The (in)visibility of status hierarchy in race-blind societies: Evidence from Black migrants in France

• In Event: Putting Social Psychology to Work in Challenging Times

Abstract

France operates under a system grounded in two premises: first, racism does not exist in the French Republic, and second, because it does not exist, race is inconsequential in the lives of people who reside in France. Racial politics in France are thus characterized by a race-blind ethos that discourages discourse around ethnoracial differences while simultaneously privileging whiteness, both as an identity and as a polity. This research challenges the rejection of race and ethnicity as mechanisms of difference in French society by employing the social psychological concept of status (the appraisal of individuals or groups according to their perceived competence and worthiness) to identify the intersectional, multi-level mechanisms that engender stratification among migrant groups who share the same racial identity: Black immigrants from the United States and from francophone African and Caribbean countries who reside in France. I argue that status has a contextual and hierarchical character that largely shapes an individual’s social location within the symbolic boundaries of Blackness, thereby facilitating intra-racial inequalities. I ask: How are status beliefs differently ascribed to Black immigrant groups in France, giving rise to what I call the "Black status hierarchy" of France? And how do Black immigrants’ positions on the “Black status hierarchy” influence their perceived social influence and their status attainment (the mobilization of networks to become upwardly mobile)? I employ social network analysis and interviews to answer these questions. This study offers a compelling and novel approach to identifying how status operates, not only in France but in any society where racial or ethnic categories are delegitimized as a condition of inequality. While the operations of status may be overlooked in race-blind societies, its implications certainly remain relevant.

Author

• Temi Alao, Emory University