France, Race, and Soccer: Panacea or Pariah?
News came earlier this week that Georges Freche, a politican in France’s socialist party, was forced to resign after saying that,
“It would be normal if there were three or four [black players], that would be a reflection of society. But if there are so many, it’s because whites are no good. I’m ashamed for this country.”
This is not the first time that the race of France’s soccer players has become an issue in French politics. Many have taken note of the diversity of Les Bleus, and used it to promote their agendas. These agendas are varied, ranging from xenophobic and racist to celebrating multiculturalism.
Like Mr. Freche, infamous right-wing politician Jean Marie Le Pen, has on many occassions used the French national team to promote his hateful ideology. In the lead-up to the 2006 World Cup, Le Pen said that “perhaps the coach went overboard on the proportion of colored players.” His racist statements originally came to prominence in the 1900s when he said,
I find it artificial to have foreign players come and play in France and call them the French team. Most French players don’t even know, or don’t want to sing, the Marseillaise.
But the 1998 French team that won the World Cup was also celebrated by those who wanted to promote the image of France as a welcoming and tolerant place. Many attempted to make political gains in promoting that team for being “black, blanc, beur,” (black, white, North African) — a play on the red-white-and-blue of the French flag.”
Jacques Chirac celebrated the team’s diversity as he awarded players the Legion of Honor.
But using the idea of the national team as a model for the benefits or drawbacks of diversity in the country as a whole flies in the face of France’s official government policy of not collecting any kind of racial statistics. The official rationale is that doing so would be in direct conflict with the French motto of liberté, égalité, fraternité. When all have liberty, equality, and fraternity, as the motto states, there is no need to view others differently based on race. But anyone who saw last summer’s rioting in the suburbs of Paris knows that race plays a factor in French society.
The fallout from these riots has led to several changes in France. One group of blacks in France is trying to gain more clout by organizing along racial lines. In doing so, they are seeing firsthand the conflict between the official policy of colorblindness (perhaps this is where Stephen Colbert gets inspiration for his similar view) and the fact that people do, in fact, see race.
Mr. Le Pen and Mr. Chirac may vary on their ideas about the relative merits of a diverse national team, but in speaking about its diversity, they both show the importance of race in French soccer and society as a whole.
