Mr Taguieff said in an email that researchers on race, Islamophobia and post-colonialism were motivated by a “hatred of the West, as a white civilization”.
“The common agenda of these enemies of European civilization can be summed up in three words: decolonize, demasculate, de-Europeanize”, declared Mr. Taguieff. “Straight white man – he is the culprit to be condemned and the enemy to be eliminated. “
Behind the attacks on American universities – led by aging white intellectuals – lurks tensions in a society where power seems to be up for grabs, said Eric Fassin, a sociologist who was one of the first academics to focus on race and racism in France. , about 15 years ago.
At the time, breed specialists tended to be white males like him, he said. He said he had often been called a traitor and faced threats, most recently from a right-wing extremist sentenced to four months in prison for threatening to decapitate his.
But the emergence of young intellectuals – some blacks or Muslims – fueled the assault on what Mr. Fassin calls the “American boogeyman.”
“This is what turned things upside down,” he said. “It’s not just the objects we’re talking about, but it’s also the subjects that are talking about. “
