COMMENTARY: France Must End Its Discrimination against Its Blacks and Arabs

This week, lawyers in France filed a lawsuit for 15 French people of black or Arabic descent who claimed that they had been abused as a result of identity checks based on racial profiling.

In other words, French police tend to target blacks and Arabs because of their skin color or ethnicity -- rather than because they are suspected of violating the law -- in a policy that is called "racial profiling."

The lawyers for the 15 abused victims said they wanted to ensure that the French government would establish guidelines for police checks and that a police report would be written for each check carried out.

We agree with the lawyers' call for guidelines and police reports.

The fact is that French police should not use skin color or ethnicity to determine whom they will question for identity checks. Rather, such checks should be determined by a belief of police that a person being checked is suspected of having violated the law.

The French government, then, needs to adopt a policy of "blind identity checks" when police question French citizens; that is, police must treat all citizens equally -- by ignoring their race, ethnicity, or religious preference -- when they decide to conduct an identity check of an individual.

In the final analysis, such a policy will enhance the overall prestige of France, because it will promote equality for all of France's citizens, instead of the current discriminatory policy of suspecting individuals of violating the law, only because of their race or ethnicity.