Are French people really less racist than Americans?

[Annie Sargent]

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About Josephine Baker: are French people less racist than Americans?

In early November my husband and I went to the Chateau des Milandes in the Dordogne. This chateau was Josephine’s home for 20 years and this is where she raised her kids and was honored as a resistant. The medieval chateau is on top of a hill with the Dordogne river running below, there are black oak forests all around, it is a gorgeous chateau with stately rooms plus 7 bedrooms and 7 bathrooms.

The décor was eccentric, Josephine was whimsical and fabulously rich at times. One bathroom is black, turquoise and gold with gold plated faucets. One of the first rooms you see has a dozen of her stage outfits including the banana belt which she wore when she performed at the Folies Bergères. Photos will be included in this Patreon Reward.

Everybody has been talking about Josephine Baker and the tribute she received at the Pantheon in Paris on Nov 30 was nothing short of magical. It brought tears to my eyes many time with the sheer beauty of it. I’ll post links to short snippets found on YouTube

Le Chant des Partisans https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=leMQAWllyhw

On the same day I read an opinion piece by Rokhaya Diallo in the Washington Post entitled Josephine Baker enters the Pantheon. Don’t let it distract from this larger story. https://www.washingtonpost.com/people/rokhaya-diallo/

Here is the first paragraph: Josephine Baker, one of the most fascinating figures of French 20th-century history, is finally being interred at the Panthéon, after an announcement by President Emmanuel Macron in August. She is the first woman of color and first artist to be interred at the mausoleum, which houses the remains of the most distinguished French citizens. There is no doubt she deserves the honor — but France should not use this moment to congratulate itself on its treatment of people of color.

And I thought to myself, that’s harsh. But it was fair to ask the question. Are French people any less racist than Americans? And is it fair to assume that just because we gave Josephine this stunning tribute, we expect that all is forgiven?

Rokhaya Diallo is a distinguished French author, film-maker and commentator. She is correct, France is not blameless. But they thing is, no Western country is blameless when it comes to racism. Europe had colonies where some bad stuff took place and America had slaves and segregation. French colonies had slaves and it was seen as a necessary evil, which of course it was not. Greed and white supremacy were the evil ideas behind slavery. We’ve never had any segregation written into law in France, but we have de facto segregation based on poverty in France. We shall never erase any of that.

Does that mean we have no right to celebrate someone like Josephine Baker?

Let’s see what led her to France and the Dordogne. She was born Freda Josephine McDonald, born on June 3rd 1906 in Saint Louis, MI. She grew up poor. Her father was white of Spanish origins, her mother was black with some Native American ancestors as well. Her parents are both artists, they had a singing and dancing number. But her parents soon split and her mother was poor.

Her mother remarried and had more children. They were poor enough that she mentioned looking through the trash to find food. At age 7 her mother placed her in a white family to be a servant. Little Josephine was supposed to bring cash into the family. One day she broke some plates and she was punished by forcing her hands into boiling water. These are chilling anecdotes Josephine herself shared in various interviews.

As a kid Josephine loved to dance and one day she entered a dance competition on the streets of Saint Louis. She won one of these competitions and her prize was one dollar. This first dollar was a turning point in her life.

Josephine’s mother talked her into getting married at age 13. Why? Because that meant one fewer mouth to feed. Her husband was violent and she quickly left him. At age 15 she met Willy Baker and married him. She didn’t stay with him very long but she always kept his name.

She left Willy Baker to go to Harlem to be part of a theater crew on Broadway. She wasn’t hired as a dancer but she did a lot of odd jobs with costumes, lights, makeup. She wanted to make herself needed and even learned a lot of the dance roles just in case someone had to be replaced in a hurry. That’s exactly what happened and she soon got her chance to dance on stage.

Josephine developed her own style over the years and it was both very erotic and funny. She was always full of energy and could dance anyone under the table. But she also rolled her eyes and blew up her cheeks for comic effect while the next second taking suggestive poses. She was a seductive clown.

In 1925 the wife of a French diplomat stationed in New York who was also a producer back home saw her dance act and offered her a job in Paris for a show that was rehearsing at the Theater of the Champs Elysées. On September 10th that year she embarked on a ship headed for Cherbourg, France. She was 19 and she was one of 10 new hires, all African Americans.

