Journalists from Chicago and Paris reflect on common experiences with racial profiling
Though they are thousands of miles apart, the two cities share similarities in racial disparities in traffic stops and police violence.
By Amy Qin
Journalists from Chicago and Paris reflect on common experiences with racial profiling
Though they are thousands of miles apart, the two cities share similarities in racial disparities in traffic stops and police violence.
By Amy QinChicago and Paris are thousands of miles apart, but the similarities are striking when it comes to issues of racial profiling and police brutality.
On Jan. 10, journalists from the United States and France came together for a virtual discussion — “Between Two Worlds: Racial Profiling by Police in the U.S. and France” — exploring the global impact of race on public safety and democracy.
Journalists from WBEZ and the Investigative Project on Race and Equity in Chicago and French outlets Le Bondy Blog, France 3 and Fumigène Mag drew parallels between police discrimination and violence against Black and North African residents in France and the United States.
In Chicago and the United States, “the problem of profiling is something that is pervasive, and to see that that is the case in France was eye opening,” said Alden Loury, WBEZ’s data projects editor.
Last September, WBEZ and the Investigative Project on Race and Equity published a three-part investigation that revealed stark disparities in the share of Black drivers stopped by Illinois police compared to white drivers.
Just a few months earlier in July, Nahel Merzouk, a 17-year old French teenager of Moroccan and Algerian descent, was fatally shot by a police officer during a traffic stop in a Paris suburb.
Anas Daif, a journalist for France 3 and creator of the Alintersection podcast, said the “cases of police violence and brutality are not isolated” between France and the United States. Daif spoke in French through a translator.
The murder of George Floyd in 2020 sparked mass protests in France and brought renewed attention to the 2016 death of a Black 24-year old, Adama Traoré, who died in police custody after being pinned down by officers and was unable to breathe.
“This was at the same time as the murder of George Floyd, and that led people to really gain some awareness and 40,000 people who came … in front of the courts to protest and ask for accountability,” Daif said. “There was a new realization of the urgency to act.”
Racism toward Black and Arab people in France also pervades other aspects of society outside of interactions with police, Daif said.
Studies show people perceived to have North African or African names are less likely to be called back for a job by employers and have lower chances of finding an apartment than people perceived as white, Daif said.
But documenting racial profiling can be more difficult to do in France than in the United States due to the lack of data.
In Illinois, a 2003 law — sponsored by then-state Sen. Barack Obama to combat racial profiling — required law enforcement agencies to report details of every police traffic stop in the state, including the driver’s race and ethnicity.
Twenty years later, that legislation enabled WBEZ and Investigative Project on Race and Equity to obtain and analyze 42.5 million traffic stops — nearly two-decades’ worth of the records — and to reveal that Illinois has gone backwards on reducing racial disparities.
“For the first time that we’re aware of, this allowed us to have a historical look at the patterns that previously were not apparent to the public,” said Matt Kiefer, WBEZ news applications editor.
Among the findings:
Stops involving Black drivers have reached their highest levels in recent years. In the last two years, the share of Black drivers stopped surpassed 30% of all traffic stops in Illinois, up from 17.4% in 2004, the first year the data was released.
In Chicago, Black drivers were stopped four times more often than white drivers, despite the city having a larger white adult population.
Police agencies have increasingly failed to comply while efforts to strengthen the law over the years have failed.
WBEZ and the Investigative Project on Race and Equity have made all traffic stops data from nearly 1,000 law enforcement agencies publicly available to explore and download in an interactive database.
However, in France, a 1978 law prohibits the government from collecting any racial or ethnic information, including data on the racial demographics of police stops.
“When [American journalists] talk about the research that you’re doing, and the data that you have, our legal framework doesn’t allow for that. Ethnic statistics are considered counter to the Republican ideal, it’s ridiculous,” said Nora Hamadi, editor-in-chief of Fumigène Mag, who spoke in French through a translator.
“We’ve had research in the past 15 years that … uses different ways to get ethnic and racial data,” said Hamadi, including using data on poverty and immigration as a proxy for race.
Angela Caputo, project director for the Investigative Project on Race and Equity, said the traffic stop data in Illinois was the result of many years of advocacy.
“There was a lot of activism that preceded this law that required the collection of data. And so, even though we have the data, just like with you, you’ve had court decisions, you’ve had a lot of momentum, you’re not seeing the change that you expect, it’s a process,” Caputo said. “It took a long time to get to this point of collecting the data.”
Hamadi said some French researchers have found a safe haven in the United States to study and explore the impacts of racism.
“It’s interesting to have these transnational conversations, because in the same way that we had American intellectuals who came to France to find a safe space during the Civil Rights Movement, there’s some, you know, it’s the other way around now, where we’re each other safe spaces in a way,” Hamadi reflected.
“Between Two Worlds” was co-moderated by French journalist and activist Rokhaya Diallo and NPR’s Midwest Bureau Chief Cheryl Corley. Laura S. Washington, board president of the Investigative Project on Race and Equity, opened the discussion.
The event was organized by WBEZ Chicago, the Investigative Project on Race and Equity and Le Next Level and co-sponsored by Block Club Chicago, Le Bondy Blog, the Chicago Headline Club, the Chicago Headline Club Foundation, Fumigène, à l’intersection, ThinkInc. and Signature Vibez.
Amy Qin is a data reporter for WBEZ.