Beyond Red, White and Blue: The Crumbling Myth of France's Racial Colour Blindness

Rachel Tobin

CW: discusses racism

During the wave of Black Lives Matter protests that swept the globe this summer following the murder of George Floyd, there has been a palpable desire, especially among young people, to speak about racism in its many forms, as the first step to overcoming systemic racial inequalities and anti-black sentiments. The Black Lives Matter movement has been undoubtedly globally unified with the same logos and slogans being echoed in cities across the world. Despite this social-media-facilitated unity and the many common struggles of people of colour (POC), it is important to acknowledge that the Western World’s approach to race is far from uniform. 

Notable in its very particular approach to ethnicity is France, which stresses a universalistic national identity, above and to the exclusion of any racial, ethnic or religious identity. Many French see the hybrid forms of identity often embraced in the UK and US, e.g. British-Asian and African-American, as divisive rather than inclusive. In 2018 following France's World Cup victory, US-based South African comedian and host of 'The Daily Show' found himself in hot water with many French over his joke that, "Africa won the World Cup", due to the African origins of many of the players on the team that led France to victory. In fact, he even received a letter from a French Ambassador which vehemently condemned Noah's comments and passionately defended the ‘Frenchness’ of the team, emphasising that, "France does not refer to its citizens based on their race, religion or origin," and that by referring to them as an African team, he was supporting the ideology “which claims whiteness as the only definition of being French.” Noah responded during an episode of The Daily Show, clarifying that he believed that the players’ identities should not have to be an either/or issue, saying: "I love those players, and I love how African they are, and how French they are, I don't take their Frenchness away, but I also don’t think you need to take their Africanness away." The interaction is one which reveals the stark difference between the multiculturalist ideology found in the UK and US versus the universalism which is so central to how the French approach issues surrounding race and religion. 

Illustration: Nir Stern

Consequently, in accordance with a 1978 law, the French government collects no data whatsoever on religion or ethnicity in its census, only classifying the inhabitants of the country as either citizens or immigrants, labels dictated solely by legal status. This attitude towards ethnicity is one which can largely be traced back to the Revolutionary values of equality before the law and achieved rather than ascribed status. Furthermore, there exists in France a deeply negative connotation surrounding the racial and religious classification of citizens, which, for many, is reminiscent of the identification, denaturalisation and deportation of Jewish and Romani people in Vichy France during the Second World War. Acknowledging race is not simply a Left versus Right debate in France, as it is rooted within the very fundamentals of the Republic. If anything, many left-leaning politicians and thinkers oppose the explicit acknowledgment of race through the collection of data, fearing that this could compromise principles of equality and be weaponised by the far-right to further their anti-immigration agenda. 

As a consequence, social policy is adamantly colour blind in France today, with social inequalities being addressed solely using socio-economic and geographical factors, although racial and religious hate crime laws are arguably far stricter than the UK or US. Therefore, on paper, France attempts to function as a post-racial society, yet the everyday reality for people of colour in France is, like many other nations, markedly racialised. This is particularly striking regarding policing, in both statistics and high-profile cases of police violence against young black men. In a 2007 study, The Open Society Justice Initiative studied police biases when using stop-and-search tactics in five locations in Paris, observing over 500 of these police interactions. In line with longstanding complaints about over-policing of POC in France, black people were on average 6 times more likely to be stopped and searched than their white counterparts, while 'Arabs' of North African origin were on average 7.8 times more likely to be stopped than white people. The French police have also come under fire time and time again for excessive force and violence against black men, such as the 2016 death of Adama Traoré in police custody after being forcefully restrained, or the sexual assault of 22-year-old black man with a police baton during an identity check in 2017, which officers claimed was 'accidental'. Reports of racism in the nation don't start and end with policing, with many reporting discrimination in the job market. In a 2004 study conducted by the University of Paris in which standard CVs were sent out to over 250 sales assistant job advertisements with various names associated with different ethnic groups, an applicant with a North African sounding name had five times less chance of receiving a positive reply. Even in more everyday social settings many POC experience discrimination, such as difficulty gaining entrance to nightclubs. A French assistant of North African origin who worked at my sixth-form spoke of regularly having been turned away from nightclubs in France with excuses such as "it’s a private event tonight" or "your shoes breach the dress code", before proceeding to allow his white, more shabbily dressed friends to enter. 

Evidently, although the French government does not formally acknowledge race, everyday life for POC in France is strongly and systemically influenced by racial and/or religious discrimination. As summarised by French academic Maboula Soumahoro: “Je ne pense pas que la France soit aveugle à la race, je pense que la France se pense comme aveugle à la race”- “I don’t believe France is race-blind, I think France only believes itself to be race-blind.” This then begs the question: how sustainable is a colour-blind approach which, as well-meaning as it may be, refuses to acknowledge, research and tackle the full depth and breadth of racial discrimination? By starting and ending with outlawing hate speech and crimes, the government glosses over the more nuanced, systemic, everyday manifestations of racism which limit opportunities and marginalise many communities. 

Demonstrating how deeply France’s ideology of colour blindness runs, the government generally appears to be standing their ground in light of Black Lives Matter protests. Macron affirmed during a presidential address in June that, while a person’s skin colour can affect their life chances in France, and while the fight against racism is a noble one, this effort is led astray once it becomes “communautarisme”.  This highly pejorative term refers to the concept of individuals identifying more strongly with a collective social, cultural or religious identity than they do with their individual and national identity, thus undermining national unity. Nevertheless, the enormous turnout to the protests this summer challenges the government’s unfaltering stance. Central to the discourse of the global movement is that of acknowledgment, of addressing the issues that have been ignored for too long. The thousands who took to the streets did so with the hope of real, concrete change regarding racism in France, change that can arguably only take place if race is recognised in the first place. Given the fundamental nature of France’s singular, colour blind national identity, it seems unlikely that the government will abandon this deeply ingrained stance without considerable and ongoing pressure from the general public.