Former footballer Lilian Thuram, on behalf of the foundation that bears his name, calls, in a column in “Le Monde”, for all citizens to vote on June 30 and July 7 for equality and against all racism.
LThe Lilian Thuram Foundation against racism and for equality calls on all citizens to mobilize to prevent the takeover of parties that promote exclusion, inequality and violence. The extreme right invites us to break the links by stigmatizing in particular people of Muslim religion, migrants, people with dual nationality, by depriving them of something essential and that each of us must defend: freedom.
Imagine being forbidden from being yourself! How can we look at ourselves and accept the idea that a party promotes violence against other people because of their religion, their skin color, their sexuality or their supposed origin! We all know it: the National Rally’s stock in trade has always been anti-Semitism, even if it pretends to have moved beyond it.
Today, the most assumed hatred is hatred of Muslims. But hatred breeds hatred and inevitably each of us will end up suffering it. History has shown us that hatred first affects the poorest and gradually spreads throughout society. The one and only way to protect ourselves is to recreate links and build real policies of solidarity.
The far right is not on the side of the poor but on the side of the haves
Historically, racist ideology is a decoy to send the poorest against the poorest. Let us remember: at the beginning of slavery, slaves were both white and black and they rebelled against the economic system that mistreated them. To break these revolts, the masters gave advantages to white slaves by saying that only black slaves would be slaves for life.
At the same time in France, poor white people were exploited and mistreated. Today, in 2024, the National Rally is reactivating this white category by saying that white people should come first. Which explains why we find among the voters of the National Rally people who were formerly stigmatized, Italians, Portuguese, Spaniards, Poles… and who today have become « blancs ».
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