Confronting the politics of denial

Abstract

In the summer of 2021, a series of posters produced by the Ministère de l’éducation nationale appeared on advertising spaces across France. They showed white and nonwhite students together in various educational and sporting settings with slogans that appeared to highlight a causal link between diversity and laïcité. ‘Permettre à Mihan et Aliyah de rire aux mêmes histoires, c’est ça la laïcité.’ ‘Permettre à Sacha et Neissa d’être dans le même bain, c’est ça, la laïcité’ (Ministère de l’Éducation nationale 2021). The posters appeared to be saying that it was laïcité that facilitated the integration of nonwhite students. Jean-Louis Bianco, former president of the Observatoire de la laïcité, a body criticised for not presenting a rigorous enough defence of laïcité and eventually dissolved that same summer, summed up widespread disquiet,