Should France carry out ethnic statistics?

The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights has just published a report urging France to resort to ethnic statistics.

The first reaction, when one hears this kind of declaration, is to say to oneself: but what are they involved in, these "human rights", these lesson-givers, these righteous moralizers?

It's true, what: France has a tradition, firmly anchored, a very principle: no ethnic statistics, no counting by race or by origin, and it does not intend to change it.

Except that, given what is happening to our society, it might still be worth asking questions.

What becomes of our society?

That is to say ?

Nicolas Beytout refers you to the words of Emmanuel Macron, in an interview with the magazine "Elle", who is worried about seeing "society gradually racialize".

In this declaration, the Head of State points to the rise of cancel culture, this movement which would like to erase from our history the episodes that are no longer readable with our eyes today.

He also points to the woke phenomenon which wants to mobilize and awaken awareness against the inequalities caused by race, but also by gender or social origin.

These trends exist, communitarianism exists, the President of the Republic sees them progressing.

What does he propose to fight against the rise of this phenomenon? 

A great principle, republican universalism.

That is to say the idea according to which there is no difference between individuals in our Republic.

We are all equal, "without distinction of origin, race or religion" (it is the Constitution which affirms it), which makes Emmanuel Macron say that he does not recognize himself "in a fight which sends back each to his identity or his particularism ".

So much the better.

But taking this posture is not enough, or not enough anymore.

Appealing to Republican dogmas is now a bit short.

What do ethnic statistics have to do with this?

Can we fight effectively against a phenomenon without really knowing it, without measuring it precisely? Obviously no. To fight racism and have a chance to empty of its substance all that feeds the victimization of those who think they are stigmatized according to their race, then we must absolutely know the reality of these communities, their number, their history, their fashion. of life. We must be able to measure the gap that separates them from the average citizen, we must give up this fiction according to which these gaps do not exist since the Republic is there. We will then be able to reflect in full knowledge of the facts about targeted measures, why not quotas, affirmative action policies, and, since people increasingly feel their difference, treat it instead of denying it.