Nicole Lapierre
Nicole Lapierre, sociologue, directrice de recherche au CNRS, codirectrice de la revue Communications, a notamment publié Le Silence de la mémoire, Le Livre retrouvé et Changer de nom.
Causes communes
Auteur
Parution :
12/10/2011
Collection :
Essais - Documents
Common Causes: For Jews and for Black People
Nicole Lapierre
October 2011, 336 pages
“Empathy takes on the age-old and despicable recipe used by insecure powers, one that consists of stigmatising populations or setting them against each other to form a diversion or find a scapegoat. Black Americans against Jews, Christians against Muslims, people from the homeland against immigrants, or someone else, the protagonists don’t matter much in this dangerous game of dupery. Unlike pitying victims and humanitarian mobilisations that act as policies and perpetuate inequality, empathy does the opposite: it encourages solidarity based on respect and reciprocity. The sort of solidarity called for by Frantz Fanon at the end of Peau noire, masques blancs: ‘Why not simply try touching the other person, feeling them, revealing them to myself? Haven’t I been given my freedom to edify whatever being you means?’”
Common Causes vigorously advocates empathy, and recommends convergence over competition and solidarity over rivalry. Referring to countless unpublished historical incidents, Nicole Lapierre traces how, in the Twentieth Century, intertwined relationship between Jews and Black people grew up around ideals of freedom and dignity. She takes us on a great journey, from New York to Warsaw, from Mississippi to Uzbekistan, Lithuania to South Africa, and Harlem to Paris, via the West Indies. Sustained by her research, her premise is resolutely rooted in the opposite camp to the grim tendency towards “competing victims” which is so divisive to two equally struggling communities. The tensions that sometimes set them against each other involve us all: they are primarily the result of the level of recognition that history grants to oppressed or persecuted peoples. Whoever they may be. Jews or black people.
Nicole Lapierre
October 2011, 336 pages
“Empathy takes on the age-old and despicable recipe used by insecure powers, one that consists of stigmatising populations or setting them against each other to form a diversion or find a scapegoat. Black Americans against Jews, Christians against Muslims, people from the homeland against immigrants, or someone else, the protagonists don’t matter much in this dangerous game of dupery. Unlike pitying victims and humanitarian mobilisations that act as policies and perpetuate inequality, empathy does the opposite: it encourages solidarity based on respect and reciprocity. The sort of solidarity called for by Frantz Fanon at the end of Peau noire, masques blancs: ‘Why not simply try touching the other person, feeling them, revealing them to myself? Haven’t I been given my freedom to edify whatever being you means?’”
Common Causes vigorously advocates empathy, and recommends convergence over competition and solidarity over rivalry. Referring to countless unpublished historical incidents, Nicole Lapierre traces how, in the Twentieth Century, intertwined relationship between Jews and Black people grew up around ideals of freedom and dignity. She takes us on a great journey, from New York to Warsaw, from Mississippi to Uzbekistan, Lithuania to South Africa, and Harlem to Paris, via the West Indies. Sustained by her research, her premise is resolutely rooted in the opposite camp to the grim tendency towards “competing victims” which is so divisive to two equally struggling communities. The tensions that sometimes set them against each other involve us all: they are primarily the result of the level of recognition that history grants to oppressed or persecuted peoples. Whoever they may be. Jews or black people.
CAUSES COMMUNES
Nicole Lapierre
Octobre 2011, 336 pages
« L’empathie va à l’encontre de la vieille et détestable recette des pouvoirs incertains consistant à stigmatiser des populations ou à les dresser les unes contre les autres, pour faire diversion ou servir d’exutoire. Noirs contre Juifs, chrétiens contre musulmans, gens d’ici contre gens du voyage, ou d’autres encore, peu importe les protagonistes, dans ce dangereux jeu de dupes. Loin de la sympathie compassionnelle envers les victimes et des mobilisations humanitaires tenant lieu de politique, qui reproduisent des relations inégalitaires, l’empathie encourage au contraire les solidarités fondées sur le respect et la réciprocité. Celles auxquelles invitait Frantz Fanon, à la fin de Peau noire, masques blancs : “Pourquoi tout simplement ne pas essayer de toucher l’autre, de sentir l’autre, de me révéler l’autre ? Ma liberté ne m’est-elle pas donnée pour édifier le monde du Toi ?”»
Vigoureux éloge de l’empathie, Causes communes prend le parti des convergences plutôt que des concurrences, des solidarités plutôt que des rivalités. Retraçant avec mille histoires inédites les relations nouées par des Juifs et des Noirs autour d’idéaux de liberté et de dignité durant le xxe siècle, Nicole Lapierre nous emmène dans un vaste voyage, de New York à Varsovie, du Mississipi à l’Ouzbékistan, de la Lituanie à l’Afrique du Sud, de Harlem à Paris, en passant par les Antilles. Nourri par l’enquête, son propos prend résolument le contre-pied de cette triste dérive appelée « concurrence des victimes » qui renvoie dos à dos deux communautés de souffrance. Les tensions qui parfois les opposent nous concernent tous : elles résultent d’abord du niveau de la reconnaissance accordée à l’histoire des opprimés ou des persécutés. Quels qu’ils soient. Juifs ou Noirs.
336 pages
Format :
135 x 215 mm
EAN :
9782234060432
Prix :
25.00 €
