How in the World Can They Think They’re Race-blind? An Anthropologist’s View

The official “race-blind” orientation of the French state is often perceived as an oddity by outside observers who see it as no more than a sign of reluctance to look questions about diversity in the eye. From the ban on conspicuous religious signs that prohibits Muslim girls from wearing headscarves in school, to the interdiction on “ethnic statistics,” events in France that relate to diversity are regularly critiqued as an obfuscation, evidence of a country beleaguered by problems of racial discrimination that for reasons of history and ideology refuses to tackle those problems head on.

In this talk, anthropologist Beth Epstein discusses these questions in relation to her research on the French banlieue. Interested in grasping how the “difference-blind” republican ideal plays out in everyday French life, she shows also how this orientation can be thought through more broadly to gain a critical understanding of the concepts of race, class, diversity, and equality in contemporary times.

Beth Epstein holds a Ph.D. in anthropology from New York University and is Academic Director at NYU Paris. Her research focuses on French urban issues as well as on French and American perspectives on race. She is the author of Collective Terms: Race, Culture and Community in a State-Planned City in France (2011) and several articles on the French banlieue. She has conducted extensive fieldwork in rural and urban France, and many moons ago co-directed the documentary film Kofi chez les français about an African man elected mayor of small village in rural Brittany. Most recently Dr. Epstein was a mid-career fellow with the Independent Social Research Foundation.