INTERVIEW
In full movement against police violence and racism, a storm is falling on Gone with the wind. This work is, initially, a book, written by Margaret Mitchell and published in 1936. It was then adapted to the screen with a film become cult. And the story, which takes place in a southern American family during the American Civil War, testifies to the pervasive racism of the time. In view of the news, the HBO Max streaming platform decided on Wednesday to temporarily remove the film from its catalog to add a warning in order to contextualize it.
Randomly on the calendar, a new translation of the novel will be published by Gallmeister this Thursday. This version removes in particular the word "negro", however very often used by the characters, as was the case at the time where the story takes place. But for Pascal Blanchard, historian specializing in colonization, immigration, discrimination and racism, this watered-down translation is a "disaster".
Elements of understanding necessary
"Either a book is no longer appropriate for the present, we no longer advise to read it and we no longer talk about it, or we consider it important to read it in order to understand the past" he advances at the microphone of Europe 1 this Thursday morning. "In this case, we read it exactly with the words of the time, but it is preceded by elements of understanding such as an introduction written by researchers, or even a semiology work on the words. It is essential. "
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A retranslation and a risk for future generations
"But between the two is a disaster: in 20 years, those who read this book for the first time will have the feeling that nothing happened at the time, that the word 'Negro' never It’s dramatic to make pedagogy, knowledge, understanding and education. " For the historian "we do not change books, we do not rewrite the archives, we do not remake films. Otherwise it is no longer history, these are fake news. "
Educate and explain rather than destroy
An argument that Pascal Blanchard also applies to statues of historical figures that some anti-racism protesters call to unbolt. Like that of Colbert, initiator of the Black Code regulating slavery in certain territories of the kingdom of France from 1685, located in front of the National Assembly in Paris. The historian is in favor of placing a plaque to "put this character in context to allow people to reflect, but also to explain what the Black Code was and what it produced". "It must be explained that there is a facet of Colbert that is debating, and it is good that we are talking about it," summarizes the historian at the microphone of Europe 1.
An approach that he also calls to implement for other historical figures like "Napoleon Bonaparte, who re-established slavery, or Jules Ferry, who in 1886 gave a speech on the upper and lower races". Because there too, "if we remove all the traces, in 20 years there will no longer be any evidence that this [racism, editor's note] existed, and we will be able to question its existence".
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France must carry out "a real memory work on colonization"
If he recognizes that it is more "difficult to bet on education" than to make a clean sweep of the past, the historian points out that it would be "too easy to be able to make the world better by burning books and destroying statues". This is why he wants "France to do a real job of memory on colonization" and suggests that it is time to "bring the colonial past to the museum". "Without a public policy of memory, people have a complicated relationship with this part of history and they think the country is still racist."
The violence that can arise from demonstrations against police violence and racism would therefore be, according to him, "the result of 60 years of silence on this colonial past". And to conclude: "We thought that with the end of the [French colonial] empire everything would stop but no, History continued."