Je suis Charlie

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Logo of the slogan Je suis Charlie
Je suis Charlie - lettering on the French embassy in Berlin on January 11, 2015

Je suis Charlie ( [ʒə sɥi ʃaʁ.li] ; French both “I am Charlie” and “I follow Charlie”) is a slogan that emerged immediately after the attack on the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo on January 7, 2015 To express solidarity with the murdered members of the editorial team. It has since been used in a modified form to show solidarity for numerous similar crimes.

History and variants

At 11:52 a.m., half an hour after the attack on the editors of the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo , Joachim Roncin, artistic director and music journalist for a Paris free newspaper, sent the three-word sentence Je suis Charlie via Twitter . He explained that the image was synonymous with "I am free" and "I am not afraid" to be understood. (French: «Et l'image‹ Je suis Charlie ›est née. Elle est synonymous de‹ Je suis libre ›et de‹ Je n'ai pas peur ›.» )

On the evening of the same day Je suis Charlie developed into an internationally present slogan via social networks , "visible in the urban space, as lettering in white and gray on a black background, in the typography of the attacked magazine". The slogan is generally understood as "a linguistic gesture of symbolic identification" and as an expression of solidarity. The shortening of the newspaper name to Charlie supported its rapid distribution. The Süddeutsche Zeitung notes: “The three-word sentence [...] means: 'I protest against violence in response to caricatures'. 'I am meant when the right to freedom of expression is attacked.' ”This is how“ Je suis Charlie ”became a“ symbol for the endangered public and the democratic and constitutional order as a whole. ”

The success of the slogan led to extensions such as Je suis Ahmed (“I am Ahmed”, referring to the police officer and Muslim Ahmed Merabet who were shot in the attack) and Je suis Juif (“I am a Jew”, referring to the hostage-taking that also took place four dead in a Jewish supermarket). Je suis Juif emphasizes that this further “murder act followed the logic of anti-Semitic selection ”, so the South German.

Votes against

In addition to the great popularity, there were also distant to negative reviews, sometimes under the slogan Je ne suis pas Charlie (“I'm not Charlie”). These ranged from the right-wing extremist Front National to Muslims , who perceived the slogan as a form of exclusion and renewed their criticism of a "provocation" by Charlie Hebdo , to Christians .

Commentators who expressed their solidarity with Charlie Hebdo also expressed criticism. This form of solidarity is precisely not a political one and therefore cheap: “'Je suis Charlie' should not be understood as political action or translated as 'I share in solidarity the values ​​for which these people died and, if necessary, would do it myself'. No, 'Je suis Charlie' means 'Oops!', 'Oh dear!' or 'Nah, so something!'. It's the hum of dismay. "

Charlie Hebdo draftsman Bernard “Willem” Holtrop expressed himself disconcerted about the encouragement from an unexpected source: “ We hebben veel nieuwe vrienden kregen: de paus, koningin Elisabeth, poet. [...] Wij kotsen op al die mensen die nu ineens zeggen dat ze onze vrienden zijn "(German:" We made many new friends: the Pope, Queen Elisabeth, Putin. [...] We throw up on all the people who are now suddenly say that they are our friends ”).

marketing

The graphic designer Joachim Roncin, from whom the slogan comes, tried to have his slogan protected by copyright as a trademark. Nevertheless, the slogan was immediately used commercially by merchandising manufacturers - you could buy textiles or bags with the lettering - which was criticized in the press. But the journalists' association Reporters Without Borders also sold T-shirts with the Charlie logo printed on them, and the proceeds went to the satirical magazine.

Re-use

Je suis Gilles Cistac in Maputo , Mozambique .
Je suis Orlando

The slogan Je suis Charlie met with a great response all over the world and found several adaptations to express solidarity with certain deceased or murdered people. The chanted Je suis Niesmann or Yo soy Niesmann at demonstrations for the suddenly deceased Argentine public prosecutor Alberto Nisman can serve as an example . At a solidarity demonstration in Maputo ( Mozambique ) for the murdered Franco-Mozambican lawyer Gilles Cistac , demonstrators chanted Je suis Cistac , and the mourning of the murdered politician Boris Eefimowitsch Nemtsov was expressed in many places with Je suis Boris .

