In his latest column, French essayist and CNews commentator Mathieu Bock-Côté argues that anti-white racism has become the only form of racism that is socially and institutionally authorized in France today. He returns to the November 2023 killing of 16-year-old Thomas Perotto in the small town of Crépol, an event that sparked a fierce national debate over the nature of racism. Bock-Côté contends that the left, and particularly the far-left party La France Insoumise, has systematically denied the existence of racism directed at white people, redefining the concept to fit a narrative of white domination. However, he notes that recent judicial decisions have begun to acknowledge the racist motivations behind the Crépol attack, marking what he sees as a victory of reality over ideology.
The Crépol Context
On November 19, 2023, a dance party in Crépol, a small village in the Drôme department, was attacked by a group of around 20 individuals. Thomas Perotto, a 16-year-old local, was stabbed to death. Several others were injured. Reports quickly emerged that the attackers, many of whom were from nearby immigrant-dominated neighborhoods, had shouted racial slurs targeting white participants. The incident was initially framed by many left-wing politicians and media as a tragic but isolated act of violence, avoiding any mention of racial animus. When Marion Maréchal, a prominent far-right politician, described it as an example of anti-white racism, Mathilde Panot, the president of the La France Insoumise group in the National Assembly, dismissed the concept entirely, stating that racism against white people cannot exist because racism requires systemic power.
Bock-Côté's Analysis
Bock-Côté, who has previously written on issues of identity and nationalism, sees this denial as part of a broader ideological project. He accuses the left of reframing racism as a system of white supremacy that is structurally exclusive to people of color. Under this framework, any discrimination or violence against white people is dismissed as a reaction to oppression or as an isolated aberration. Bock-Côté argues that this redefinition has become the dominant academic and media orthodoxy, perpetuated by what he calls the "diversitarian regime" – a system that privileges racial and cultural diversity while suppressing any criticism of non-white groups. He writes that this regime prefers to modify the definition of racism rather than accept empirical evidence of anti-white acts, and that it uses legal and discursive tools to silence dissent.
The essayist draws a parallel to the history of Marxist ideology in the 20th century, which he claims was constantly adapted to avoid being disproven by reality. He quotes Romanian-born playwright Eugène Ionesco, who wrote that "ideological bad faith is a modern form of dementia." Bock-Côté suggests that left-wing intellectuals are trapped in a "parallel world" where they can maintain their utopian visions by denying uncomfortable facts. The result, he says, is a climate where criticizing immigration or multiculturalism is punished as "hate speech," while anti-white rhetoric and violence are minimized or excused.
The Shift in Judicial Recognition
In July 2024, several months after the attack, the French justice system took an unusual step: it recognized that the murder of Thomas Perotto was motivated by racism against his status as a white French person. The court applied the legal aggravating circumstance of racial hatred, which carries heavier penalties. This decision was met with shock by some on the left and with vindication by those on the right. Bock-Côté acknowledges that while he has reservations about the use of ideological aggravating circumstances in law, the ruling represents a crack in the ideological consensus. He argues that the "diversitarian regime" is being forced to confront the reality that anti-white racism is not only possible but widespread, and that it is now the only form of racism that is routinely accepted and even institutionalized.
Bock-Côté points to examples beyond Crépol: an incident in Belgium where a music festival explicitly excluded white performers for diversity reasons, and the everyday discrimination that white French people face in certain jobs and neighborhoods. He describes this as a form of "counter-colonial revanchism," where descendants of colonized peoples seek to reverse historical power dynamics through aggression and exclusion. He warns that this is not just a fringe phenomenon but a structural one, embedded in the policies of the state and the rhetoric of mainstream left parties.
Reactions and Counterarguments
The essayist's column has predictably generated polarized reactions. Supporters on the right applaud him for speaking a truth that they believe has been suppressed for too long. Critics on the left accuse him of exaggerating isolated incidents to fuel racial resentment against minorities. Some social scientists argue that anti-white sentiment, while real, is not systemic in the way that historical anti-Black or anti-Arab racism is, because white people remain the dominant group in power structures. Bock-Côté rejects this argument, insisting that ordinary white people do not feel powerful; rather, they feel targeted and abandoned by the institutions that are supposed to protect them. He contends that the left's denial of their experience only deepens the radicalization of the electorate and widens the gap between the elite and the populace.
The debate over Crépol has become a flashpoint in France's ongoing reckoning with race, identity, and immigration. Mathieu Bock-Côté's writings, whether one agrees with them or not, reflect a growing current in French intellectual life that challenges the postcolonial consensus. By arguing that anti-white racism is not only real but the only racism that is officially permitted, he is pushing the boundaries of what can be said in public. Whether this will lead to a broader reexamination of French antiracism, or merely deepen the trenches of a culture war, remains to be seen.
Source: Lejdd News