A scandal erupted in France after former presidential candidate Valerie Pecret called for the renaming of a high school named after black American activist Angela Davis.

Pecres, speaking before the committee this week, called Davies’ stance on racism in France “dangerous and divisive” for French students. The right-wing politician told the meeting that although Davies’ bold work was about “the search for dignity and equality, it was nonetheless too radical and controversial to have a name in the French school, as it disturbed the ‘peace’ of the establishment.” .” “”.

“There is a belief that she thinks racism is systemic,” he said. “That may be true in the US, it certainly is true in the US. But in France, this is false, and this idea, which minority groups could support, is actually an attack on French democratic universalism,” added Pecret, who became a minister under Nicolas Sarkozy and became president of the wider Paris region. (Île-de-France) in 2015.

Pecres criticized Davies for signing in 2021 a joint opinion with several other leading international scientists in support of French academic work on colonialism and racism during a quarrel over higher education.

The Angela Davis Lycée in Saint-Denis, north of Paris, opened in 2017 and was named in consultation with the school’s management and the local mayor, as part of the French tradition of naming lyceums after prominent individuals who have rendered outstanding service to the nation or humanity. .

Political activist, academic, and writer Angela Davis was a prominent counterculture activist of the 1960s who worked with the Black Panther Party. She is currently a professor emeritus at the University of California, Santa Cruz.

Source: Guardian