Pray for the tongue-tied sons of immigrants.
For the kinky-haired boys
who are not Charlie*
whose last names and ninety-three codes*
are red flags on job apps
who are left to hustle on street corners
next to the graves of kings.*
Pray for the veiled granddaughters of Goumiers*
scrubbing toilets in the fairytale lands of Disney*
those whose own history was never a priority
of their education prioritaire.*
Pray for the hip-hop-head descendants
of Moorish astronomers and Wassoulou Tourés.*
For the black and brown castaways
of the outer seas*
The survivors of October seventeenth*
The uprooted, paper stepchildren
of the Patrie.*
Pray for Saint Denis.
* On the night of the 13th November 2015 terrorist attacks, the author was at home two blocks away from one of the restaurants targeted by mass shooters. It was her third month living in Paris, and she lived the shock, fear, and grief that fell over the city in the aftermath. She also witnessed the suspension of civil liberties under a declared “state of emergency,” and the backlash against Muslim communities—particularly those in working-class suburbs, or banlieues, like Saint Denis. This poem was inspired by a news article about mass raids and arrests in St Denis targeting young Muslim men suspected of ties to terrorism. Police presented no evidence or warrants, citing national security concerns, and were lauded by national press. The title is a play on the #PrayforParis hashtag that trended on Twitter after the attack.
* The January 2015 terrorist attacks targeting Charlie Hebdo magazine, after the publication of a satirical cartoon mocking the Prophet Mohammad, led to the Je suis Charlie (“I am Charlie”) movement, which some perceived as having Islamophobic “Us vs Them” undertones.
* The northern banlieue of St Denis is often referred to by the first two digits of its zip code, 93. * St. Denis Basilica is home to almost every dead French king.
* Disneyland Paris workers have staged several walkouts demanding higher pay and travel stipends for their commutes from the banlieues.
* Goumiers: Moroccan soldiers who, as French colonial subjects, fought for the Allies on European soil during the Second World War, aiding in the victory against naziism and fascism.
* Zone d’education prioritaire: Urban school districts identified as having high rates of academic failure and lack of “social order.”
* Samori Touré was the founder and king of the Islamic Wassoulou Empire in present-day Guinea, where he led resistance to French colonisation of West Africa until his exile in 1898.
* France d’outre-mer: Term for the overseas territories of Guadeloupe, Martinique, Réunion, French Guiana, and Mayotte, one-time colonies still under French administrative rule, whose nationals are born with French citizenship and allowed to legally live and work in France.
* Massacre of October 17, 1961: Violent repression by the French National Police of a peaceful march protesting a curfew imposed on all Parisian Muslims (both foreign- and French-born) amidst escalation of the Algerian War. Historians estimate 200-300 demonstrators were killed.
* “Uprooted paper stepchildren” is a play on words inspired by a line in the national anthem La Marseillaise which says, “Les enfants de la Patrie…” (“The children of the nation…”). Français de papier is a right-wing term used for those with non-European origins—even those born in France or the Overseas Departments—who are French “by paper,” but not “truly” French. Often used in contrast to Français de souche, which alludes to the trunk of a tree in reference to French people of European descent.
