France

While Obama claims to seek the "transcending of race" in the United States, his campaign for the White House is having quite opposite effects elsewhere in the world. According to the New York Times, Obama's success is spurring African youth in France - where institutionalised laïcité suppresses the recognition of religious and racial identities - to return to Négritude, the black intellectual movement of the 1920s and 30s that was pioneered by the late Franco-Caribbean writer and politician Aimé Césaire.

The new amendment of an immigration related bill, which is set to be observed by the French parliament today, is creating furore amongst scientists and the activist sphere: it would allow French authorities to incite immigration candidates to provide a genetic test proving their blood-relation to a French citizen (or immigrant with a valid French visa). Candidates would have to pay 1000 Euros for it - an equivalent of 750 Pounds ($1494). [more...]