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Race and Racism in France JASs forum What is race today? Scientific, legal, and Journal of Anthropological Sciences social appraisals from around the globe Vol. 95 (2017), pp. 307-310 doi 10.4436/JASS.95009 Race and racism in France Evelyne Heyer Eco-anthropologie et Ethnobiologie, UMR 7206 CNRS, MNHN, Univ Paris Diderot, Sorbonne Paris Cité, F-75016, Paris; Musée de l’Homme, 17 place du Trocadéro, 75116 Paris, France e-mail: [email protected] The Musée de l’Homme in Paris, has chosen Therefore we have chosen the following defi- for his first big temporary exhibition after re- nition for racism: “being racist is to regard the opening in October 2015, to address the ques- differences between individuals, be they physi- tion of racism. The exhibition is entitled: Us and cal, cultural or moral, as hereditary, immutable them – from prejudices to racism (http://nousetle- and “natural”. Racism establishes a hierarchy of sautres.museedelhomme.fr/en). I am the sci- categories of human beings, and this can lead to entific commissioner with my colleague Carole practices ranging from discrimination through to Reynaud-Paligot, an historian. What is racism? extermination.” This definition encompasses dif- Why does it exist? Are all humans racist? ferent form of racisms either based on a biological In recent years, social psychologists, geneticists or a cultural criterion. Our definition is based on and researchers in the humanities and social sci- three key components: categorization, hierarchiza- ences have explored issues relating to alterity and tion and essentialization. racism. This exhibition draws on their research Categorization is a mental operation that sim- and more, from France and throughout the world plifies the world. People classify individuals based to produce an original analysis of the phenomena on their appearance, their religion, their geographi- of racialization, both in the past and today, which cal origin, etc. The criteria used to differentiate emphasizes not only the widely known facts but people vary according to the particular society also how these phenomena were constructed. and period. Such “categories” are neither natural Before answering the questions raised by Alan nor fixed. Hierarchization involves a value judg- Goodman, it is important to situate racism in ment based on regarding one group or category of France. French racism is not limited to biolog- individuals as being superior or inferior to another. ical-racism i.e. racism based on the idea of races Essentialization is a process by which individuals defined by biological criteria. Indeed, biological- are reduced to moral characteristics, intellectual fac- racism is one of the different forms of racisms ulties or psychological traits alleged to be an immu- that exist. This goes back at least to XXth century table and inherited feature of that particular group. history: after the second world war, Anglo-Saxon Having presented the stage for France, the countries (primarily the UK and USA) focused following directly address the questions posed by on the question of discriminations in relation to Alan Goodman. skin color, while in France anti-racism was mostly taken care of by different associations who have been created to fight anti-Semitism (see the work How is race - both the concept and the of Bleich, 2003). So that when we talk about rac- word itself - used in science today? ism, it is not limited to biological-racism, but includes racisms based on culture or religion that As researchers working in the fields of are also “essentialized”. Anthropological Genetics, we do not use the term the JASs is published by the Istituto Italiano di Antropologia www.isita-org.com 308 JASs forum: What is race today? Scientific, legal, and social appraisals from around the globe race. We use the term population. To our point commit criminal acts. Racist or anti-Semitic fac- of view, population genetics studies have demon- tors are considered an aggravating circumstance strated that races are not appropriate to describe the in these crimes. Discrimination and incitement to genetic diversity. Contrary to races in domesticated discrimination are also violations of the law. animals where there is selection for a phenotype and The term race is mention in the first article no (or controlled) migration between groups, such of the French constitution of 4 October 1958: processes do not exist in Human. There have always Article I: France shall be an indivisible, sec- been migrations among different human groups, so ular, democratic and social Republic. It shall that the level of population genetic differentiation is ensure the equality of all citizens before the law, low and it follows a geographical gradient. On this without distinction of origin, race or religion. It subject we identified two paradoxes for the public shall respect all beliefs. It shall be organized on a that need to be explained: if there is such a low level decentralized basis. of population genetic differentiation why are there Statutes shall promote equal access by women such