In the United States, while some race-based policies such as affirmative action have faced often successful political and legal challenges over the last quartercentury, historically, the very principle of official racial classification has met with much less resistance. The Equal Protection Clause of the Constitution’s Fourteenth Amendment, according to which “no state shall deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws,” was not originally intended to incorporate a general rule of “color blindness.” And when in California, in 2003, the “Racial Privacy Initiative” led to a referendum on a measure—Proposition 54—demanding that “the state shall not classify any individual by race, ethnicity, color or national origin,” this restriction was meant to apply exclusively to the operation of public education, public contracting or public employment, that is, the three sites where affirmative action was once in effect and might be reinstated at some point, or so the proponents of that initiative feared. In any case, that measure was roundly defeated at the polls.
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French Color Blindness in Perspective
The Controversy over "Statistiques Ethniques"
Daniel Sabbagh and Shanny Peer
In French Politics, Culture & Society
- Published (Print):
- 01 Mar 2008
- Article Type:
- Introduction
- Pages:
- 1–6 (6 total)
Index to Volume 25 (2007)
In French Politics, Culture & Society
- Published (Print):
- 01 Mar 2008
- Article Type:
- Addendum
- Pages:
- 160–162 (3 total)
Abstracts
In French Politics, Culture & Society
- Published (Print):
- 01 Sep 2007
- Article Type:
- Abstract
- Pages:
- 156–158 (3 total)
Notes on contributors
In French Politics, Culture & Society
- Published (Print):
- 01 Sep 2007
- Article Type:
- Abstract
- Pages:
- 159–160 (2 total)
Abstracts
In French Politics, Culture & Society
- Published (Print):
- 01 Jun 2007
- Article Type:
- Abstract
- Pages:
- 157–159 (3 total)
Notes on contributors
In French Politics, Culture & Society
- Published (Print):
- 01 Jun 2007
- Article Type:
- Abstract
- Pages:
- 161–162 (2 total)
Herrick Chapman
The hundredth anniversary of the 1905 law in France on the separation of church and state has led to a rich harvest of new scholarly work on laïcité and religion in public life. Centenaries often inspire conferences and publishing projects, especially in France. In the case of the 1905 law the temptation became irresistible in the wake of the creation of the Conseil français du culte musulman in 2002 (see the special spring 2005 issue of FPCS on the CFCM) and years of controversy over the wearing of Muslim headscarves in public schools. The Stasi Commission’s 2004 recommendation to ban the wearing of ostentatious religious signs in public schools, and a 2005 act of Parliament that made that view law, inspired sharp debate in France and beyond, adding further impetus to scholarly discussion of religion, politics, and the government’s regulation of matters religious.
In French Politics, Culture & Society
- Published (Print):
- 01 Jun 2007
- Article Type:
- Introduction
- Pages:
- 2 (1 total)
Abstracts
In French Politics, Culture & Society
- Published (Print):
- 01 Mar 2007
- Article Type:
- Abstract
- Pages:
- 146–147 (2 total)
Index to Volume 24 (2006)
In French Politics, Culture & Society
- Published (Print):
- 01 Mar 2007
- Article Type:
- Addendum
- Pages:
- 148–150 (3 total)
Abstracts
In French Politics, Culture & Society
- Published (Print):
- 01 Sep 2006
- Article Type:
- Abstract
- Pages:
- 153–155 (3 total)