Comic Book Tackles Everyday Racism Amid Coronavirus Pandemic

David Ratte’s comic book tells the story of Chloé, in love with Abdelaziz. Catherine, her mother, sees this union in a bad light. Chloé’s father vainly tried to make her see reason. The relationship between the mother and the child was no longer the warmest. Subsequently, a tragedy strikes their door.

This story highlights ordinary racism. Moreover, it draws a parallel with the racist attitudes and reflections of Europeans towards the Chinese people at a time when the new coronavirus was hitting China hard, observes CNEWS. Not to mention the acts of malice against Parisians who came to Vendée at the end of March. The examples are legion.

"In this work, I do not deal with racism in big cities which is very different. I wanted to talk about the parochial spirit of these small villages where everything that comes from elsewhere can be frightening," explains David Ratte. For the scriptwriter and cartoonist of the comic book, we are seeing a rise in ordinary racism during this period marked by the coronavirus pandemic.

"These retrograde reflexes are an unconscious way of reassuring ourselves in times of crisis, of thinking that with us, it can only go better than elsewhere," he says. As solutions to ordinary racism and intolerance, David Ratte proposes "love, kindness and knowledge".