La race n'existe pas is a black and white music video by Pascal Lièvre shot in 4:3 format. Aesthetically, it references Angela Davis’s 1970s videos, which are recognizable by their very tight framing. A woman facing the camera sings an extract taken from Achille Mbembe’s philosophical book Critique de la raison nègre (Critique of Black Reason) to the melody of Shine Bright Like a Diamond by Barbadian singer Rihanna.
Achille Mbembe is a Cameroonian philosopher of post-colonial theory, a political commentator, a historian, and a university lecturer. In this book, he proposes an end to the notion of race by offering the Occident and Africa an alternative position on difference. A critic who is already active in the field of Black Feminism with, among others, Angela Davis.
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See also: Pascal Lièvre - L'atelier A, arte, France, 2017.