It’s an interesting question: Is anti-racism/critical race theory an American import? Both sides have good arguments but on balance I say yes. America invented this model and then spread it abroad.
Obviously “anti-racism” here doesn’t mean just the idea that racism is bad. It means the specific model of NGOs that (1) use anti-discrimination measures for lawfare; (2) lobby for infinity migrants; and (3) keep watchlists of “far-right” groups that spread “hate,” i.e. dissent from the above, and work with the deep state and other establishment organizations to weaponize those lists.
There were anti-racist groups in France after WWII (MRAP, LICRA) but the first NGO on this model was SOS Racisme, founded in 1984. Below, we see SOS Racisme providing lawyers for African squatters to prevent them from being evicted and also “testing” for bias in landlords, employers, nightclub bouncers.
The U.S. State Department definitely did bring minority activists from France to America to learn our model of anti-racism. The question is, how far back does it go? I talked to one knowledgeable Francophone who said it started under Obama. I’m not so sure.
When I was at TAC, we published a piece by someone who lived in Brazil who mentioned that her black Brazilian friends were constantly being invited by the Ford Foundation to come to the U.S. for fully funded fellowships in anti-racism. This was in the 1990s.
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