Jean Paul Guerlain...the perfume giant and his controversial racist comments...

[Sojourner]

[h=1]French perfume house Guerlain faces legal action over racist comments[/h] Anti-racism groups plan to sue perfume house after Jean-Paul Guerlain's remark on national TV

Anti-racism groups in France are to sue the perfume house Guerlain after one of its best known perfumiers said he "worked like a nigger" to create a new scent.

Around 100 protesters gathered outside the Guerlain store on the Champs Elysées this weekend, calling for a worldwide boycott of the perfume house and its owner, the luxury brand, Louis Vuitton-Moët Hennessy, because of the racist slur.

Jean-Paul Guerlain, 73, a descendent of the perfume house's founder, was interviewed on French state TV last week, and asked about the creation of a new perfume, Samsara. He replied: "I worked like a nigger. I don't know if niggers have always worked like that, but anyway."

Patrick Lozès, of France's Representative Council of Black Associations, said the French word "nègre" used by Guerlain was an "extremely pejorative" and "racist" term equivalent to "nigger" in English.

He said that the fact Guerlain felt so at ease using it on national TV was symptom of the "deep sickness" of racism in French society. He condemned LVMH and the Guerlain company for not reacting to the comments quickly enough. US civil rights leaders, including Al Sharpton, who will visit France next month, are to ask for a meeting with Nicolas Sarkozy to discuss Guerlain's comments. Guerlain, a famous "nose", or perfume developer, retired from the company in 2002 but acts as a consultant to their top perfumier. He issued a statement apologising for his "shocking words" and said he took full responsibility. Guerlain head office said his words were unacceptable. LVMH released a statement condemning "all forms of racism". Christine Lagarde, France's finance minister, said Guerlain's comments were"pathetic". http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/oct/24/guerlain-racism-legal-action
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[MichaelaLou]

what a douche. Id like to say id boycott a brand i love if i found out their owner was racist or discrimatory in any form,but i cant say i would for sure.

 

[m4dswine]

Ok, there are some very different cultural practices in continental Europe. My OH's best friend is from Austria and when he came to England to do his MBA we had to tell him not to use certain words, like nigger, because they are racist. He was quite surprised.

Also, Guerlain is in his 70s. Old habits die hard and when he was younger it would have been an acceptable phrase to use.

It doesn't make what he said right, but I wouldn't condemn him outright for what may just be a turn of phrase and not an indication of deep rooted racism.

 

[tthelwell]

I think the context alone denotes racism. To make a statement such as "...worked like a nigger.." is far from just a cultural difference. It's quite an obvious reference to slavery and black people working hard in the fields.

I agree that some cultures are much looser with the use of the word and it doesn't ordinarily offend me but this is extremely out of line. Personally I wouldn't necessarily boycott a brand because of the actions of an ignorant employee/consultant/affiliate. The brand is not responsible for the outlandish outbursts but alas I would be less inclined to purchase if they handled the situation poorly. I certainly would not buy the product he worked so 'hard' on and maybe not support his brand-name (he probably gets royalties). Ahhhh.....still such a sad world...

 

[Shadowy Lady]

Culture difference is no excuse, neither is old age. You should not be excused for your racism just coz you're an old French guy. In this case I don't think apologizing will make a difference, it probably has moved to higher levels by now.

I wouldn't say I'm surprised by his comment though. I've traveled all around Europe and found that racism is definitely more common in France, especially towards black ppl.

 

[Corvs Queen]

Ok, there are some very different cultural practices in continental Europe. My OH's best friend is from Austria and when he came to England to do his MBA we had to tell him not to use certain words, like nigger, because they are racist. He was quite surprised.

Note: Not ALL Austrians are racist. My husband has never, not once used the N word in the six years that we have been together. He was born and raised in Austria. Most people I have met here are far more tolerant of other races and cultures than many places in the States.

 

[m4dswine]

Note: Not ALL Austrians are racist. My husband has never, not once used the N word in the six years that we have been together. He was born and raised in Austria. Most people I have met here are far more tolerant of other races and cultures than many places in the States.

My bf's best mate isn't racist either. Words just get lost in translation sometimes.

 

[YLQ]

Well damn....

 

[blazeno.8]

I mean, the Guerlain products that I have I won't give up (I paid too much). I decided long ago to never purchase from the brand again independent of these comments, but they just reinforce my sentiment.

