Emmanuel Macron worries about ‘racialised’ French society

French society is becoming increasingly “racialised”, French President Emmanuel Macron has warned in comments that blamed imported US social science ideas that focus on race.

“I see that our society is becoming progressively racialised,” Macron told Elle magazine in an interview.

He took aim in particular at the idea of “intersectionality” — popular among left-leaning US academics — that seeks to explain discrimination and poverty by examining the role played by race and gender in affecting an individual’s life chances.

“The logic of intersectionality fractures everything,” Macron said.

“I stand for universalism. I don’t agree with a fight that reduces everyone to their identity or their particularity,” he continued.

“Social difficulties are not only explained by gender and the colour of your skin, but also by social inequalities.”

The 43-year-old added that he could think of young white men in his hometown of Amiens or nearby Saint-Quentin in northern France “who also have immense difficulties, for different reasons, in finding a job”.

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Movements against racism over the last year such as Black Lives Matter, which resonated in France after arriving from the US, have led to fears among some critics that the country is importing American racial and identity politics sometimes labelled as “woke culture.”

A new generation of younger French activists are increasingly vocal in denouncing the problem of racism in France and the legacy of the country’s colonial past in Africa and the Middle East.

Their opponents see the focus on race and the past as opening up unnecessary divisions and encouraging a culture in which minorities and women see themselves as constantly oppressed and discriminated against.

In an interview timed for the start of a UN-sponsored summit on gender inequality in Paris, Macron also promised to do more to combat domestic violence and women’s health problems such as endometriosis.

He also backed his education minister, Jean-Michel Blanquer, who has spoken out against girls wearing crop-tops in schools.

“I’m in favour of ‘dressing properly’ at school, for girls as well as boys,” he said. “Everything that is a marker of identity, or a desire to shock or stand out, shouldn’t be at school.”

Blanquer demanded that French pupils, who do not wear uniforms, come to school in “republican dress” last September amid protests over bans on crop-tops or mini skirts at some establishments.

“School is not a place like any other,” the minister said. “You don’t go to school as if you’re going to the beach or to a nightclub.”

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