ethnic profiling is as old as car (at least) Poor suburbs are as old as the Varsovie ghetto (at least) You guys in the US may have similar experience with black and mexican. In France specifically In 2002 we had a presidential election between a far right candidate and a 'normal' right candidate (who won 80/20)... It is like you had an election with Trump Vs Jeb Bush. Since september 2001 we had an 'enhanced' police security system (vigie-pirate). With armed military force in the street. Kind of scary. Our best writer right now (M.Houellebecq) is a vocal Islamophobist ... Our precedent best writer (L.F.Celine) was vocally antisemitic. So the article is wrong in the sense that there is nothing new in France. 15% racists, like I suppose, anywhere else But hey, since Fox News, no-go zone, France is so in a civil war.