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NAACP in Paris, France
Dear (Your Friend's Name),
March 30, 2007
An NAACP delegation spend a week in France assisting black leaders and other ethnic minorities organize against racial tension and disparities.
NAACP Interim President & CEO Dennis C. Hayes; NAACP Chair Emeritus Myrlie Evers-Williams; NAACP Interim General Counsel Angela Ciccolo; NAACP Special Contribution Fund Trustee Patrick Gaston, president of the Verizon Foundation; Harvard University Law School professor Charles J. Ogletree, Jr.; and john a. powell, executive director of the Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race and Ethnicity at the Ohio State University will be in Paris starting Saturday to meet with the Conseil Representatifs des Associations Noires (CRAN), the first national black organization in France. Formed in 2005, CRAN is an umbrella organization of black advocacy groups in France comprised of diverse African and West Indian associations.
Delegation members will attend and conduct workshops during CRAN's Third Annual Spring Conference on Diversity and the State of Black France. The group will also attend a series of public meetings and symposiums aimed at addressing "the problem of the color line" in France. NAACP leaders will present CRAN with a recognition award in support of it efforts to achieve racial equality and social justice for black Frenchmen and women.
The trip is part of a continuing relationship between the NAACP and CRAN begun last year. Racial incidents in France have soared in recent years, centered on a growing African immigrant population and inequities in housing, jobs, education and access to better business opportunities.
The NAACP is dedicated to closing the gap of disparities faced by people of color across the globe by promoting fair and equitable human rights and economic justice.
Founded in 1909, the NAACP is the nation's oldest and largest civil rights organization. Its members throughout the United States and the world are the premier advocates for civil rights in their communities, conducting voter mobilization and monitoring equal opportunity in the public and private sectors.
Sincerely, (Your Name)

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LE CRAN IN ENGLISH :

1. What is the CRAN (the Representative Council of Black Associations)?

Today the Representative council of Black Associations, founded November 26, 2005, gathers over 120 associations of all sizes. It aims at fighting against discriminations and anti-black racism, as well as to value both the wealth and the diversity of afro-West-Indian cultures.
2. Are they only black people at the CRAN? / is the CRAN only for blacks?
No. The CRAN is open to everyone. Many non-blacks belong to it and think that the overall situation of black populations in our country deserves to be studied, debated and improved. The reason for the CRAN to be a federation of Black Associations stands before all in the desire to improve the status of black people. This very goal gathers people with a common will to do so, and if most of their members are black, it is simply because they are themselves victims of discrimination. It is very similar to feminist associations which usually gather a majority of women.
3. Is the CRAN communitarian?
No. The CRAN works for equality of chances, for a better representation of diversity within France. But this dynamics implies a questioning of the well-established hierarchy. And those who are bothered by these criticisms are those who take refuge behind abstract universalism which hides (and very poorly) a symbolic male, white, bourgeois, catholic order. As a result, an easy self-defence is used by those who are ill-at-ease with diversity: they denounce and identify those who fight for equality, that is Blacks, Arabs, Jews, homosexuals, etc..as communitarians. In reality, the CRAN says Yes to "Universalism" and No to "Uniformalism".
4. When one says that " in France Black people are invisible", what does it mean?
In principle to have a dark skin in metropolitan France is not the best way to go unnoticed. The paradox is that as individuals, Black people in France are visible and yet as a social group remain invisible.
As a social group it seems as if they were not supposed to exist: the French Republic doesn't officially recognize minorities, and doesn't record them as such. One could be satisfied with invisible populations, or at least see no problem with it, as long as social and specific difficulties concerning them be recorded, identified, recognized. However it is not the case. And instead of remaining a quiet and normal status, invisibility is wrong.
5. Isn't to talk about "Black people" a misuse of language?
To the question "who is Black?" we respond neither with nature arguments (which could refer to a "biologizing" race concept), nor with culture arguments (which could refer to an infinite variety of cultural differences among human individuals). Our response uses socio-political arguments. In societies where blacks are part of the minority, a Black person is said to be as such, while a black population made of men and women sharing a common social experience is that of discriminations because of the skin colour.
Black people have in common to live in societies that consider them to be as such. Most of the time, they have no choice but to be the way they are perceived by others. To paraphrase Sartre, a Black person is an individual that others consider as black.
6. Is there a "black issue" in France?
No, there isn't, but France has an issue with its black populations. This issue has complex historical roots, linked to slavery and colonisation. Our goal is to alert volunteers in order to improve the tough situation of these populations, and fight against race discrimination.
7. What is "race discrimination"?
Discrimination refers to an unfavourable treatment applied to a person because of his or her real or supposedly social belonging. A race discrimination is an unfavourable treatment based on race (for example the colour of the skin or any other type of phenotype distinction). Thus race discrimination can affect black persons, no matter their origin or nationality. Let's take the example of a black woman who is declined a job because of the fact that "customers wouldn't appreciate her skin colour". Here, this woman is the victim of race discrimination, not because of her origin, but because of her skin colour. Unlike racism which is an ideology, discrimination is a concrete act.
8. How to fight against race discriminations?
First of all to fight against race discriminations requires to study these acts targeting individuals who don't look "right". This fight aims at being effective in order to put an end to moral damages. It is more concrete and pragmatic than fighting against racism.
Its difficulty stands first of all in the recognition of race discriminations in order to find an efficient answer to them. And there is the rub in France, in that we lack statistical tools allowing us to measure discriminations and assess the efficiency of anti-discriminatory policies. To base one's assessment on testimonies is not enough, no matter how numerous and how much they match. These testimonies do not allow us to measure and compare discriminations from one year to the other.
Two major types of anti-discriminatory policies are possible and desirable.
First, a sanction policy against discriminatory behaviour. The penal code acknowledges and curbs race discriminations, but one must admit that the justice of our country remains little active in the application of anti-discriminatory laws. Not enough lawsuits succeed. Judges are not well trained and often seem too little motivated with investigations and decisions concerning discrimination cases.
Secondly, a policy which intends to actively promote diversity. This policy is called "affirmative action" in the USA and "positive discrimination" in France. No matter what terminology, it is about coming up with devices that help putting an end to the lack of diversity within too many political, economical and social authorities. The nature of these devices must become the core subject of a great national debate.
9. Isn't an ethno-racial statistics dangerous?
Ethno-racial statistics is used in many countries. Its goal isn't to put people in biological and irreducible categories but to measure discriminations in order to better act against them. Demographers don't give their opinion concerning the nature of "race" or "ethnicity" and don't give any ontological verdict concerning their substance either. They only stand as a referent that helps characterizing and intervening on specific wrongdoings.
These statistics are anonymous: they help measuring discriminations, but not identifying individuals.
10. Who will decide on whether one is black or not?
Ethno-racial statistics is based on self-declaration: in the USA or in Great Britain, only concerned parties respond to those questions. Nobody decides for their group and responses are only optional.
11. What to think about the HALDE? (High Authority against discrimination and for equality)
We have to admit that the HALDE, born over a year ago, is surprisingly silent, and doesn’t work hard on efficiently fighting against race discrimination. In fact it minimizes or even mixes it with other forms of discriminations. Here, the HALDE principles are not at stake but its members inactivity is. It is fair to give time to any new institution to settle down. But the minority population impatience is growing and the HALDE is not responding to its expectations. Instead of opening up a debate over the use of anti-discrimination tools, the HALDE remains silent and plays for time, evading the issue.
Blacks In France Seeking To Show Political Muscle Could Affect Elections This Year

