The Booba-Kaaris Case: sociology on the battlefield

On Tuesday 3 October 2018, the Créteil Court outside Paris handed down an 18-month suspended prison sentence to Booba and Kaaris, and a fine of 50,000 euros. Thetwo rappers and their entourages were charged with violent assault for their roles in a fightwhich broke out in a departure lounge of Paris's Orly Airport. The video of the eventsimmediately went viral on social media and news channels. Under the stunned gaze ofother passengers and screen-watchers everywhere, the Duc de Boulogne and Kaarislaunched into a form of gang warfare in order to defend a certain "code of honour", offeringup their bodies as entertainment for a digital crowd. This paper argues that the conflictbetween the two French rappers has a socialising function; when it does not aim at killingthe opponent, it involves several forms of recognition. Georg Simmel's work on conflictanalyses the sociological principles, applicable to all societies, underlying feuds betweenfriends, associates, members of the same group and members of the same social milieu.A commentator on Simmel, Julien Freud, notes that "antagonism is typically greater whenthe parties involved feel themselves to be similar and equal". Hence the "utterlydisproportionate violence with which men who are otherwise perfectly self-controlled cansometimes lash out at those closest to them. Jealousy and envy seem to be fundamentalforces in human relations.