Everyday Anti-blackness on Rue Mouffetard

This paper is focused on a large sign that is proximately on display in a public square of high tourism in Paris, France: rue Mouffetard in the 5th arrondissement. As I argue, this piece is integrated into the flow of daily life, despite its arresting title: “Au Nègre Joyeux.” Far from being an innocuous illustration of France’s cultural heritage, for an array of people, this over 250-year-old relic is experienced as a vivid expression and representation of everyday anti-blackness in French public space, an anti-blackness that belies state-driven discourses of color-blindness, race-neutrality, or racelessness in French society.