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RACISM

Almost all Black French people have experienced racial discrimination, study shows

More than 90 percent of Black or mixed-race people in France have experienced racial discrimination "often" or "from time to time" according to a new study on anti-Black racism in France.

Published: 14 February 2023 17:54 CET
Almost all Black French people have experienced racial discrimination, study shows
A man holds a sign reading "Stop to racism" during a protest against racism in Paris in 2022. (Photo by Christophe ARCHAMBAULT / AFP)

In a recent study conducted by INSEE and CRAN (The National Council Representing Black Associations in France) – the results of which will be presented before France’s parliament on Wednesday – has found that the vast majority of Black French people have been victims of racial discrimination.

It comes just a few weeks after France’s Prime Minister, Elisabeth Borne, unveiled a broad-reaching four year anti-racism action plan, which would include more school visits to memorial sites related to colonialism and the Holocaust, as well as harsher penalties for those found guilty of racist or anti-Semitic offences.

Some groups, such as Human Rights Watch have criticised the plan, however, for failing to account for institutional racism and ethnic profiling by police.

READ MORE: French PM unveils four year plan to counter racism and anti-semitism

The results of the study

The study found that 91 percent of Black or mixed race people living in metropolitan reported being victims of racial discrimination “often” or “from time to time” in their every day lives.

The study is the second to have been published by CRAN – the first was put forward 16 years ago, and according to CRAN’s leader, Patrick Lozès, the results show that discrimination is widespread in France.

In an interview with Le Parisien, Lozès commented on the results, saying that “today, there is a free flow of racist speech and an increase in extremist ideas. With this study, we wanted to try to measure these phenomenons. And the results found that they are widespread”.

READ MORE: ANALYSIS: Is France really ‘colour-blind’ or just blind to racism?

The study looked at discrimination in different areas of life. It found that most incidents of anti-Black racism occur in the public space. Almost half (41 percent) happened on the street, about a third occurred in the workplace (31 percent) and about a fifth (18 percent) happened in train stations, airports, or at border crossings.

14 percent of respondents also reported experiencing racial discrimination either at school or university, as well.

“These are the places where people go about their daily lives,” Lozès told Le Parisien.

When looking at the nature of instances of discrimination that Black and mixed-race people living in France reported being victim to, over half were related to difficulty in hiring or applying to jobs (53 percent). 

Over one in two respondents also reported experiencing “injustices” during their studies, and almost six in 10 said that discrimination often involved a “disdainful, contemptuous or disrespectful attitude”. 

35 percent of respondents reported that racial discrimination had come in the form of physical violence, and almost half (49 percent) reported experiencing racially charged profiling by police (in the form of ‘identity checks’ or contrôles d’identité). 

Objectives that CRAN will present to parliament

During the presentation of the study and its results to France’s parliament on Wednesday, Cozès told Le Parisien he hopes to also push for the creation of an observatory body to keep track of racism in France, which would have the means to more regularly publish data on the phenomenon.

CRAN also hopes to debate the subject of publishing ethnic statistics, which is currently banned in France.

Member comments

  1. You don’t even have to be black or have an obviously different skin colour to experience racism in France. It is the first country I have lived in (out of four) where some people are visibly offended that non-French people exist…very strange and insular mindset.

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POLITICS

French parliament backs bill against hair discrimination affecting black women

France's lower house of parliament on Thursday approved a bill forbidding workplace discrimination based on hair texture, which the draft law's backers say targets mostly black women wearing their hair naturally.

Published: 28 March 2024 11:57 CET
French parliament backs bill against hair discrimination affecting black women

Olivier Serva, an independent National Assembly deputy for the French overseas territory of Guadeloupe and the bill’s sponsor, said it would penalise any workplace discrimination based on “hair style, colour, length or texture”.

Similar laws exist in around 20 US states which have identified hair discrimination as an expression of racism.

In Britain, the Equality and Human Rights Commission has issued guidelines against hair discrimination in schools.

Serva, who is black, said women “of African descent” were often encouraged before job interviews to change their style of hair. Backers also say that men who wear their hair in styles like dreadlocks are also affected.

The bill was approved in the lower house National Assembly with 44 votes in favour and two against. It will now head to the upper Senate where the right has the majority and the vote’s outcome is much less certain.

‘Target of discrimination’

Serva, who also included discrimination suffered by blondes and redheads in his proposal, points to an American study stating that a quarter of black women polled said they had been ruled out for jobs because of how they wore their hair at the job interview.

Such statistics are hard to come by in France, which bans the compilation of personal data that mention a person’s race or ethnic background on the basis of the French Republic’s “universalist” principles.

The draft law does not, in fact, contain the term “racism”, noted Daphne Bedinade, a social anthropologist, saying the omission was problematic.

“To make this only about hair discrimination is to mask the problems of people whose hair makes them a target of discrimination, mostly black women,” she told Le Monde daily.

A black Air France air crew member in 2022 won a 10-year legal battle for the right to work with braided hair on flights after a decision by France’s highest appeals court.

While statistics are difficult to come by, high-profile people have faced online harassment because of their hairstyle.

In the political sphere they include former government spokeswoman Sibeth Ndiaye, and Audrey Pulvar, a deputy mayor of Paris, whose afro look has attracted much negative comment online.

The bill’s critics say it is unnecessary, as discrimination based on looks is already banned by law.

“There is no legal void here,” said Eric Rocheblave, a lawyer specialising in labour law.

Calling any future law “symbolic”, Rocheblave said it would not be of much practical help when it came to proving discrimination in court.

Kenza Bel Kenadil, an influencer and self-proclaimed “activist against hair discrimination”, said a law would still send an important message.

“It would tell everybody that the law protects you in every way and lets you style your hair any way you want,” she said.

The influencer, who has 256,000 followers on Instagram, said she herself had been “forced” to tie her hair in a bun when she was working as a receptionist.

Her employers were “very clear”, she said. “It was, either you go home and fix your hair or you don’t come here to work”.

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