France sees itself as colourblind – so how to talk about race?

The race of the police officer who fatally shot a French teenager during a traffic stop last week has not been made public, and there’s no reason why it would be: officially, race does not exist in France.

French authorities are prohibited by law from collecting statistics on race or religion, part of France’s deep commitment to secularism (laïcité), which holds that all French are equally French and discourages adherence to any subgroups whose cultural identities might eclipse one’s Frenchness. Such “communitarianisme” is frowned upon and any “ostentatious” displays of religious affiliation – like the Muslim veil – are outlawed in public buildings, including government offices and schools.

But in reality, some French are more French than others.  

The death of French-born Nahel M., a 17-year-old boy with Moroccan-Algerian roots, has again exposed the deep resentments about systemic racism that lie just under the surface of the country’s ideal of colourblind equality.

Police initially reported that the officer shot Nahel because the teenager was driving his car straight at them. But this version of events was contradicted by a video that quickly went viral on social media and was later authenticated by AFP.

With his death captured on video, what could be seen as France’s “George Floyd moment” has produced a very French national discussion that leaves out what many would consider an essential and incontestable point: race.

One cannot address race – much less racism – if French policies pointedly refuse to acknowledge its existence.

Read moreTeen’s killing raises a French policing issue that dare not be named

Paris Police Chief Laurent Nunez said on Sunday that he was shocked by the UN human rights office’s use of the term “racism” in its criticism of French law enforcement. The police have none of that, he said. 

Read moreWho was Nahel, the teenager shot dead by French police?

Is it racist to speak of race?

France, especially White France, doesn’t tend to frame discussions of discrimination and inequality in Black-and-White terms. Some French consider it racist to even discuss skin colour. No one knows how many people of various races, cultures or religions live in the country, because such data cannot be recorded.

“They say we are all French … so for them, it’s racist to do something like that,” Iman Essaifi said by way of explanation. Essaifi, 25, resides in Nanterre, the Paris suburb where Nahel was killed.

While the subject of race remains taboo, Essaifi believes the events of the past week were a small step towards speaking more openly about it. She noted that the people who marched in the streets of Nanterre after Nahel’s death were “not necessarily Arabs, not necessarily Blacks”, she said. “There were Whites, there were the ‘vrai Francais’” – the “real French”.

France’s Constitution says the French Republic and its values are considered universal, meaning that all citizens have the same rights regardless of origin, race or religion.

Trying to discuss racial inequality without mentioning race leads to some linguistic gymnastics. Instead of terms like Black or multi-ethnic neighbourhoods, French people instead often speak of “communities” or “banlieues” and “quartiers” (quarters). These terms are widely understood to mean often disadvantaged urban areas of public housing projects with large immigrant populations.

Read moreFresh protests against police violence rooted in decades of harassment, inequality

Amid the unrest after Nahel’s death, such nonspecific language has ranged from supportive to insulting. Nanterre’s mayor, Patrick Jarry, spoke on Monday of the suburb “in all its diversity”. A statement last week by the Alliance Police Nationale union, which represents half of France’s police officers, described the rioters as “vermin”.

Of course there’s racism in France, some say.

“For example, if your parents come from another country, even you are poorly accepted,” said Stella Assi, a Paris-born 17-year-old passing by the city hall in Nanterre. “If I were White, that wouldn’t happen.”

France’s legacy of colonialism, largely in Africa and the Caribbean, plays out in some attitudes that continue generations later. More recently, migration has caused debate and division. The result is a government that openly addresses certain issues around race, but not necessarily in relation to its citizens’ daily lives.

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A court in France on Wednesday rejected a request for reparations for the descendants of enslaved people in Martinique. The court found that no evidence had been produced showing they had “personally suffered” from the crimes their ancestors had been subjected to.

Also on Wednesday, French authorities removed the name of US Black civil rights activist Angela Davis from a high school, judging her views on race relations to be too radical.The conservative head of the Paris region, former Les Républicains presidential candidate Valérie Pécresse, had accused the university professor and former Black Panther of having views that “feed communitarian feeling and can encourage violence”.

Ahmed Djamai, 58, the president of an organisation in Nanterre that connects young people with work opportunities, recalled being stopped by police recently and asked for his residence permit. He was born in France.

“Our second-, third- and fourth-generation children face the same problem when they go out to get a job,” he said. “People lump them together with things that happen in the suburbs. They’re not accepted. So, to date, the problem is social, but it’s also one of identity.”

The stunning procession of hundreds of men who walked from a mosque in Nanterre to the cemetery for Nahel’s burial stood out in France not only because many were Black or Arab, but because even such a demonstration of religious identity can be sensitive.

Some people with immigrant roots fear that France’s success stories of generations of assimilation under that policy are being lost amid the rioting and criticism.

Gilles Djeyaramane is a municipal councilor in Poissy, a town west of Paris. His French-born wife is of Madagascan origin. He was born in French Guiana, of parents from India, and moved to France when he was 18.

“I’m always saying to my children, ‘Your mom and dad would never have met if France didn’t exist,’” he said. “I’m not at all utopian. I know there’s work to do in some areas. But we are on the right path.”

Those who knew Nahel, and some who identify with him, say it’s not fair to pretend that differences – and discrimination – don’t exist. Some pointed out that a GoFundMe campaign for the family of the police officer accused in Nahel’s death surpassed €1.5 million on Wednesday before being suspended; a similar fundraising effort for Nahel’s family stood at €440,000 at press time.  

The frustration in many communities comes from other issues as well, including the rising cost of living and policing in general. Amnesty International and five other rights groups filed a class-action lawsuit against the French state in 2021 alleging that police use ethnic profiling during ID checks.

Police officers reject accusations that some among them single people out because of their race. Officer Walid Hrar, who is of Moroccan descent and Muslim, said that if it sometimes seems that people of colour are stopped more than others, it’s a reflection of the multi-ethnic, multi-racial density of populations in disadvantaged urban neighbourhoods.

People also stop people in rural France, where there are fewer people with immigrant backgrounds, Hrar said. But there “they are called François, Paul and Pierre and Jacques”.

Mariam Lambert, a 39-year-old who said Nahel was a friend of her son, stressed the pressure of feeling like she and fellow Muslims have to play down their identity.

“If I put a scarf on my head … they would see me as from another world, and everything would change for me,” said Lambert, who suspects she would be insulted in the streets. She spoke on the margins of a gathering at Nanterre city hall as events were held on Monday in support of mayors – some of whom have been targeted during the riots – and calling for a return to calm.

Lambert mused about moving to Morocco if France doesn’t change.

“There are plenty of people leaving,” she said. “Because who protects us from the police?”

 (FRANCE 24 with AFP)