I don't buy the "lost in translation" argument for Europe, especially not France. Africans from many different post colonial nations make up a major immigrant population in France, and many of the riots that had taken place before the economic downturn in 2008 were centered in many of these communities that felt that there was unfair discrimination against them which led to their high unemployment rates. In addition to the riots, some of the poor race relations in France (and many southern European countries) have played out on the soccer field and I've watched more of it than I care to see.

I could go into my experiences and what I saw, but that's not necessary. I find that when Guerlain said what he did he was making a reference to France's colonial past in Africa and then tried to change his statement to reference this situation today. Whether or not you find the actual words offensive, I find that talking making light of people who have been oppressed and are still being oppressed incredibly tasteless. If the words themselves aren't racist, the meaning behind those words is.

 

[Shadowy Lady]

Blanzo - as someone who has lived in both France and Western Africa, I fully agree with your comment.

 

[blazeno.8]

Yeah sorry to come down like that, but I've been reading quite a few comments about this bruhaha and some people want to blame it on PC westerns especially Americans. It's not like American or British English put the words negro or nigger into the French lexicon or put any sort of implicit social rank into the term. In referencing color and pigment (not people of a given color) Germanic languages use words like black English, schwartz German, zwart Dutch, swart Frisian, sort Norwegian and Danish, svart Swedish, svartur Icelandic. All I'm missing are Faroese (should be either like Danish or Icelandic) and Afrikaans (should be like Dutch). English had the cognate swart at one time which has only survived into archaic forms of Modern English in the term swarthy. Some Germanic languages do have the cognate to English black but many of them have taken on a different meaning in words related to "blacken/burn", "dark", or "ink". Looking at Romance languages on the other hand, we have the color/pigment terms: niger Latin, negro Spanish and Gallego, preto/negro Portuguese, negre Catalan and Occitan, noir French, nero Italian, neri Friulian, and way out in the Baltic Region of Romance languages we find negru Romanian. I think that the word negro and nigger in English are credited ultimately to Spanish/Portuguese. I guess I went through this because there is no need to assume that either of these words entered a Romance language from a Germanic language. If anything, the words negro, neger and nigger(nikker) found in most Germanic languages are borrowings that are ultimately sourced to Romance languages.

Now given that the form itself comes from Romance languages, the social baggage associated with the use of the word seemed to come with the borrowing. It was the people running the slave trade who gave this name other humans and treated them worse than livestock. Even though the slave trade was over by the time Guerlain was born, colonization wasn't. Guerlain, in using the French equivalent, evoked this history of the word whether he knew it or not. I would err on the side that he did know what he was saying. He was born in 1945 if he's 65 today. West African nations had been heavily colonized by France and he would have been a young man around the time that France started to lose its grip on these nations. I'm sure he was aware of the race relations then as I'm sure he's aware of the race relations when he said that comment. I'm sure he became even more aware of race relations after being slapped with a lawsuit.

I understand the point that m4dswine is trying to make. There are some people who just don't know about the implicit prejoritive nature of this word. This summer I talking with someone from another country, and the word was used to my face. I'm not even sure the person who said it thought twice. This person is about my age, and I wouldn't expect them to know that much about colonial history that is highly salient to other parts of Europe, the Americas, Africa, and Asia. If another person we both know had been there there, I'm sure that Person2 would have politely explained to Person1 that the term could be offensive. I can't be upset with the person who used the term; they just don't know. After all, younger generations of African Americans which penetrate their view of American culture use the term as a sign of solidarity. It's used in a similar way to the word boy which is very disrespectful when coming from a white young adult male to any of his black peers or elders. In fact, I have a relative who heard the word nigger used by some of her Latino students when they were referring to other Latinos. It can be very confusing, but at the same time, reappropriation of the word doesn't erase the history. Especially when that person using the word, like Jean-Paul Guerlain, lived through a time when there was little ambiguity as to what it meant and lived through the social upheavals associated with the power structure that the word was referring to.

/rant

 

[DILLIGAF]

Blazeno if this is the nature of your rants... then rant on hun rant on.

 

[tthelwell]

HOLLA Blazeno!

 

[Cydonian]

Ha... his makeup line is a yawn and now I really don't like him. Score.