Je suis Paris

After the terrorist attacks in Paris on November 13, 2015, with over 130 dead, the slogan Je suis Paris and, in a modified form, Nous sommes Paris (“We are Paris”) were used worldwide as an expression of solidarity. When the explosives detection dog Diesel died on November 18 as part of the investigation , the two hashtags #JeSuisDiesel and #JeSuisChien were spread on social networks. The slogan Je suis Orlando was used in the massacre in Orlando in June 2016 , which resulted in at least 50 deaths , with the letters Orlando being displayed in the colors of the rainbow flag, alluding to the crime scene, a bar frequented mainly by homosexuals .

The expression is not only used to show solidarity with the deceased, it is also often used to support those persecuted politically or otherwise. Senegalese, for example, used the expression “Je suis Karim” to defend the rights of the politician Karim Wade, who was arrested for embezzlement .

Web links

Commons : Je suis Charlie  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Solidarity song of the artistes alsaciens [1]

Footnotes

  1. ^ Joachim Roncin: Comment j'ai créé «Je suis Charlie». In: liberation.fr. January 13, 2015, accessed January 15, 2015 (French).
  2. ↑ a b c d Lothar Müller : Who am I? For a few days the world was united under the slogan “Je suis Charlie”. Now the question arises what it actually means. In: Süddeutsche Zeitung . January 14, 2015, p. 11 , accessed 2015 .
  3. ↑ According to Joachim Roncin, the slogan is also influenced by the title of the book series "Où est Charlie?" That he was reading with his son during these days.
  4. ↑ Moritz Eichhorn: #JeSuisCharlie, the slogan of the mourners . In: The world . January 8, 2015, ISSN  0173-8437 (accessed March 8, 2015).
  5. ↑ Jean-Marie Le Pen: "Je ne suis pas Charlie". Le Figaro , January 10, 2015, accessed on January 31, 2015 (French).
  6. ↑ a b Arno Frank : hum of dismay . “Je suis” hype after the Paris attack. In: The daily newspaper . January 13, 2015, ISSN  0931-9085 (accessed January 31, 2015).
  7. ↑ Je suis Français, je suis musulman et pas tout à fait Charlie… France Culture , January 30, 2015, accessed on January 31, 2015 (French, radio report by Abdelhak El Idrissi).
  8. ↑ Scott Sayare: What Je Suis Charlie Has Become. The Atlantic , January 30, 2015, accessed January 31, 2015 .
  9. ↑ Stefan Rehder: "We are not all Charlie" . In: The daily mail . Jan. 9, 2015, ISSN  1615 to 8415 (also available in: katholisch-informiert.ch , accessed on March 8, 2015).
  10. ↑ Obiora Ike: "Let's stop mocking others!" In: Die Tagespost . January 16, 2015, ISSN  1615-8415 (also: katholisch-informiert.ch , accessed on March 8, 2015).
  11. ↑ We gaan nog zeker twintig jaar door, in de Volkskrant , January 10, 2015, also in: 20 Minuten and Focus.de , accessed on April 3, 2015
  12. ↑ Designer wants to protect the logo by copyright ( memento of the original from January 22nd, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. on heute.de. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.heute.de
  13. ↑ Niels Kruse: At the Beard of Profits. In: Stern.de. January 14, 2015, accessed January 15, 2015 .
  14. ↑ The dirty business with “Je suis Charlie” on handelszeitung.ch.
  15. ↑ Terrorist investigator dead in the bathroom: Argentine public prosecutor died from a headshot. In: Spiegel Online. January 20, 2015, accessed on August 30, 2015 : “Across the city, numerous people took to the streets to ask for an explanation. They carried posters with them that read “Yo soy Nisman” (“I am Nisman”) - based on the slogan Je suis Charlie , with which demonstrators expressed their solidarity after the attack on the editors of the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo in Paris with the victims. "
  16. ↑ #Je suis Paris - sympathy online . In: Schwäbische Zeitung , November 14, 2015.
  17. ↑ #JeSuisChien: Why France is mourning a police dog. In: Spiegel Online . November 18, 2015, accessed March 30, 2016 .
  18. ↑ Je suis #Orlando! In: Actu-Mag.fr. June 12, 2016. Retrieved June 12, 2016 .