Racial data proposal sparks new controversy in France

As France reels from allegations of racism in the ranks of its police, a debate has resurfaced on lifting a long-standing ban on racial population data, which some say could help paint a clearer picture of inequality in the country.

Government spokeswoman Sibeth Ndiaye raised the ire even of cabinet colleagues by proposing that including people’s race in the national database could allow policymakers to “measure and look at reality as it is”. Ndiaye, who is Senegalese-born and has complained of casual racism in her adoptive country, argued in a letter in Le Monde newspaper at the weekend that France should have an honest look at the “representativity of people of colour in the public, political, economic and cultural life of our country”.

A 1978 French law prohibits the collection of data on a person’s race, ethnicity, or political or religious opinions for the national census or other surveys. This means there is no official data on the racial makeup of the population of France, long a country of immigration, including from its former colonies in North and West Africa.

Race is a sensitive topic in France, a country deeply scarred by the memory of the Vichy government under German occupation during World War II rounding up and deporting Jews to Nazi concentration camps.