1. from Ferguson to France: State-Sponsored Violence and Anti-Racist Activism

In this paper, based on ethnographic research in the Paris metropolitan region, I discuss how activists mobilize against racism—and specifically the deaths of North African and sub-Saharan African origin individuals by the police—in a context where race and ethnicity are not seen as legitimate. In France, recent activism around deaths and racial profiling by the police has been in conversation with black activism in the United States, particularly after the events of Ferguson and Freddie Gray. As these events are linked to years of legalized racial residential segregation throughout the United States, relations between the police and minority communities in France are a result of French colonialism and related post-colonial migration. Relatedly, I explore the transnational resonance of BlackLivesMatter, both as a movement and an ideology, as a template for organizing against the growing problem of state-sponsored violence in France. I further posit that black and North African-origin individuals identify such a connection with BlackLivesMatter due to a shared understanding of racial and ethnic oppression with Black Americans. As race and ethnicity are not legitimate identity categories in France, transnational connections with black populations in the United States and elsewhere become more crucial for mobilizing France's minority communities.