Free blacks and slaves formed a small but visible population in the port cities of France in the eighteenth century. In spite of their slight numbers, royal authorities passed a series of laws that strictly regulated the presence of slaves in France, with legislation in 1777 finally forbidding the entry of any slaves or free blacks, and subjecting those who already resided there to deportation and sale if they did not follow the letter of the law.

Ich beziehe mich in der Arbeit hauptsächlich auf die Methoden Schwarzer Wissenschafterinnen, da sie stark auf die verfochtenen Unterdrückungsmechanismen hinweisen. Schwarzen Frauen haben einen Empowerment-Ansatz entwickelt, in dem die Zusammenhänge zwischen Rasse, Klasse, Gender, ethnische Herkunft und sexueller Orientierung Verbindung betrachtet werden sollten.

Diese Forschung geht davon aus, dass Schwarze Frauen afrikanischer Herkunft mit Rassismus und Sexismus konfrontiert sind, die meist zu Entfremdung, Isolation, Unsichtbarkeit und Ausgrenzung führen. Andererseits können diese Erlebnisse zur Entwicklung von Instrumenten für Widerstand, Befreiung und soziale Mobilität führen. Die vorliegende Arbeit hat es sich zum Ziel gesetzt, Spannungsverhältnisse von Rassismus/ Sexismus und Empowerment zu untersuchen.

In 1999 I conducted research looking at black women’s grassroots activism in Britain between the 1970s and 2000. While doing this research I was exposed to a stream of politics that included everything from Black Nationalism to socialist feminism. Women talked about the uncompromising anti-imperialist struggles for justice and equality; issues in relation to adequate childcare and the creation of literacy programs, resistance against police brutality; and the ways in which racialized groups appropriate, subvert, and contest racial categories and meanings. Overall, they spoke of a highly mobilized period of activism (in the late 1970s and early 1980s) in a non-romanticized way both freely and openly. Their narratives underscored the heterogeneity within the African diaspora at-large and more specifically in Britain. These women also spoke of differences for example, in relation to class, sexuality, and political alliances.

This paper focuses on how the socialization process of Haitian Europeans (specifically second and later generations of Haitians) influences their conceptions of self in relation not only to Haiti but also to other Europeans and members of the Black Diaspora.