The French phrase “va dans ta niche” translates to “go in your kennel” or “go to your place”. It is an idiomatic expression used to tell someone to go away or leave, often in a dismissive or authoritative way. The phrase implies that the person being addressed should retreat to their designated space or area, similar to telling a dog to go to its kennel.
As you can see, there is an animal connection here. When you say this phrase to somebody you are implying that they are a dog and they should go to their kennel. And in this context, humans have a way of denigrating people by referring to the dog. That’s because the dog has been abused (and loved) throughout its entire time it’s been domesticated. There are many phrases with the word “dog” in them which are derogatory of a person such as being ‘treated like a dog’.
My artificial intelligence assistant will not provide me with a list because AI is very woke. AI bots are written by woke nerds who refuse to face reality. Or they want to create a highly pleasant world where reality is nicely tucked away.
Anyway, the story today in my newspaper is that a supporter of Marine Le Pen, the leader of the populist right-wing National Rally is facing allegations of racism after they were filmed telling their black neighbours to “go in the kennel”.
It supports the allegation that National Rally is racist. But Marine Le Pen defended the use of the phrase despite the uproar caused when she said that the expression “go in your kennel” was not necessarily racist.
And as you can see in the first paragraph, where the expression’s usage is described, she is correct. She said that it was “a popular expression [used] by people who hate each other. It’s you who draw the conclusion that is racist because of the victim’s skin colour. That’s scandalous.”
She is saying that the blame should be placed upon the people who are commenting on the person who used the expression against their neighbour. They have coloured the expression with racism. It is they who are racist not the person who used the expression. That’s her argument.
My gut feeling is that although technically she is correct, she is wrong in her assessment because I suspect that the person who used the phrase against their black neighbour was using it in a racist way. That’s my allegation and no more. It’s my opinion. I don’t know for sure how it was used.
