A black French politician came under fire on Sunday for saying that whites should "keep quiet" if allowed into a meeting of people of colour discussing racism, reigniting a debate over how to address discrimination, reports RFI.
Audrey Pulvar, a former television anchor who is part of Paris mayor Anne Hidalgo's administration, was speaking about revelations that a leading student union held meetings about discrimination that were closed to white people.
Pulvar, a 49-year-old Socialist who is leading the party's campaign in upcoming regional elections, told BFMTV channel that she was "not shocked" to hear that "people who suffer discrimination for the same reasons and in the same way feel the need to meet among themselves to discuss it."
White people who want to attend should be allowed to do so, she said, adding: "They can however be asked to keep quiet and be silent spectators."
Her remarks rekindled a national debate about the rise in France of identity politics, which some on the right particularly view as an unwelcome American import that risks undermining universalist French values.
The inroads made by US-style "cancel culture" -- calls to deny a public platform to people or products seen as objectionable -- and growing activism of a younger generation around race and gender are seen as symptoms of what critics deride as the arrival of "woke" culture.