“Why, because I’m black?” : discomfort after the comments of high school student Elwan on LCI in the face of a mother

“Two Frances face to face” Wednesday evening on LCI, David Pujadas orchestrated a debate around the violence which punctuates the high school movement in “The Great Confrontation”. Between “those who understand” and “those who put things into perspective”, the journalist gave the floor to a panel of French people including Elwan B., a very eloquent 17-year-old Parisian high school student, who has become a viral phenomenon since the broadcast of an interview conducted by Vincent Lapierre and a sequence where he kisses Jean-Luc Mélenchon.

Facing him, Louise Montangon, the philosophy student in Bordeaux who had cropped Gabriel Attal the day before on LCI, the spokesperson for the traders on Boulevard Voltaire in Paris Stéphanie Kerbarh, the police officer Reda Belhaj, the content creator Tanguy David, the philosopher and essayist Bérénice Levet or even Laëtitia Linon, mother of a high school student in Marseille. The latter was surprised to be challenged by Elwan from the latter's first monologue, at the start of the show.

“We understand some violence,” he said. From the moment you are an individual coming from a very complicated neighborhood, I think you expect me to say it... I see a mother here, you come from Marseille, I hear it, I imagine from a very difficult neighborhood..." Stunned to be designated, Laëtitia Linon replied. “Why, because I’m black?” she asked. I used to live in the northern neighborhoods but I'm not there anymore. »

“You address the only racialized person on the set thinking that they come from disadvantaged neighborhoods”

Louise Montangon in Elwan

“I wasn’t saying that because you’re black,” Elwan tried to correct himself. I was only saying that from the moment you are here, I imagine that you have a claim. And that this one is in a position where you will be able to attack me. So I imply that you have lived in complicated neighborhoods to be able to tell me, at some point, that living there does not legitimize violence. » In return, Laëtitia Linon returned a “not at all” as brief as it was radical.