Black French people


Black French people also known as French Black people or Afro-French are French people who have ancestry from any of the Black racial groups of Africa. It also includes people of mixed ancestry. France has the largest Black population in Europe. The Paris metro area also has the largest Black population
The absence of a legal definition of what it means to be "black" in France, the extent of anti-miscegenation laws over several centuries, the great diversity of black populations and the lack of legal recognition of ethnicity in French population censuses make this social entity extremely difficult to define, unlike in countries such as the United States and Haiti.

Definition issues

In France, there is no formal definition of ethnicity, particularly in terms of its relationship to French identity or to métissage. However, this type of identity may be reflected in organizations such as the Conseil représentatif des associations noires, or in other ways.
Much of the academic literature dedicated to black people comes from the USA, where "black identity" is relatively homogeneous: these are essentially the descendants of slaves brought over in the 18th century to work on the plantations of the American Southeast. However, the definition of "black" in the United States, based on the "One-drop rule", has no objective basis in reality, and only partially correlates with skin color and historical trajectory.
If the black Americans can be roughly compared to French black people from the overseas departments, the bulk of dark-skinned people living in mainland France have nothing to do with this pattern or with the history of slavery: as historian and former minister Pap Ndiaye points out, in France "the black group is infinitely diverse socially and culturally, and lumping all blacks into the same categorical bag is a problematic operation."
This great complexity in talking about "Blacks" served as the basis for the screenplay of the film Tout simplement noir, which illustrates the distance between personalities such as Claudia Tagbo, Omar Sy, Lucien Jean-Baptiste and JoeyStarr, Éric Judor and Vikash Dhorasoo.
Other non-African black-skinned ethnic groups include some of the Melanesians of the south-western Pacific Ocean, of whom Christian Karembeu is a famous representative.

Population statistics

Although it is illegal for the government of France to collect data on ethnicity and race in the census, various population estimates exist. An article in The New York Times in 2008 stated that estimates vary between 3 million and 5 million. It is estimated that four out of five black people in France are of African immigrant origin, with the minority being chiefly of Caribbean ancestry.
Some organizations, such as the Representative Council of France's Black Associations, have argued in favor of the introduction of data collection on minority groups but this has been resisted by other organizations and ruling politicians, often on the grounds that collecting such statistics goes against France's secular principles and harkens back to Vichy-era identity documents. During the 2007 presidential election, however, Nicolas Sarkozy was polled on the issue and stated that he favoured the collection of data on ethnicity. Part of a parliamentary bill which would have permitted the collection of data for the purpose of measuring discrimination was rejected by the Conseil Constitutionnel in November 2007.

Notable people

In French politics

Afro-French members of the French Parliament or government from overseas France

There have been dozens of Afro-Caribbean, Kanak, and Afro-French MPs representing overseas electoral districts at the French National Assembly or at the French Senate, and several government members.
File:Laetitia avia AN 16441.JPG|thumb|211x211px|Laetitia Avia was an MP from Paris and faced allegations of anti-Asian racism and homophobia during her tenure
File:Maxette Pirbakas.jpg|thumb|220x220px|Maxette Grisoni-Pirbakas is the spokeswoman for the National Rally in the European Parliament.

Afro-French people elected in metropolitan France

In basketball

In football

In rugby

Other sports