Freedom, liberty and fraternity

The utility of scientific analysis lies in the fact that it is free of judgment. Facts are gathered and analyzed without any moral overtones. Currently, France has erected an obstacle to the gathering of census data by refusing to include ethnic data in national statistics. France's fear of documenting population statistics represents oversensitivity to the concept of race. Rather, documenting the size of minority populations in France will facilitate the implementation of anti-discrimination laws and serve France's stated philosophy of freedom, liberty and fraternity.

France's past may be the cause of this irrational fear of documenting the size and location of minority populations in France, home to 64.1 million people. The excellent film La Haine (1995) documented the social unrest that characterized certain areas of Paris and the country's cooperation with the Nazi regime is burned in the collective memory.

Currently, black and Arab populations are under-represented in France's finest academic institutions, in the ranks of corporate management and in the political establishment. Figuring out the exact population size of France's minority groups will allow appropriate programs and social measures to be elaborated.

For more, see: http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1887106,00.html