Racism: black people continue to be severely discriminated against in France

Racist and anti-Semitic prejudices increased very slightly in France in 2019 compared to 2018, notes the annual report of the National Consultative Commission on Human Rights (CNCDH), delivered this Thursday to the Prime Minister.

To measure racism, the institution assesses the "tolerance index" of the French with a survey. In 2019, this index reached the score of 66, down one point compared to the previous year. A “limited” decline, which “does not call into question the progress accumulated in previous years”, underlines the CNCDH, the index having nevertheless increased by 13 points between 2013 and 2019.

In its report, which was completed in March, before the demonstrations in recent weeks against racism and police violence, the Commission insisted on anti-black racism and noted a paradox. "While the black minority is with the Jewish minority the one with the best image", according to its barometer, "it is daily exposed to offensive prejudices and numerous discriminations".

The CNCDH calls to “decolonize minds”

"On social networks or in stadiums, an extremely raw, animalising and violent anti-black racism is expressed, constructed as opposed to a white standard," she notes.

And to quote a joint survey by Insee-Ined on the descendants of immigrants established in France: "Black people, alongside the Maghreb people suffer more discrimination than the rest of the population: this would be the case for 31% of people originally French overseas departments and 47% of immigrants from sub-Saharan Africa ”.

According to the Commission, "beyond the offenses, it is at the same time a history, a culture and a set of prejudices which are at the root of anti-black racism". "Like the fight for gender equality, the fight against racism against the black minority requires an awareness of the phenomenon by society as a whole, a decolonization of minds," writes the institution.

Abusive police checks

In France, notes the CNCDH, blacks occupy "too often a subordinate place in French society". Thus it notes "a functional distribution of tasks with an over-representation of black people in low-skilled trades": housekeepers, nannies, nursing assistants for women; garbage collectors, security guards, very physical tasks for men.

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The commission also recalls an investigation by the Defender of Rights (2016) according to which people "who consider themselves black", during an identity check, are "more victims of behavior not in accordance with police ethics and run more risk being tutoyed, insulted, even brutalized ”.

They "consider that the police are a potential danger, especially for young men, and that excessive police checks have become routine", whatever their social background, noted the CNCDH in the context of its auditions.

Fight stereotypes

In its recommendations, it therefore enjoins the public authorities "to develop surveys enabling better knowledge of discrimination"; to develop tools such as testings, "in particular in public services, police stations and gendarmeries. "

The CNCDH also advises to launch "communication campaigns against stereotypes towards black people, in particular by showing their social, economic and professional diversity".

We should "focus school programs more on France's multicultural roots and their contributions to national culture", according to the CNCDH which recommends to the Conseil Supérieur de l'Audiovisuel (CSA) "to encourage the representation of men and women black, including in expertise functions ”.