19.03.2014 Fassin: residents are not automatically against Rroma

French sociologist Eric Fassin writes an article against the media which is often equating residents with Rroma-phobics. This viewpoint was suggested and strengthened by the French media and nationalists: “Why this astonishment? It means that residents are not perceived as bobos [bourgeois-bohème] (and vice versa) – neither sociologically nor politically. Since the campaign of Nicolas Sarkozy against prostitution during the mayoral elections in 2001, the “resident” is, the new figure of the nation.” Local residents are not a homogeneous mass of Rroma-phobics as stated by the Front National and the other right-wing populists. Rather, the social reality is determined by heterogeneity. Also the people who are committed to the Rroma and their rights are ordinary locals: “In short, it is high time to change our socio-political vocabulary. The bobos [bourgeois-bohème] are also local residents. Conversely, there are good neighbours whose commitment is stimulated by pity and indignation and not by bitterness. Finally, we need to stop believing that voters and the elected governmental majority are […] free of Roma-phobia.” Fassin addresses with his article an important topic in the public debate about Rroma that so far has received too little attention. Up till now, medias were almost exclusively dominated by articles talking about a confrontation between local residents and migrant Rroma. That this is not the norm cannot be stressed often enough. More on the subject can be read in Fassin’s book Rome et Riverains: Une politique Municipale de la race.