In the United States, black Americans are the typical targets of discrimination. In France, the victims are usually Arab immigrants. In both cases, prejudice against minorities has less to do with the color or national origin of the ostracized than with the need of whites and natives to preserve their own sense of moral self-worth.
References
1.
FavellAdrian. Philosophies of Integration: Immigration and the Idea of Citizenship in France and Britain.London: MacMillan, 1997. An insightful discussion of French Republicanism, its contradictions, and its impact on the integration of immigrants in France.
2.
EspenshadeThomasBelangerMaryann. “Immigration and Public Opinion.” In Crossings: Mexican Immigration in Interdisciplinary Perspective, ed. Suarez-OrozcoMarcelo. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1998. The authors provide a nuanced view of American attitudes toward immigrants.
3.
GansHerbert. “The Possibility of a New Racial Hierarchy in the 21st Century United States.” In The Cultural Territories of Race: Black and White Boundaries, ed. LamontMichèle. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1999. Gans predicts a growing polarization between blacks and non-blacks in the United States.
4.
LamontMichèle. The Dignity of Working Men: Morality and the Boundaries of Race, Class, and Immigration.Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2000. A fuller description of the study described in this article.
5.
SimonPatrick. “Nationality and Origins in French Statistics: Ambiguous Categories.”Population: An English Selection11 (1999): 193–220. This article explains the place of racial categories in French statistics in relation to questions of integration and discrimination in France.