On the passage to France, Josephine as worried because this was her first time away from America, she didn’t know what to expect in France. Sidney Bechet, the famous clarinet player who was a little older and also on this crew told her that in France nobody would pay any attention to her color. That’s not quite how it works, but it’s a fact that there was no segregation in France and that was a breath of fresh air to African Americans who came to France.

At first rehearsals didn’t go great. The people who had hired this group of performers found their stuff too prudish, too stiff. They wanted something exotic and tribal. These were the days of French colonies and French people were full of preconceived notions about Africans from the colonies and their wild nature. Was that a type of racism? Of course, it was! French people wanted to see their prejudices about black people confirmed on the stage. Strong as an ox, with wild sexual appetites, willing to do anything.

To save the show a new producer from the Moulin Rouge was brough on and he asked Josephine to take off her top and bra. At first, she was shocked and threatened to quit, but she changed her mind. The show they put on, The Negro Revue was a great success and Josephine was noticed. Her disjointed funny style was entirely new and the people of Paris who wanted to forget the horrors of WW1 loved her. You could not forget the way she danced. She stood out.

Some people hated her style, of course, but a year later she started in her own show at the Folies Bergères in Paris. This where became famous dancing almost naked with a banana belt around her waist. She was only 20 years old. She played her fame for all it was worth, walking the streets of Paris with a leopard or a monkey on a leash. They think black people are like apes, let me walk with an ape in public. She played it up and people couldn’t stop watching her.

She became the muse of painters, photographers, artists. Her raw energy and desire for freedom inspired everyone.

Then she launched her own cosmetics line because why not? You know that style of hair that looks like the hair is glued to the skull? She made that popular in France. She made short boy haircuts popular for women. French women wanted to be like her and lots of them bought darkening lotion to make their skin dark like hers. She made it immensely cool to be black. Is that racist? I don’t see how, but maybe it is.

In 1931 she started to sing and her very first song was a huge hit: at the Paris Casino she started singing “J’ai deux amours: mon pays et Paris”. She released all the songs we know and love over 12 months and then kept performing them over and over again. Some artists hate doing that but she embraced her fame with those songs.

She was in a lot of relationships, especially with famous men such as Simenon (French author), Hemmingway (you know who he is!), even with Colette. She was bisexual and didn’t let much get in her way.

This is also the time when she started to tour Europe where she was well received everywhere except for Austria and Germany where they weren’t ready to admire a black woman who acted as free as she did.

In 1936 she toured the US and she was so looking forward to being received in America like the star that she was, but that’s not what happened. She was denied entry into restaurants and hotels. The critics didn’t like her show. She left the US bruised and with renewed love for her new life in France.

Back in France she married for the 3rd time, her husband was Jean Lion and that gave her the opportunity to apply for French nationality. She did that right away.

At the beginning of WW2, in 1939 she met Jacques Abtey (https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacques_Abtey) who was an officer in the French army intelligence service. He was looking for volunteers to work for the allies as clandestine operators and she told him that France made her that she’s ready to die for France, give me any job you want. Eventually she rose to the rank of sous-lieutenant in the French airforce.

She had been renting the Chateau des Milandes since 1937. At the chateau she hid weapons for resistance cells. She hid her former in-laws who were a Jewish family. Milandes became a central stopping point for anyone involved in the resistance in the Dordogne.

One day Nazi officers knocked on her door. They were looking for a local resistance fighter who wasn’t there. They did a quick search of the chateau and all the Germans left with her autograph.

In 1940 Les Milandes became too well-known as a place where resistance cells came and went and Jacques Abtey asked her to leave France, officially to go on tour, but she was also on a mission. Her job was to gather intelligence on the position of enemy troop.

She would get invited for Embassy parties (for example at the Italian Embassy where they love her) and she giggled and talked and at the end of the night took notes on the side of her sheet music in invisible ink, mailed the sheet music to fake musicians in Paris and London and they were part of the intelligence service. She carried microfilms in her bra.

In 1941, when she was 37 after several miscarriages, she had to have a hysterectomy. This was a personal tragedy for her because she dreamed of having lots of children.

