Racism in France

Race and racism remain difficult topics to address inFrance. The language used to refer to discrimination does notreally allow for any in-depth discussions about race. The social realitiesof race are all but absent from any national discussions in France. Icontend that this is in part due to whiteness. France has shiedaway from its racist and colonial past. Through a series of open-endedsurveys followed by semi-structured interviews it was revealed thatrace is indeed part of the everyday understandings of how whiteFrench individuals construct their realities. The language used toexplain who is French how to integrate and what racism is aboutcontributes to the reproduction of a historicist racial statewhereby whites maintain their racial hegemony. Racism continues to beunderstood as an individual problem. Very few respondents were able totalk about how French social institutions and policiesnegatively affect people of color on a daily basis. I argue in this researchthat whiteness contributes to an unnamed hegemonic oppression that is reproduced at the micro and macro levels and isexpressed by whites through their lack of understanding about race.