"Divide and Conquer" Politics: Perceptions of Socio-Economic Leveraging among Minorities in France

This work explores the subjective dimension of sociocultural leveraging by examining the perception, on the part of some minorities, that members of the majority group deliberately engage in "divide and conquer" politics -- that is, intentional efforts to disempower minorities by favoring some groups over others.  The data, consisting of in-depth interviews conducted with French citizens of Caribbean and/or African descent, is drawn from a larger study examining ethnoracial boundaries and collective memory in France.  Here, I provide insight into folk theories of status leveraging, focusing on those respondents who spontaneously expressed such views. The goal of the paper is to examine the extent to which status leveraging exists in the imaginary of French Afro-Caribbeans and to elaborate a theory for the sources and cultural uses of such folk theories of power, status and domination. In particular, I explore the relationship between perceptions of status leveraging and Afro-Caribbeans' cultural repertoires of knowledge about slavery and colonization.