THE French political tradition of racial colour-blindness is facing an unprecedented challenge after the launch at the weekend of France’s first black consciousness movement.

The Conseil Représentatif des Associations Noires (CRAN) — the Representative Council of Black Associations — held its inaugural meeting in the National Assembly, and aims to break the taboo surrounding the issue of race in French public life. “We want to make sure that the black question cannot be ignored any longer,” Louis-Georges Tin, its founding member, said.

The council, which includes Manu Dibango, the musician, and Basile Boli, the footballer whose goal won the 1993 European Cup final for Marseilles, is calling for action against discrimination, and for the promotion of black culture and history. Its launch is a step towards the Anglo-Saxon multicultural society that has always been rejected by the French authorities as divisive and unjust.

The move comes after the burning this month and last of 9,071 cars and more than 100 public buildings in France’s worst rioting since 1968.

With the children of African immigrants forming an overwhelming majority of the rioters, the outbreak of violence has provoked an anguished bout of soul-searching over the country’s relationship with its ethnic minorities. They represent more than 10 per cent of the population, but are twice as likely to be unemployed and are vastly under-represented in the upper echelons of power, according to a spate of reports this month.

Just two Cabinet ministers, one ambassador and ten of seven hundred senior civil servants in ministerial private offices are from immigrant families.

M Tin says that the statistics confirm the failure of a republican model that has refused to countenance affirmative action on the ground that this would run counter to its egalitarian principles. “We have been the victims of a racist tradition, which sees white people as superior,” he said. “But we have also been the victim of a form of anti-racism, which insists that everyone is the same, that race does not exist, that therefore black people don’t exist and that therefore there’s no problem.”

The name of the movement — highlighting the word noir — is in itself a break with tradition. The term is usually avoided in politically correct French circles, who prefer to talk of “young people from the suburbs” or even “les blacks”.

“France has been afraid to look at reality in the face,” said M Tin, who wants the country to embrace a form of multiculturalism. “Hostility in France to the Anglo-Saxon model serves as an excuse for doing nothing, for not talking about the black question,” he said.

Although ethnic minorities may face discrimination in Britain, M Tin said, “it’s a bit better for them because at least they exist socially — you only have to look at the television to realise that. In France, Arabs are either portrayed as stupid or evil.

“A black person in Britain can say to himself he has an opportunity to move forward, even if it’s limited. In France, we’ve got all the handicaps and the despair as well.”

The council is also urging a re-evaluation of French history to give greater prominence to France’s former colonies and to the slave trade. “People whose history is not taught are necessarily going to consider themselves as second-class citizens,” M Tin said.

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