France, unlike the Anglo-Saxon countries, has prohibited targeted policies, quotas or ethnic statistics to treat all citizens equally. But in a column published by Le Monde on Saturday, government spokeswoman Sibeth Ndiaye suggests reopening "in a calm and constructive manner the debate around ethnic statistics", and "returning forcefully to the tools to combat racial discrimination" .
"Something that we need to grab urgently"
While new demonstrations against police violence and racism are organized on Saturday, the spokeswoman questions: "Why not pose in a peaceful and constructive manner the debate around ethnic statistics?" "Because we have made universalism the foundation of our laws, but, not being able to measure and look at reality as it is, we let fantasies flourish", writes Sibeth Ndiaye, herself Franco-Senegalese, who says he had "experienced ordinary racism".
"There is something there which we must urgently get hold of, because we must not give up our universalist and republican project, under penalty of giving reason to those who divert its meaning and shamelessly exploit its weaknesses", pleads this former socialist close to the head of state. Sibeth Ndiaye believes that we must "rest the question of the representativeness of people of color in the public, political, economic and cultural life of our country".
A hard-to-settle debate
According to the government spokesperson, "we must forcefully return to the tools to combat racial discrimination without confusing them with the means to combat social discrimination". "The problem of racism in France is not settled. But we can make it back down at the cost of a tireless, economic and social, democratic and republican fight, which must once again become the honor of France", -she.
"Let us dare to publicly debate certain subjects which were still discussed yesterday, and which have now become taboo, without sinking into the usual trials of intention," concludes Sibeth Ndiaye. Former Prime Minister Manuel Valls relaunched the issue of ethnic statistics in 2015, but François Hollande was much more reluctant. During his presidential campaign, Emmanuel Macron had rather said "favorable in a pragmatic way to multiply testing, penal response, and the 'name and shame'" (name and blame) for companies practicing discrimination in hiring.