I’ve been in Berlin for the past week and generally away from the laptop, thus the absence of AWAV’s take on Emmanuel Macron’s appointment of Élisabeth Borne to Matignon and the subsequent announcement of her government—all the picks being Macron’s, of course. The most noteworthy, indeed astonishing, one—I let out a loud “wow!” when I learned of it—was that of Pap Ndiaye as Minister of Education, which is a pretty important ministry in the French government—the minister having a million or so (heavily unionized) fonctionnaires under her/his tutelary authority, plus responsibility for some 13 million schoolchildren and students. Pap Ndiaye is well known to all those of a social scientific/humanities academic and/or left-wing bent, as a brilliant academic specialist of race in France, but also in the United States, and as director since March 2021 of the Museum of the History of Immigration (for which he was profiled in The New York Times here). He is also, from a political standpoint, the polar 180° opposite from his predecessor, the decidedly rightist Jean-Michel Blanquer, who served the full five years of Macron’s first term—making him the longest serving education minister since literally the 1860s—who will be best remembered for having embarked on a maniacal campaign—for which he enjoyed the wholehearted support of Macron and the entire political class save part of the left—against “wokisme,” “islamo-gauchisme,” the inevitable “communautarisme” and other nefarious ideologies from the Anglo-Saxon world seen to pose an existential threat to the French educational system, if not to France tout court—and this while the educational system is in the midst of major crises (low salaries, declining standards, inequalities among schools, an impending shortage of teachers, to name just a few). Blanquer even went so far as to sponsor an academic-sounding conference on “wokisme” at the Sorbonne this past January.
As for what the apparent Anglo-Saxon-inspired ideologies in question are, the sharp, definitely woke Paris-based American journalist Cole Stangler nailed it.
Quick guide for French political debate: If you think racism exists, you’re an “indigéniste.” If you think some suffer more from discrimination because of their background, you’re a “communautariste.” If you believe in this *and* the class struggle, you’re an “Islamo-gauchiste.”
— Cole Stangler (@ColeStangler) May 20, 2022
He could have added that if you believe that racism is a problem in France and you’re white, that makes you a “wokiste.”
Macron’s appointing Ndiaye to succeed Blanquer is, as political scientist Frédéric Sawicki tweeted, akin to him hypothetically replacing Bruno Le Maire at Bercy with Thomas Piketty. As for Macron’s motivations, certain pundits have speculated that he’s reconnecting with the American-style political liberalism of his 2017 campaign, which he forgot about once elected. Others see an opportunistic triangulation to the left in view of the upcoming legislative elections and the unexpected challenge posed by the Jean-Luc Mélenchon-led NUPES (which I will weigh in on next month, before the election). It has been reported that Macron’s Africa policy advisers told him that naming Ndiaye to a high-profile ministerial post could help repair France’s presently damaged standing in its former African colonies—where an effective anti-French Russian propaganda campaign has been at work.
Whatever the case, Ndiaye’s appointment has caused a collective freak-out on the hard and extreme-right—with Marine Le Pen, Éric Zemmour, and Bolloré media talking heads leading the charge—but also the Printemps Républicain crowd and other extreme centrists. Jean-Michel Aphatie captured the reaction well.
PARTIS PRIS
?? #PartiPris #Politique de @jmaphatie
?? : « Pap Ndiaye, le racisme en réaction »#24hPujadas #LCI #La26 pic.twitter.com/0b513h0JqG— 24h Pujadas (@24hPujadas) May 23, 2022
Ndiaye gave The Brookings Institution’s annual Raymond Aron Lecture last June 24th, titled “Black Lives Matter and the antiracist movement in France,” which may be watched on YouTube here. As it was moderated by my friend Camille Busette—the director of Brookings’ Race, Prosperity, and Inclusion Initiative—I made sure to watch it live on Zoom. A very good lecture and discussion.
From 2008, here’s a 12-minute interview with Ndiaye on France 24’s English service, on the occasion of the publication of his best-known book, La Condition noire: Essai sur une minorité française (which Ndiaye’s detractors have certainly not read, even if they say they have).
Edwy Plenel links to a few videos of Ndiaye here.
For the record, another interesting Macron/Borne appointment is that of the Franco-Lebanese Rima Abdul-Malak as Minister of Culture. As she has not been a public personality, I didn’t know a thing about her but she was apparently greatly appreciated in the world of culture as a cultural adviser at the Élysée and, before that, at the Paris city hall (she has also been the French cultural attaché in New York). The leftist political scientist Philippe Marlière, for one, gives her the thumbs up.
The appointment of Rima Abdul Malak as minister of culture is another big coup (together with Pap NDiaye as minister of education). #remaniement https://t.co/VoWyJvUAgl
— Philippe Marlière (@PhMarliere) May 20, 2022
Dont acte.
Reblogged this on Multicultural Meanderings and commented:
Good background on France’s new education minister and the debates over racism and “wokeism”.
Is anyone aware that we are looking for someone to fix primary and secondary education rather than someone pro or against wokism etc…? That the previous guy tried to launch a campaign as a distraction against the growing hostility of teachers does not mean that we want the next guy to launch some other campaign. All the commentary of course has been on his political views and his academic specialty (with an obvious racist sub-text) but, frankly speaking, these are hardly relevant to his current job and say nothing of his capacity to do it.
We need a Minister of Education in charge, amongst other things, of 800 000 teachers (if memory serves). Can Ndiaye do it, I have not the faintest idea, but that is what he must do in his current job.
Bernard, I entirely agree that the ministry of education needs someone who can take on the manifold crises facing the French educational system, which is a huge undertaking, not an ideologue with an agenda. Part of my surprise at Ndiaye’s appointment was that he accepted such a thankless job, and one that necessitates administrative and negotiating experience that are not apparent on his C.V. The man is a scholar and intellectual, not a politician or bureaucratic infighter. One wonders what he and Macron agreed upon in regard to his mission. I can’t imagine that he will obediently execute whatever feuilles de route the Élysée sends down his way. One wishes him bon courage.
I agree with you. In fact, when the government was announced, I privately thought to myself that Macron should have swapped the names for university minister and education minister: the lady in charge of upper education is a scientist who has run the huge and excellent paris saclay university and we need a scientist to redress secondary education programs, while Pap Ndiaye would likely do a decent job at universities.