In France, affirmative action by income rather than race
June 28, 2004 - The Star-Ledger
Columbia University president Lee Bollinger hasn’t had it easy with his work at the forefront of affirmative action. Phrases such as “upstream swimmer,” “checkered past” and “Supreme Court” regularly appear in articles about his work.
Trans-Atlantic tensions aside, a trip to France, where the mere thought of identifying its population by race raises collective hackles, seems like a curious move for the Ivy League leader.
Bollinger may be best known for the 2003 Supreme Court case bearing his name in which he successfully defended affirmative action in admissions programs.
On Thursday, he shared the podium in Paris with an unlikely ally: Richard Descoings, director of the elite Paris Institute of Political Science, or Sciences-Po.
In his home country, Descoings has had an equally bumpy ride; since being named Sciences-Po’s director in 1996, he has been something of an outcast among the administration of the university elite in France.
“There were many myths (prior to 2003) about affirmative action,” says Bollinger referring to his history. “One was that race no longer matters in our life . . . Nothing could be more darkly laughable.”
The French have a different take on integration. Instead of singling out students by race, Descoings and Sciences-Po began a program in 2001 that pulled students from economically deprived geographic areas known as zones d’education prioritaires, permitting them a scaled-back admissions process.
“We didn’t start this program be cause we were virtuous or charitable,” says Descoings. “We saw that the elite students (in French universities) were coming from a smaller and smaller wedge of society and felt this would create a social divide.”
In France, the beginnings of a rift aren’t difficult to see; many of the suburbs of Paris echo the inner- city problems faced in America, and all top French schools are predominantly white.
“Discussing race is a taboo issue in France,” says Liz Langley an American-born urban planner who works in a low-income pocket of the French town of Morsang-sur-Orge. “I was trying to describe the neighborhood where I work using 1999 census data,” says the Delaware native, “and the closest thing you can do is to find out if they’re foreigners . . . but that doesn’t mean anything.”
In France, where “equality” is part of the country’s “Liberté, Egalité, Fraternité” motto, giving someone preference due to his background has a funny ring to it. Indeed, for more than a decade following World War II, many prominent African-Americans such as James Baldwin came to France because at the time, race wasn’t an issue here.
“It depends who you talk to here,” says Langley. “Some say the idea of giving people a helping hand is a good thing, and others think everyone should be absolutely equal.”
Descoings doesn’t buy it, and the visiting Americans seemed interested to learn the strengths of his system. Columbia University provost Alan Brinkley nodded to the French efforts. “The U.S. has not addressed, successfully, the issue of class,” he says.
In a Jan. 7 interview, Descoings said his program at Sciences-Po gives zones d’education prioritaires students an “incredible boost” by showing them a way out, and according to many here, they could use it.
“The French system has a stigma against ZEP schools,” says Langley. “People look at you and see the stigma right on your forehead: ZEP kid.” French comedian Jamel Debbouze, best known in the United States for his work in the 2001 film “Amelie,” calls ZEP students “all together in the back row of the class” in his current one-man show.
Descoings has a different phrase to describe his students who come from ZEP schools: “perfectly integrated.”
Though the majority of students at Sciences-Po wouldn’t disagree, it was a disgruntled group of conservative students who took Descoings to court in 2001 calling his program unconstitutional. Two years later, the French courts ruled in his favor, and the program not only continues, but it is catching on with other leading French universities; the Sorbonne and the engineering-focused Ecole Polytechnique have joined in a coalition with Columbia and Sciences-Po to combat the problem on both sides of the Atlantic.
With his program in motion since 2001, Descoings’ idea is getting a boost from statistics. According to Descoings, 15 of the 17 ZEP students enrolled in the program’s inaugural year graduated, including three in the top 10 percent.
At Thursday’s conference, even speakers who expressed views that leaned further right, as was the case with Alain Lancelot, ex-president of Sciences-Po and current president of the French decentralization watchdog group OIP, agreed something must be done.
“Formal law has its limits,” said Lancelot, likening Descoings’ program to a set of training wheels. “This is a way to find liberty.”
“We’re realizing that people’s social origins are becoming more and more restricted,” says Bruno Racine, head of the famous Pompidou Center, which has recently been involved in a successful community outreach program, lending its works by artists such as Andy Warhol and Le Corbusier to the low-income suburb of Aubervillers. “This is dangerous for French society.”
Despite his Supreme Court victory, Bollinger espouses Descoings’ search for solutions yet remains bittersweet about the issue. “Race is so deep a problem in America . . . that we should not expect higher education to be anything other than a place that struggles with this,” he says. “What else would you expect?”
Joe Ray is a freelance writer living in Paris.
