(and other non-french followers who either don’t understand the situation now in France, don’t want to understand it or give their opinion on the subject without grasping it)

On Wednesday morning in Paris, two armed men irrupted in the premises of the satirical journal Charlie Hebdo and killed 12 people, injuring 4 others. Among the victims were journalists, caricaturists, employees of the journal and policemen. Today the two culprit are still on the run, and they took employees of another firm hostages in the northern suburbs of Paris. 

That is for the facts. Now, and that’s probably the point you’ll stop reading, I would like to explain a few things, about charlie Hebdo and about how things work in my country. It might feel insulting, but unless you are fascinated with french culture, have especially studied it or lived some time in France, you don’t know us. You don’t know our history, our politics, even our geography. That’s fine, I myself have a pretty sketchy knowledge of all these stuffs for many countries in the world. 

Not knowing is fine. Spreading false informations, or giving your opinion about things you don’t know, is not. 

You have no idea how much the french community on tumblr is feeling betrayed. We stood by your side many times in the recent weeks, we educated ourselves about the situation in the US, we read, we learnt. Now, our country is suffering and I read everywhere that Charlie Hebdo was a racist journal, that they had it coming. 

1. It was not. NO ONE, I repeat literally NO ONE in France ever considered Charlie Hebdo as racist. We might have considered the drawings tasteless, but NOT racists. For the very simple reason that WE FUCKING KNOW OUR POLITICS. So, when you see the covers of the journal out of context and without understanding french, you’re seeing maybe 10% of what there’s to see. I’m not going to explain them one by one to you, because other posts on tumblr do that very well, but just for the sake of example : 

You see a black woman’s head on a monkey body. RACISM ! Except that every french person will recognize our french justice minister, Christiane Taubira, and the blue-white-red flame on the left. This is the logo of the Front National, the far-right party in France. And every french person knows that the Front National was under attack for having compared Christiane Taubira to a monkey in this : 

"At 18 months - Now"

And, if you still haven’t got it, the title of the comic by Charb is “Rassemblement Bleu Raciste” which literally means “Blue Racist Gathering” and is a pun on the slogan of the Front National “Rassemblement Bleu Marine” (Navy Blue Gathering, in French the name of the Front National leader is Marine Le Pen, and Marine means Navy). So, this comic is actually an attack mocking the Front National and their bullshit. Is it tasteless ? Maybe. Is it racist ? No.

Which takes me to my SECOND point, now that I have established that Charlie Hebdo was not a racist newspaper.

2. FRANCE DOES NOT WORK LIKE THE US. NO OTHER COUNTRY IN THE WORLD DOES. Is it so hard to understand ? 

Which means that our view on religion are not the same. Atheism is deeply rooted in France, religion is separated from the state in every possible way. Because the French Revolution was not only about cutting heads of royals, it was a profound change in the way we think that still has consequences today. Secularity is a system of laws intended to prevent any religious organization to interfere with the political life of the country. It means that everyone is free to practise their religion, as long as it does not interfere with other people’s life (be they of a different faith, or atheists) and the country’s. Blasphemy is legal. Drawing the Prophet is legal.

Most people in France think that it is not only legal, but a positive thing, to be able to make fun of every religion, every authority figure (and do your google research, Charlie Hebdo made fun of everyone and the pope was not spared) :

"Pedophile bishops - "Make movies, like Polanski !""

But, as much as we do love make fun and ridicule everyone, including our very secular politicians, we do have laws, and very strict ones, against hate speech. The Front National elected representative who posted the two pictures of Taubira and a monkey was prosecuted. Charlie Hebdo wasn’t, because they were not attacking Taubira, but the racist bullshit of the FN.

To conclude, in France even the people who think these cartoons are vulgar and tasteless think that they have a right to be drawn and published. 

We prefer an equilibrium of mockery, rather than an equilibrium of terror and censorship.