phenotypic differences among individuals? and men to elective offices and posts as well as to Since the pattern of genetic diversity is geo- professional and social positions. graphically continuous what is the meaning of It has been debated to withdraw the word the groups that we are able to detect with cluster- “race” from the constitution in 2013 and in 2015 ing approaches? Put it another way: can genetics but this change has not been voted. be used to categorize human beings? We also feel that it is important to show to the public what our DNA says about us. Modern What are the current political and genetics is able to explain certain variations in cultural points of tension, or “hot physical characteristics like skin color, eyes color spots,” with regard to race and racism? or other phenotypic features. However, it tells us little or nothing about the psychological traits that Although genetic can tell us about the diver- characterize individuals like generosity or egoism. sity of our species, and can remind us that the level of genetic differentiation among populations in our species is low, Racism, or anti-racism, is based How is race used in legal documents on the ethical or ideological value certain people and legal proceedings? ascribe to this genetic diversity. Whereas racism assumes that these differences form the basis for a Freedom of thought is a fundamental right hierarchy, it makes no scientific sense to attribute in France. To guarantee it, prior censorship is a moral value to these differences. forbidden by law. The law does, however, crimi- Regarding the situation in France, the French nalize racist and anti-Semitic remarks constitut- state has stepped up its efforts to combat racism ing an abuse of free speech, and there are severe since the 1970s. Although social scientists have penalties should such remarks be made in public. shown that diversity is generally tolerated by the The Law on the Freedom of the Press of 29 majority population, and that second-generation July 1881, amended in 1972, defines several immigrants have integrated well, certain minor- offences such as insult, defamation, incitement to ity groups still suffer noticeably from unequal defamation, hatred or racist violence, and deny- treatment and discrimination. ing war crimes and crimes against humanity. Research in the social sciences has established The Law of 13 July 1990 made it an offence to a picture of racist behaviour in French society. question the existence of crimes against humanity. We focus on three points. In the case of acts, rather than simply words, French criminal law punishes racism or anti- 1) Integration or communitarianism. A recent Semitism when these ideologies incite people to study that followed 22000 individuals who JASs forum: What is race today? Scientific, legal, and 309 social appraisals from around the globe have at least one parent that is an immigrant Muslim and Roma. Indeed in France the cat- describes several statistics on this question egory that is the least tolerated and that is the (Trajectoires et Origines (TeO) survey, 2015). most victim of racism are Romas. The Level People’s choice of partner is an indicator of of anti-Roma racism is high. how much openness there is between differ- ent groups – from the majority population to- Although these statistics show a good level of wards minorities, and minorities towards each social integration, racism makes often the head- other and towards the majority. The number lines and political parties based on national iden- of mixed marriages becomes noteworthy in tity are growing, all this is giving the impression the second generation, although this varies that racism rises in society, in contradiction with according to origin, religion and sex. Nearly these studies. There are several non exclusive expla- two in three (65%) of second-generation im- nations. It could be that racism is now more audi- migrants, both men and women, have formed ble so that extremism feels free to express their feel- couples with a person from the majority pop- ings; racism can be strong but only in a minority ulation. For comparison, 17% of Afro-Ameri- of people and last but not the least, it could be that can formed a couple with individual from the the French society is in the “Tocqueville paradox” demographic-majoritarian population in the regarding racism: the closer you get to your “per- US. This average low level of communitarian- fect society” in this case a society without racism, ism does not exclude that it can exist in some the less you tolerate any deviation from this goal.. places. Regarding identity, second-generation immigrants of all origins feel an even stronger sense of belonging in France. Indeed, 93% of Has progress been made in improving second-generation immigrants feel French, the study and understanding of and there is no contradiction between French human variation? national identity and their attachment to theirs parents’ country of origin, but rather I can cite several progressive efforts that have the emergence of multiple identities.
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