Education , Racism. These statistics have provoked discussions regarding the overrepresentation of upper-class students in higher education and raised the question of how to balance universalism and equal opportunity. Does equality mean that everyone should be treated identically or rather, that differential treatment is necessary to compensate for pre-existing inequalities across students? While slavery was officially abolished in , the perception of colored colonial subjects as inferior endured, many residents of French colonies faced legal discriminations and the legacy of colonialism may still affect how many in France perceive their own populations of color today.
Any public policy which extends equal opportunity to underprivileged students must therefore be careful not to break with this principle, as breeches of the French meritocratic system are understood to be unconstitutional.
For example, the American system of affirmative action is often criticized in France for unfairly granting admissions to candidates based on non-relevant, non-performance based information. Though not necessarily the case, some accuse the American system of leaving many more deserving, academically driven and successful candidates unfairly side-lined in order to increase diversity and fill minority quotas.
While a large segment of such criticisms are exaggerations and false stereotypes quotas, for example, are rarely used in the U. The American system of affirmative action is often criticized in France for unfairly granting admissions to candidates based on non-relevant, non-performance based information. The Republican commitment to equality and colorblindness has made conversations on race in the public sphere almost non-existent.
In the U. In French, race connotes genealogy and biological differences, and more specifically Hitler. Article USA, February Details Contributors. Tsione Wolde-Michael Paris Fellowship. To an American ear, this program faintly echoes affirmative action. Rather than disregard all non-academic descriptors of a candidate in the admissions process, both the CEP program and U. Nevertheless, the CEP program remains quite distinct from U.
