After Nahel’s killing and the rioting, France must revisit its colour-blind approach

The wave of violent protests and riots that have hit the country are by no means unprecedented.

“There is no racism in France,” the IKEA agent at the desk thundered in a dismissive way, brushing aside all the legitimate questions that a friend and I had posed at the staff of the Swedish brand’s outlet in Paris after being the only ones to be stopped at the exit by the security guard.

We had billed for all the items we purchased at a self-service machine during which we had called another IKEA agent multiple times for help. Then we noticed that we were the only people stopped and whose belongings were checked even as others were allowed to exit unhindered. As two people of colour who have had several such experiences in the past, we approached the staff at the desk only to be let down with the quintessentially tone-deaf, colour-blind French response to such situations.

Deep-Rooted Racism

The next morning in the suburb of Nanterre located to the west of Paris, a 17-year-old teenager of Algerian descent was shot dead at point-blank range by a police officer for refusing to stop his car during a traffic stop. The incident sparked nationwide protests which turned violent at many places resulting in arrests of hundreds of protestors, significant damages to public property, and heavy deployment of security forces.

Seeing the alarmingly high levels of anger spilling onto the streets as a knee-jerk reaction of angry mobs of protestors would be missing the wood for the trees. Such a simplistic assessment of the events in France over the past week would be plainly erroneous as it overlooks the deeply-rooted and embedded problems in French society.

In the immediate aftermath of the shooting incident, President Emmanuel Macron had called the incident “inexplicable and inexcusable”. On the face of it, the comment seems innocuous, conciliatory and mature aimed at curbing anger and violent reactions.

Not Inexplicable, Mr Macron

But to anyone familiar with France’s history of such incidents, the deeply entrenched racism in the country and racial discrimination in institutions including law enforcement agencies and the chequered past of police brutalities, the incident was anything but “inexplicable”.

The wave of violent protests and riots that have hit the country are by no means unprecedented. In 2005, the death of two teenagers of African descent, electrocuted while fleeing from cops who had confronted them, had resulted in riots that continued for weeks and resulted in the declaration of a state of emergency.

Such incidents of police brutalities with racist undertones resulting in waves of violent protests have regularly happened in France. But the failure of the authorities to work towards long-term, permanent and institutional solutions has meant that anger and rage against police brutalities and racial discrimination is not too far from surfacing and can get unleashed when such incidents happen.

Policing And Racial Bias

An investigation by an independent human rights group Défenseur des droits found that 80 percent of young men who seemed “Black or Arab” were 20 times more likely to be stopped by the cops for checking. A report by Reuters highlighted how the instances of fatal shooting by the cops during traffic stops and checks have steadily increased since 2017 –  the year in which a controversial and draconian law that empowered cops to use guns if someone failed to obey their instructions during traffic stops.

The report further revealed that most of the victims of these fatal shootings happened to be of Arab or Black origin. In March this year, the Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights had criticised the police brutalities and oppression during the anti-pension reforms protests in France.

Despite its blemished record of racial discrimination and brutalities, neither the police force nor the political class have shown any gumption to reform. The lack of political will to act tough on the issue could be linked to the average voter's conservative stance on security issues and the influence of powerful police influences.

Earlier this week, President Macron drew the ire of police unions for his remarks condemning the shooting. While it is true that racial discrimination runs deep in France’s law enforcement agencies – as seconded by the remarks of the UN rights office earlier this week, what we see in the law enforcement agencies is a reflection and reinforcement of the problem of racism that ails the larger French society.

Dump “Colourblind” Policy

Many have pointed out how the colonial roots of racism in France are responsible for the constant degradation and dehumanisation of people with African or Arab descent in the country. Despite racism running deep in its society and in its policing system, the French have held on to a preposterous “colourblind” policy maintaining that there is no institutional racism in France and portraying itself as non-racist.

This colour-blind policy also means that the country collects no official or census data relating to race or ethnicity. What this means is that there is no reliable or concrete source to gauge the levels of discrimination in different walks of life that vulnerable segments of the population can face.

One hopes that this tragedy makes France revisit its colour-blind and racism denialist approach of “There is no racism in France” and dump it for everyone’s good, for no problem can ever be solved without acknowledging its existence to begin with.

Omkar Poojari is currently pursuing a Research Master's degree in Politics at Sciences Po, Paris. His research interests and publications primarily revolve around contemporary Indian politics, elections and voting behaviour. Views are personal, and do not represent the stand of this publication.​