
Colonialism and Identity in French Africa and African France - brandonlc
https://notesonliberty.com/2017/04/06/french-africa/
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deogeo
> For one thing, it’s illegal in France to gather data about ethnicity.

Well that was unexpected. Good way to deny ammunition to xenophobes, I guess.

> Probably in an an effort to divide to conquer, the numerous (Arabic
> speaking) Algerian Jews had all been granted citizenship in the 1880s.

Wikipedia seems to disagree - it gives the reason as "The decision to extend
citizenship to Algerian Jews was a result of pressures from prominent members
of the liberal, intellectual French Jewish community, which considered the
North African Jews to be "backward" and wanted to bring them into modernity."
[1]

[1]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Jews_in_Algeria...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Jews_in_Algeria#French_Algeria)

~~~
brandonlc
Interesting, thanks.

Whether it was divide-and-conquer or bringing "them into modernity," it still
boggles my mind how questions about citizenship were framed in the late 19th
century.

