Whether we view Charlie Hebdo’s Islamic-themed output as blasphemy or bigotry depends on how we relate to two equally divergent historical experiences. The White French majority overwhelmingly experienced the images as part of a national struggle with clericalism, while many people around the world saw them as yet another assault on Muslims. Chloe Patton says that we must shift the conversation from the legal to the ethical realm and urgently come to terms with the ways the historical traumas of the global south continue to haunt the postcolonial present.