Thinking about the display of black bodies in France in the late twentieth century and first decade of the twenty-first conjures two starkly opposed images. The first is that of the well-dressed sapeur(a person who, as I discuss more in-depth in Chapter 3, participates in the société des ambianceurs et des personnes élégantescultural phenomenon), whose designer clothing and flashy patterns confirm his (for it was almost exclusively a male phenomenon) narrative of economic success in France. The second, discussed in French news media and political speeches, is that of undocumented immigrants often presented as a homogeneous collectivity. The most striking example of such an image came when, on the morning of August 23, 1996, the French viewing public awoke to a horrifying scene. Overnight, French Prime Minister Alain Juppé had ordered approximately 1,000 CRS (Compagnies républicaines de sécurité; French riot police) agents to enter Paris's St. Bernard church, where a group of 300 men, women, and children of predominantly sub-Saharan African origin had taken up residence. Members of the group called themselves the sans-papiers, or ‘undocumented individuals’, in an effort to draw attention to the fact that, though many had entered the country legally, changes to France's immigration legislation had stripped them of their legal residency permits. In fact, a few were what came to be known as the ‘inéxpulsables-irrégularisables’—a group which per French law could neither be deported from France nor ever receive permanent residency papers or citizenship—a paradoxical status left in the wake of such sudden and dramatic changes to French legislation. In the early hours, the CRS agents, who already outnumbered the sans-papiersthree to one, used tear gas and serious force to remove the protesters. The French viewing public reacted to the images with outrage and shock at the police tactics and, at least for a brief period, the event brought national attention to the plight of the sans-papiers.

Though each used very different means to achieve it, the sapeurs and the sans-papiersexhibit a common goal: taking control of their own image through acts of self-spectacularization. Through carefully composed outfits, the sapeurseems to counter the images discussed in Chapter 1 that put forth the colonized subject's body (specifically his inability to adopt European fashion) as a sign of his need for surveillance and of his desire for the colonial gift of civilization.