Paul Carcenac is a journalist for Le Figaro.
The accent, the accent, the accent.
In wanting to sanction discrimination at work, the National Assembly is in fact counterproductive.
It creates a new crime, heavily sanctioned, which in fact will be almost impossible to prove in court.
It will certainly make some dishonest recruiters think twice.
But the legislator reinforces the idea in the imagination of the French that an accent is a handicap, a defect.
However, it is quite the opposite.
Read also:
Resumption of worship: "The trust between Catholics and the State has been broken"
An accent is a strength, a wealth, an asset.
Like many differences, by the way.
It allows you to stand out, something that has become more and more complicated in today's world of work.
Bernard Laporte would he have had the success he had beyond the world of rugby without his Gaillac accent?
Would he have become a minister?
Who can tell?
Vincent Moscato, would he have filled theaters and cinemas without his legendary phrasing?
Would Jean-Michel Apathie have stood out among the mass of political journalists on television and radio?
Who knows.
Would Kendji sell that many albums?
It is the uncertainty of life.
Admittedly, the defenders of the law point out that Prime Minister Jean Castex had to endure the most vile mockery on his way of expressing himself during his appointment.
His phrasing, described as rocky, was abundantly commented on.
But his accent gives him above all a side close to the France of “
territories
”, a word he never stopped uttering when he arrived in Matignon.
Most of today's politicians would like to have this “
passport of authenticity
”.
Isn't it this legitimacy outside the seraglio and allegedly far from the small Parisian environment, that Emmanuel Macron, feeling the zeitgeist, wanted to capture?
However, to see his CV, he is not so far from those from whom he is supposed to stand out: enarque, senior official ...
When you are gifted, well in your professional life, the accent is a strength
The fact is, when you're gifted, well in your professional life, accent is a strength.
As a student, I had a professor of audiovisual journalist reporter at France 3 Côte d'Azur, who trained us in false reports live, facing the camera, to work on television writing.
That afternoon, the class was not very concentrated.
As the exams approached, everyone found a time to review, or do something else.
Nobody listened to each other.
When it was my turn, after a passage in front of the camera made in the purest of Tarn accents pure juice, I questioned the instructor:
- What should I do next time, keep my accent or try to erase it?
- So look around you, answered the professor.
All my comrades had raised their heads from their notebooks, interrupted their chatter, to listen to my passage.
So, for the first time, I noticed that this difference could be a strength.
Even if it meant making a law, rather than yet another ground of discrimination, it would have been smarter to find a way to enhance the accents.
They are always caricatured, in the media, it's true, it's a real problem.
How is it possible that there are no local expressions in the soap operas shot in the West Indies, in Marseille or in Montpellier?
Doesn't that sound serious enough?
Threatening a fine of 45,000 euros and three years in prison for a mockery on an accent in a job interview change the basis of mentalities?
To read also:
Aya Nakamura set up as ambassador of the French language by an LREM deputy
The law on discrimination will not oblige the producers of films, of series for example.
However, it would be good to start here.
If a charismatic Netflix series hero spoke as in Ariège, recruiters would no longer have any reason not to recruit this young youngster from the South, who came to Paris with his accent and all his dreams.
