In France, race and the discussion of race in public debates and in the social sciences have been treated as offshore or off-limits, and at best as a euphemism. This book intends to shed some light on the debates and controversies about France’s blind spot as well as to unveil the profound reasons for the country’s refusal to recognize race.

Eliminating the word “race” from the French Constitution was a campaign promise made by François Hollande in 2012, an aim supported by League Internationale Contre le Racisme et l’Antisémitisme (LICRA, International League Against Racism and Anti-Semitism) President Mario Stasi, who declared that the presence of the word in Article 1 of the French Constitution represented a “dangerous archaism” (Le Monde, June 26, 2018). On July 12, 2018, the representatives of the French National Assembly voted unanimously to eliminate the word from the Constitution.

Fast forward to 2020. During his speech on June 10 addressing the question of racism and discrimination, President Emmanuel Macron stated that racism was a “disease that touches all of society” and described racism and discrimination as a “plague that is a betrayal of the republican universalism” (Le Monde, June 10, 2020). It was as though he was saying that universalism is a rampart against racism but that it had fallen under a viral attack, similar perhaps to that of the COVID-19 pandemic, and also opposing universalism and race, which will be discussed later in the chapter.

And yet, presently, the first article of the French Constitution still reads:

Here, the French Constitution names race only to outlaw it. The concept of race appears with the sole purpose of immediately denying it of any existence or significance. That race should not be a relevant factor of distinction in terms of legal rights for all citizens of France is clear and makes sense for a society that promotes and defends equality.