LIVRY-GARGAN, France—When protests against police brutality swept France, authorities denied there was systemic racism in law enforcement. The French republic, officials said, is colorblind.
Young men of color in France’s cities and working-class suburbs, or banlieues, however, say that being singled out by police, stopped and searched has long been a fact of life.
“They act as if everyone living in the suburbs is a thug,” says Gaël Nouma, a 21-year-old whose parents are from Cameroon and Martinique, a French territory in the Caribbean.
A police car patrols in Livry-Gargan, a working-class banlieue.
Photo: Marzio Emilio Villa/Hans Lucas for The Wall Street JournalAs France confronts issues of race and policing after the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis sparked protests, the debate here is shaped by a glaring lack of official statistics.
French authorities are forbidden from collecting information on race in almost all facets of life, from police stops and household incomes to performance in school. It is a policy intended to treat all citizens equally, despite differences in ethnicity or religion.
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The French establishment has long feared that abandoning that approach would foster racial divisions. Social scientists and policing experts, however, say that the government has been left blind to widespread discrimination in law enforcement.
“Why not begin a calm and constructive discussion around ethnic statistics?” wrote Sibeth Ndiaye, the spokeswoman for President Emmanuel Macron’s government, in a column for Le Monde. “Not being able to see and measure reality as it is, we let delusions grow.”
Other members of Mr. Macron’s cabinet have opposed the idea, and Mr. Macron himself hasn’t backed it.
A 2017 study by France’s independent civil-rights agency found that men perceived to be of African or Arab origins were about three times more likely than white men to have experienced a police identity check in the previous five years and nine times more likely to have been stopped more than five times.
A spokesman for France’s National Police declined to comment.
Some police say any racial disparity stems from the fact that minorities tend to live in banlieues, where they say crime rates are higher.
Photo: Marzio Emilio Villa/Hans Lucas for The Wall Street journalPolice are required to have a reason to stop and search someone, but the laws are vague and cops have wide latitude in whom they choose to approach.
Some police officers say any racial disparity in policing stems from the fact that France’s minorities tend to live in banlieues, suburbs where they say crime rates are higher.
“We don’t pick people based on their skin color,” said Frédéric Lagache from the Alliance police union. “It’s delinquents we’re interested in.”
Sebastian Roché, a researcher at France’s National Centre for Scientific Research who taught for decades at one of the French police academies, says French authorities are in denial.
‘We see the color difference,’ Roddy Nsona, 23, says.
Photo: Marzio Emilio Villa/Hans Lucas for The Wall Street journalMr. Roché says research by himself and others undermines the argument advanced by the police that higher crime rates in minority neighborhoods explain the racial disparity in stops. In fact, minorities are more likely to be stopped when they pass through whiter neighborhoods, he says.
“The risk of being stopped increases, because they are not in the right place,” Mr. Roché says.
France isn’t alone in Europe in facing allegations of police bias. Black people in the U.K. are about nine times more likely to be stopped by the police than whites, according to statistics collected by the government. Bangladeshis were around five times as likely, and Pakistanis twice as likely.
The U.K. Home Office, which oversees police across the country, says stop-and-search is an essential law enforcement tool to take weapons off the street. But, a Home Office spokeswoman said: “No one should be stopped and searched because of their race.”
In Livry-Gargan outside Paris, Roddy Nsona, a 23-year-old KFC worker, says, “We see the color difference.” Mr. Nsona, who is Black, says he has been stopped by police about 15 times in his life.
Kevin Alcime, left, 22, and Gaël Nouma, 21. Police ‘act as if everyone living in the suburbs is a thug,’ Mr. Nouma says.
Photo: Marzio Emilio Villa/Hans Lucas for The Wall Street journalHe and his friends—most of African origin but some white as well—often gather in the evenings in a shopping center parking lot to talk and smoke a hookah. The police sometimes swing by and conduct identity checks.
Kevin Alcime, a Black 22-year-old student, said his family moved to the area from a housing project in the neighboring suburb of Clichy-sous-Bois after someone set their apartment door on fire. He and his friends say Livry-Gargan is safer, but they feel targeted by the police.
Corentin Chargelegue, a 22-year-old white student, said he too has been stopped by the police—but only with his Black friends. “I don’t think it’s ever happened to me when I was alone,’’ he said.
Corentin Chargelegue, 22, who is white, says he has been stopped by police with his Black friends.
Photo: Marzio Emilio Villa/Hans Lucas for The Wall Street journalIn Clichy-sous-Bois, two teenagers of North African origin died in 2005 when they were electrocuted in an electrical substation as they were running from police.
The incident set off violent protests and rioting across France, marring relations between the police and France’s minority communities for years.
“I don’t think the police will ever be well-regarded as long as there are blunders like this one,” said Alexandre Chassaing, a 20-year-old Amazon employee from Livry-Gargan.
Mr. Nsona and his friends often gather in the evenings in a shopping center parking lot, where police sometimes swing by.
Photo: Marzio Emilio Villa/Hans Lucas for The Wall Street JournalWrite to Matthew Dalton at Matthew.Dalton@wsj.com
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