From 1997 to 2025: The Evolving Relevance of 'Ma 6-T Va Crack-Er' in Modern France
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.6000/2817-2310.2025.04.04Keywords:
Banlieue, Cultural representation, Jean-François Richet, Ma 6-T va crack-er, Social inequality, Systemic neglect, Urban violence, Youth discontentAbstract
This study investigates the continued relevance of Jean-François Richet's Ma 6-T va crack-er in addressing France's persistent socio-political issues related to the banlieues. Combining historical analysis, theoretical frameworks, and comparative film studies, the paper explores how themes of urban segregation, cultural identity, systemic inequality, and youth rebellion remain pressing in 2025. It also examines how successive policy failures and media representations have entrenched negative perceptions of these marginalised communities. Drawing on the works of Hall, Balibar, Wacquant, Gilroy, and Crenshaw, this paper offers a multidisciplinary analysis while proposing policy solutions to address the long-standing issues in the banlieues.
References
Alba, R., & Silberman, R. (2002). Decolonization immigrations and the social origins of the second generation: The case of North Africans in France. International Migration Review, 36(4), 1169–1193. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1747-7379.2002.tb00122.x
Almeida, D. (2021). The Republic's inner borders: Rethinking French banlieues through critical border studies. Journal of Borderlands Studies, 38(3), 377–396. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/08865655.2021.1913066
Archer, N. (2010). Virtual poaching and altered space: Reading parkour in French visual culture. Modern & Contemporary France, 18(1), 93–107. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/09639480903504284
Body-Gendrot, S. (2010). Police marginality, racial logic and discrimination in the banlieues of France. Ethnic and Racial Studies, 33(4), 656–674. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/01419870903348646
Body-Gendrot, S. (2016). Making sense of French urban disorders in 2005. European Journal of Criminology, 13(5), 556–572. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/1477370816640819
Brady, J. (2022). Reflexivity, third space, and representation: Radical reimaginings of the banlieue in Swagger (2016). Film Matters. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1386/fm_00202_1
Chebinou, E. (2019). "Banlieusarde," the empowered (fe)male: Man up! Her body is gaining back her space in Divines (2016). TrayectoriasHumanasTrascontinentales, (6). DOI: https://doi.org/10.25965/trahs.1847
Dikeç, M. (2006). Badlands of the Republic? Revolts, the French state, and the question of banlieues. Environment and Planning D: Society and Space, 24(2), 159–163. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1068/d2402ed
Fanon, F. (1963). The wretched of the earth (C. Farrington, Trans.). Grove Press.
Hall, S. (1996). New ethnicities. In D. Morley & K. H. Chen (Eds.), Stuart Hall: Critical dialogues in cultural studies (pp. 441–449). Routledge.
Haddad, Y. Y., & Balz, M. (2006). The October riots in France: A failed immigration policy or the empire strikes back? International Migration, 44(1), 23–34. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2435.2006.00362.x
Hargreaves, A. G. (1996). A deviant construction: The French media and the 'banlieues'. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 22(4), 607–618. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/1369183X.1996.9976563
Higbee, W. (2001). Screening the 'other' Paris: Cinematic representations of the French urban periphery in La Haine and Ma 6-T va crack-er. Modern & Contemporary France, 9(2), 197–208. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/09639480126467
Laachir, K. (2007). France's 'ethnic' minorities and the question of exclusion. Mediterranean Politics, 12(1), 105–119. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/13629390601136889
McNeill, I. (2020a). Music and spatial injustice in banlieue cinema. French Screen Studies, 20(3–4), 317–335.
McNeill, I. (2020b). Music, spatial injustice, and representation in banlieue cinema. French Screen Studies, 20(1), 31–47. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/26438941.2020.1720949
Morán, M. (2017). Terrorism and the banlieues: The Charlie Hebdo attacks in context. Modern & Contemporary France, 25(3), 315–332. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/09639489.2017.1323199
Murray, G. (2006). France: The riots and the Republic. Race & Class, 47(1), 26–45. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/0306396806063856
Orlando, V. K. (2003). From rap to raï in the mixing bowl: Beur hip-hop culture and banlieue cinema in urban France. The Journal of Popular Culture, 36(3), 395–415. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/1540-5931.00013
Richet, J.-F. (Director). (1997). Ma 6-T va crack-er [Film]. Why Not Productions.
Siciliano, A. (2015). La Haine: Framing the 'urban outcasts'. ACME: An International Journal for Critical Geographies, 6(2), 211–230.
Tarr, C. (2002). Gender, ethnicity and space in contemporary French cinema. Screen, 43(4), 415–428.
Tarr, C. (2005). Reframing difference: Beur and banlieue filmmaking in France. Manchester University Press.
Tarr, C. (2007). Transnational identities and spaces in films about West Africans in Paris. Modern & Contemporary France, 15(1), 65–76. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/09639480601115292
Tarr, C. (2019). Masculinity, exclusion, and protest in post-1995 beur and banlieue films. Contemporary French Civilization, 44(1), 91–109. DOI: https://doi.org/10.7765/9781526141750.00011
Wacquant, L. (1999). Urban marginality in the coming millennium. Urban Studies, 36(10), 1639–1647. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/0042098992746
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
Policy for Journals with Open Access
Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:
- Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are permitted and encouraged to post links to their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work