‘It is forbidden to speak Breton and to spit on the ground’

Internal Racism, Diasporas and Regionalisms in Modern France

Abstract

A wide range of specialists often declare the 19th century to be the century of identities,
following the emergence of nation-states and the consolidation of a seemingly stronger, stabler
variety of countries to be in competition with each other. France, during the whole of the Modern
period, did not fail this general rule and sought to the making of a roman national from the
French Revolution to the 20th century, that is to say serving the ultimate goal that was the
crystalisation of the French language as a means of legitimacy for the elites of the country. It
began with the language, naturally, and inevitably the question of race came along, as languages
are such that once accepted, no other can be amalgamated or introduced. Speakers of those other
regional languages did reside in the countryside, which added a gap, that is, an opportunity to
discriminate. In essence, this article deals with three main aspects of this “internal racism” lived
and experienced by France’s regional minorities. First is the legal aspect, which enabled the state
to operate through penal authorities. Second is the cultural aspect, which is divided into
academic and linguistic repressions notably. Finally, the article enhances, somewhat
historiographically, as it depicts as well a history of French elites during this Modern era, the
scientific attempt of this racism to justify itself through the implementation of an undesirable
geography of individuals, from acceptable to unacceptable, from rural agricultural workers to
rich urban owners, from well-born to not.