Starting in 1943 and for several years, she lived away from France. Her home was in North Africa which was French at the time. She sang for the troops. She met De Gaulle which was a great honor to her. This is the time when she received the Croix de Guerre and the Médaille de la Résistance, both high honors.

After the war, in 1947 she married her 4th husband, Joe Bouillon who was an orchestra conductor. That year she bought the Chateau des Milandes and settled there with him. In 1954 Josephine went to Japan to adopt a 2-year-old boy. At the orphanage she met a young Korean boy who was 18 months old and she decided to take them both.

This is the time when she decided to create a rainbow family with children of all races, cultures and all religions. She wanted to show that we can all live together despite our differences. They quickly adopted kids from all over the world: in Finland, Venezuela, Columbia, France, the Ivory Coast. She had 12 children.

In an interview on French TV, she explained that she was sure children raised together would become a family even though she made a point to raise them in their religion of origin. Her children talked about an attentive mom who took time with each of her kids when she wasn’t touring and performing. She loved to kick off her shoes and dance with the kids.

In the 50s she started working with civil rights leaders in the US, including Martin Luther King. She felt like America was stuck in the past and was not making progress when it comes to racism. She denounced racist things said by famous Americans, she helped and supported a black man on death row who had been wrongfully accused of raping a white woman.

Because of her politics she came in the crosshairs of the FBI and was accused of being a communist. The FBI made sure several of her concerts in South America got canceled.

In 1963 she participated to the March on Washington organized by Martin Luther King and she was the only woman who was invited to give a speech on the Mall. She showed up in her French military uniform, wearing her many medals which by then also included the Legion of Honor. She opened her speech saying “I want you to know that this the happiest day of my entire life”. She so wanted American segregation to end.

In 1960 (mid-40s) she had started to turn Les Milandes into a luxury hotel, a theater, a theme park and this is when her money troubles started. She spent lavishly and was too generous with everyone around her.

There is no doubt that some of her neighbors robbed her blind, grossly inflating prices and submitting invoices for work they never did. She employed as many as 120 people in this touristic venture and got into debt as far as 146 million francs.

In June 1966 celebrities called upon rich entertainers to be generous with Josephine. One such person was Brigitte Bardot. She went on TV to explain that Josephine had been extremely courageous and generous and that she couldn’t be left in that terrible situation. That appeal worked but it only bought her two years.

The man who created Club Med made an offer to buy the entire operation, all her debt, and let her continue to live there, but she turned him down. That’s probably the worst decision she ever made.

In 1968 Les Milandes was sold at auction for a pittance and that was like a death blow to her. She was able to stay there until March 1969. When the eviction day arrived, she barricaded herself in the kitchen for 3 days while the new buyers took ownership of the chateau and eventually, she had to give up. I will include a now famous photo of her sitting on the steps of her kitchen, entirely defeated.

Josephine felt betrayed by French people (correctly so I will add) and didn’t want to tour in France anymore. She sang in all the countries where her children were born and in Monaco because Grace of Monaco was one of her biggest fans and supporter. She did a lot of concerts in Monaco at the end of her life.

She also let her friend Jean-Claude Briali (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean-Claude_Brialy ) talk her into singing in Paris again. She got back on the stage with amazing energy and drive. She celebrated her 50 years on the stage at the Bobino theater. On April 9th she had a stroke in the night and was in a coma. She never regained consciousness. She died on April 12th she died of a massive stoke at age 68.

She was given national and military honors with a funeral at La Madeleine in Paris. Her funeral procession was followed by 20,000 people on foot and they all walked in front of the Bobino theater where her name was still on the awning.

Josephine Baker gave everything she had to France. She entered the Pantheon on November 30, only the 6th woman to be honored in this way, and the first black woman. We will never forget her and the ceremony was stunningly beautiful, just like she was.

Thank you for your support of Join Us in France, au revoir.

Watch Josephine in her chateau: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=youXp0qTENg&t=63s

Dresses at the Château des Milandes

Bathroom at the Château des Milandes

 

Château des Milandes in the Dordogne

Bird show at the Château des Milandes

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