PARIS – Standing on a truck, with her fist clenched and her back turned toward a row of police vans, Assa Traoré galvanized the crowd in front of her.
“You are powerful!” He yelled, to the cheers of thousands of people who had gathered at the Place de la République in central Paris to protest against police violence and racism. “Your faces have been seen around the world!”
Until a few weeks ago, Traoré, 35, a special education teacher of Malian descent, was largely known as the spokesperson for The Truth for Adama, an advocacy group that has demanded justice for her half-brother, Adama Traoré, who died in police custody in 2016 on his 24th birthday.
But now, with the spread of the Black Lives Matter protests, she has gained more prominence as an advocate for men who have been victims of discriminatory police violence in France. Traoré said that men from minority neighborhoods are more likely to be attacked by the police than women, and as a woman, she could help defend them by adopting a position where she was least expected.
“With my feminine voice, we will make these men visible and give them a voice,” Traoré said in an interview in his apartment in the Paris suburb of Ivry-sur-Seine.
Following the murder of George Floyd in the United States, which unleashed a wave of anger that spread across the world, Traoré and his group have staged some of the largest protests against racism in Europe.
They gathered at least 20,000 protesters in front of a Paris court in early June despite the police ban, and then a crowd of 15,000 just 11 days later at Place de la République.
Protesters in recent weeks have included more whites and people from upper-class areas of Paris, Traoré said, compared to Adama’s first protests in 2016, which were mainly attended by people of color.
“It was then that we thought, ‘This is it, the fight for Adama has become a popular fight,'” Traoré said.
Mrs. Traoré speaks with resolution.
“France has not come to terms with its history, with slavery, with colonization,” he said. “These are unspoken things that leave their mark, and we suffer the consequences.”
France has struggled to confront racism for years. The Paris suburbs erupted in riots in 2005, fueled by resentment among North African immigrants for their police treatment and discrimination in general, exposing the rest of France to the country’s racial fissures.
France, which colonized parts of Africa, Southeast Asia, and the Caribbean, failed to fully integrate immigrants from its former empire. Some of that is based on its commitment to universalism, a belief that no group should be given preference, but that critics say has silenced the discussion and protected the country from facing its colonial legacy.
Ms. Traoré’s words have struck a chord with the younger generation, which has flocked to the protests. “She is clear, and that makes her strong,” said Djenaba Dramé, a 21-year-old black student at the demonstration in Place de la République.
Christiane Taubira, who in 2012 became the first black woman to be named Minister of Justice, called it “an opportunity for France.”
According to all reports, Ms. Traoré is a charismatic figure, easily identifiable as she awakens the crowd in her black T-shirt with the words “Justice for Adama”. Without justice, you will never have peace. ” She uses it almost daily.
Born in Paris in 1985, Traoré is based on a family history in both France and Mali. Two of her great-grandparents fought alongside French troops during World War II, when Mali was still a French colony, and her father, Mara-Siré Traoré, emigrated from Mali to France at age 17.
Ms. Traoré is one of 17 siblings in a tight-knit family where the conversations were held in a combination of French, Soninke, and Bambara. Her father married four women, two white Catholics whom she divorced and then two Malian Muslims with whom she lived at the same time, as permitted by Islamic law, despite the ban on polygamy in France.
When she died of cancer in 1999, Mrs. Traoré was 14 years old. As the oldest daughter who was still at home, she took over the family, replacing her mother, Hatouma, who was not fluent in French, as she continued her studies. to become a special education teacher.
“She took an almost maternal role with my brothers and sisters,” said Lassana Traoré, 43, one of her older half-brothers, who saw this experience as the foundation of her leadership today.
Traoré said helping children in disadvantaged suburbs as part of his special education work made him realize that black and Arab men, whom he called “our brothers,” were attacked by the police as teenagers, a phenomenon Human Rights Watch documented in a report last month.
“Saying that men matter, that their voices count is part of our fight,” said Traoré. “We must continue fighting so that all women in the world can have the rights they deserve. But who fights, who defends our men?
She said she was inspired by “Les Misérables,” French film director Ladj Ly’s Oscar-nominated film depicting police violence against black and Arab teens in a Paris suburb.
“If those men had been more visible, perhaps my brother would not be dead today,” he added.
Adama, his half brother, died in the courtyard of a police station on July 19, 2016, in circumstances that are still in dispute.
Mr. Traoré was immobilized by three police officers, one of whom later acknowledged having placed “the weight of all our bodies” on him, during an identity check that went wrong.
Traoré reportedly said he was unable to breathe and probably passed out during his transfer to the police station in Persan, a small town north of Paris, where he was pronounced dead two hours later.
The conflicting autopsies pointed to heart failure or suffocation as the cause of death, but after much research there is still no clear picture of what happened. No charges have been filed against the officers whom the Traoré family accuses of having killed Adama.
“I told myself that his death could not continue to be minor news,” Traoré said. “We couldn’t forget it and just pretend, ‘Here’s another guy who died over the summer.'”
Traoré said the video of Floyd’s murder has helped “illustrate” what happened to his half brother. “People now understand how my brother died,” he said.
But, he added, “if there had not been this great organizing effort before, the death of George Floyd would have made no difference.”
With the help of experienced left-wing anti-racist activists, Ms. Traoré has worked to turn her advocacy group into a movement, keeping politicians at bay and relying primarily on social media that keeps her phone ringing all the time. She has almost 400,000 Instagram followers.
Julien Talpin, a sociologist at the National Center for Scientific Research, said she had become “a central political figure” with whom many black people, feeling neglected by French political parties, can easily identify with.
Ms. Traoré’s activism has angered the French right-wing media, accusing her of trying to rip apart French society by pitting black and white communities against each other. She has also disagreed with the French authorities.
He recently filed a defamation suit against the Paris police chief and declined an invitation from former justice minister Nicole Belloubet for a meeting, arguing that “justice should not be done in a tea room at the Elysee Palace” .
“A confrontation has been established,” Traoré said. “It is a small victory. But we don’t want a small victory. “
