, this|article explores two main issues with regard to the challenges of|blackness in contemporary Paris. First, it examines how the ethnoracial|category of 'black' becomes significant for collective action|in the French republican context, specifically in terms of how|French black people symbolically occupy the French national|imagination by physically occupying Parisian urban space. Second,|the article shows that, as a commemorative march, one of its key|objectives is to make present-day claims of social justice, namely,a denouncement of ongoing racial discrimination experienced by|French black people. The article seeks to understand how the|marchers, paradoxically by making themselves visible in public|space, are in effect also proclaiming a demand for social invisibility.