By JAMEY KEATEN

We're Black And We're French

Patrick Lozes: "If you're not counted, you don't count," says Lozes, head of the Representative Council of Black Associations, which commissioned the poll.
PARIS (AP) - Blacks in France are standing up to be counted, aspiring to become a political factor in presidential and legislative elections later this year.
A small but groundbreaking new poll suggests that blacks face widespread discrimination in France, raising questions about a country long proud of its official colorblindness - and where collecting racial data is banned.
"If you're not counted, you don't count," said Patrick Lozes, head of the Representative Council of Black Associations, which commissioned the poll that was conducted by telephone. The council has thousands of members, he said.
Officially, France doesn't know how many blacks it has because of its Republican tradition that doesn't distinguish by race or religion. Collecting ethnic data is generally banned - one reason why a poll like Wednesday's had not been done before.
Among more than 15,000 people contacted by the Sofres polling agency to establish a pool, 581 said they felt they had black roots - and that subgroup was questioned in the poll. No margin of error was provided.
Fifty-six percent said they felt some form of discrimination in their daily lives, and 12 percent said they did so "often." Of those who said they discrimination, 62 percent said the incidents were most often in public or on public transportation, and 42 percent at work.
Sixty-one percent said they had experienced discrimination in the last year.
Based on the poll data, Lozes estimated there are 1.8 million voting-age blacks in France - out of a total population of some 60 million - and about four-fifths of them are French citizens.
France, like many other European countries, has been struggling with how to integrate its ethnic minorities. Nationwide riots in fall 2005 raged through housing projects in France's poor neighborhoods with large minority populations. They were often fueled by broad feelings of discrimination, unemployment and a sense of alienation from society.
"The sectarianism that I denounce is that of the current minority in power - that's to say white men, aged over 50, who are bourgeois and heterosexual," Lozes said. "They're the minority, but a majority in the National Assembly."
Lozes says political contenders in the presidential elections in April and May, and legislative elections in June, should take note of the black vote.
Presidential front-runners Nicolas Sarkozy and Segolene Royal have vowed to fight discrimination. Royal, the Socialist nominee, says that integrating minorities is needed for the "survival" of France. Rightist candidate Sarkozy has called for a French form of U.S.-style affirmative action.
Blacks are not alone in feelings of discrimination. Many French youths of North African descent regularly complain that they face difficulty finding work or housing, even getting into nightclubs.
Experts estimate that about 5 million Muslims live in France - most from former French colonies in North Africa - but there are no official figures.
Under France's law on individual liberties, classifying people by race, religion or some other types of personal criteria is banned, a measure meant to ensure equality among all.
Sofres pollster Brice Teinturier said the new survey was legal because it was not a census and only general information and opinion were collected.
Bernard Stasi, who helped create the state anti-discrimination agency known as HALDE in 2005, said he feared such surveys could drive a wedge between communities.
"To fight discrimination, we should use the tools at our disposal," he was quoted as saying Wednesday in the newspaper Le Parisien. "France has enough means - legal and otherwise - for this fight."
HALDE reported in October that it had received 1,600 complaints since its creation - 650 of them related to job discrimination.
Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. The information contained in the AP news report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press. All active hyperlinks have been inserted by AOL. 01/31/07 20:00 EST