{"id":1774,"date":"2014-06-27T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2014-06-27T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/%20rroma.org\/27-06-2014-fassin-lynching-racially-motivated-or-not\/"},"modified":"2022-07-26T13:50:41","modified_gmt":"2022-07-26T12:50:41","slug":"27-06-2014-fassin-lynching-racially-motivated-or-not","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rroma.org\/fr\/27-06-2014-fassin-lynching-racially-motivated-or-not\/","title":{"rendered":"27.06.2014 Fassin: lynching racially motivated or not?"},"content":{"rendered":"

In his newest article \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tfor Lib\u00e9ration, the sociologist Eric Fassin (2014) poses the question, of why \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tonly a few newspapers speak of a racist lynching of the young Rroma, and instead \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tportray the incident as a vigilante justice between robbed banlieue residents \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tand a criminal youth, both of which are poor. He contrasts this to the case of \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\ta young Moroccan Jew, who was tortured to death in 2006 by a group of Muslim \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\timmigrants. At that time, no one had any doubt that the act was racially \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tmotivated. However, this time one does. Even the public prosecutor denies that \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tthe\u00a0offence\u00a0was committed with racist motives. The thefts committed by Darius, \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\twhich are regarded as nearly proven, are cited as the actual motive for \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\trevenge. Fassin criticises that the victim\u2019s presumption of innocence, valid until \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\this actions are really proven, are completely disregarded. He sees the \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\treduction of the incident to a vigilante justice between robbed and thief as a \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\ttrivialisation of the intellectual arson against Rroma in France. Negating the \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tdefamation of Rroma by politics and the media, also negates some of the \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tpossible motives: \u201cIn reality, masking \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tthe racism of the lynching is abandoning finding the culprits among the responsible \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tpeople. In other words, it is the denial of the responsibility of politics \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\ttowards the increase in Roma-phobia: if this act has nothing to do with racism, \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tit has no political relevance. Nevertheless, the \u201clapses\u201d in public discourse are \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tso numerous and deliberate that it is appropriate to speak of an actual \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tlandslide.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Fassin is certainly \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tright that in the investigation of the lynching case, all aspects need to be \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tanalysed and considered. The racist discourse against Rroma is an inherent part \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tof this. However, one also has to be cautious to jump to conclusions and to \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tinsinuate motives of the \u00a0perpetrators that are not proven. The investigation has to \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tshow what motives stand behind the vigilantism. On this issue, Fassin engaged \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tin a dispute with the deputy editor of Lib\u00e9ration, Eric Decouty. Decouty (2014), \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tin his commentary on Fassin\u2019s article, criticises that the argument builds upon \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tunsecured facts and is therefore not unproblematic. Rastello (2014) agrees in \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\ther analysis with the assessment that the evidence on the exact course of the \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tevent is still not verified: witnesses\u2019 statements are contradictory, for \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\texample regarding the exact time of the abduction as well as the number of \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tinvolved persons. Witnesses on\u00a0 the \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tRroma side fear further reprisals and therefore hold back statements. On behalf \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tof the residents, there is supposedly a \u201claw of silence\u201d, which is the result \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tof the bad acceptance of the police in this impoverished neighbourhood. In \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\taddition, the offenders\u2019 motives are still not clearly established.<\/p>\n

Fassin (2014\/III) replies \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tthat he goes from the position that the racist discourse is in part responsible \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tfor the committed crime. Pejorative words and opinions expressed about Rroma in \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\trecent years manifested themselves into a real act of violence in the case of \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tthe lynched Rroma. To trivialise the issue of intellectual arson against the \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tRroma is dangerous, as is the silence of the public on this incident, he states. \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tHowever, what Fassin does not take into account prominently enough is the \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tsocial dynamics of the suburbs themselves and the misguided social policy that \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tallows this misery. The inhabitants of the suburbs are themselves victims of \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tmechanisms of exclusion (compare Bilefsky\/De la Baume 2014, Fassin 2014\/II).<\/p>\n