Fighting discrimination in a hostile political environment: the case of “colour-blind” France

ABSTRACT

This introduction discusses responses to ethno-racial discrimination in a hostile political environment, colour-blind France. The article presents the current characteristics of the French case, including data measuring ethnoracial discrimination. We outline the on-going role of state institutions and their agents in disqualifying minority claims, but also the recent turn against Islam and the hostility towards new movements against structural racism. We discuss how colour-blindness constrains both local policies and movements. We examine the consequences for individuals that experience discrimination and the collectives that fight against it. We highlight the various strategies that they adopt such as discretion, infrapolitical mobilization as well as tactical re-framing.

KEYWORDS:

• Racial discrimination
• colour-blindness
• mobilization
• repertoire of action
• politics of misrecognition
• local policies
• Islam
• France

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 Trajectories and Origins is a survey that produces national statistics on the diversity of populations in metropolitan France and allows researchers to study the influence of migratory origins on individuals’ trajectories (https://teo.site.ined.fr/en/).

2 EODIPAR – Experiences of discriminations, participation and representation was a research project that aimed at assessing the political consequences of the experience of discrimination based on comparative ethnographies in 9 neighbourhoods of Paris, Bordeaux, Lyon, Lille, London, Montréal and Los Angeles (https://anr.fr/Project-ANR-14-CE30-0011).

3 Ishaam Tharoor, “France and the spectral menace of ‘Islamo-leftism’”, Washington Post, 22 February 2021. URL (consulted 15 June 2022): https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2021/02/22/france-macron-islamo-leftism/)

4 See the definition on the web site of the survey: https://teo.site.ined.fr/en/ (consulted 18 July 2022).

5 Lauren Collins, “Assa Traoré and the Fight for Black Lives in France”, New Yorker, 18 June 2020. URL (consulted 25 June 2020): https://www.newyorker.com/news/letter-from-europe/assa-traore-and-the-fight-for-black-lives-in-france

6 Le Monde with AFP, “Pas de justice, pas de paix » : à Beaumont-sur-Oise, un défilé en mémoire d’Adama Traoré”, Le Monde, 22 July 2017. URL (consulted 28 June 2020): https://www.lemonde.fr/police-justice/article/2017/07/22/pas-de-justice-pas-de-paix-a-beaumont-sur-oise-un-defile-en-memoire-d-adama-traore_5163895_1653578.html

7 Al Sharpton, “No justice, no peace. Why Mark Duggan’s family echoed my rallying cry”, The Guardian, 10 January 2014. URL (consulted 15 June 2022): https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/jan/10/mark-duggan-family-rallying-cry-no-peace-no-justice

8 Julien Souaudau, “De quel mal français le rejet d’Adama Traoré est-il le nom ? ” Slate, 15 December 2020. URL (consulted 25 June 2022): https://www.slate.fr/story/198118/assa-traore-time-magazine-2020-racisme-france-rejet-adama.

9 https://www.lesinrocks.com/actu/macron-juge-le-monde-universitaire-coupable-davoir-casse-la-republique-en-deux-157036-11-06-2020/

10 CNRS (Centre national de recherche scientifique), “Islamo-leftism is not a scientific reality” Press Release, 17 February 2021. URL (consulted on 28 June 2022): https://www.cnrs.fr/en/islamo-leftism-not-scientific-reality-0