French lawmakers are divided over a top minister's call to legalize race statistics for an objective picture of racism

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• Collecting data on race in France has been a taboo for decades due to a 1978 French law that made it illegal.
• But with race protests sweeping across the world, including 15,000 people protesting in Paris on Saturday, France's problems with race have become more pressing.
• On Saturday, Sibeth Ndiaye, the French government's spokeswoman, wrote an op-ed in a French daily newspaper, calling for the debate on ethnic statistics to be reopened.
• Ndiaye wrote that the absence of statistics meant people could claim racism was everywhere, or nowhere, and no one could disprove the claims.
• A spokesperson for French President Emmanuel Macron, who was caught off guard by Ndiaye's call, said it wasn't something he wanted to debate at this time, but Ndiaye continued with her campaign the following day.
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The French government has been divided by a call from one of its top ministers to make collecting race data legal so that France can properly assess its own race problems.

On Saturday, Sibeth Ndiaye, the government's spokeswoman, which is one of the top roles in the government, wrote an op-ed in Le Monde, a French daily newspaper, calling for the debate on ethnic statistics to be reopened.

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