Word: french
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...Linking the ethnic make-up of a multiracial nation to genocide may sound like hyperbole elsewhere, but the French know that tinkering with the founding principles and universal values of the nation was central to some of the ugliest episodes in the country's history. The French constitution proudly declares the country "an indivisible, secular, democratic and social Republic [that] assures equality before the law for all its citizens, without distinction of origin, of race, or religion". That gender- and color-blindness, national ideology holds, protects minority populations by ignoring the differences that divide them into often mutually hostile groups...
...news to no one that France's blighted unemployment-ravaged suburban housing projects have disproportionately high black and Arab populations. It's also no scoop that those same two ethnic groups are under-represented in the nation's elite schools, corporate management ranks and political establishment. The French themselves are acutely aware that racial discrimination is a problem - and since the 2005 suburban riots have appeared eager to do something to remedy...
...minority and feminist causes. The daughter of Algerian immigrants, Amara sees official ethnic statistics as dangerous, not helpful. "Our republic must not become a mosaic of communities," she says, rejecting calls to add race to the gender, age and occupational categories contained in official data researchers use to study French society. "No one should again have to wear a yellow star...
...France's indivisible ideology is noble in theory - but often mocked by reality. There are plenty of periods in French history where racial and religious discrimination were rife - from the colonial era to cooperation with Nazi occupiers. The 2005 rioting that spread across France's suburban housing projects - and the international media attention that it drew - provided another reminder that something was seriously wrong in the land of fraternité et egalité. That unrest seems to have finally provoked a period of soul searching in France...
...governments are set to vote on the proposal at the end of April, and officials are scurrying to devise a compromise, probably involving a special label. If Paris can rally enough E.U. countries to its cause, then French winemakers may well win this particular battle. But with their global market share continuing to fall, they might have to look at other ways to win back consumers...