Anti-racism advocacy and the rising marginalization of anti-racist speech in France, Digi Mart USA News (France): SOS Racisme president Dominique Sopo says the attack in Trappes “will only surprise those who want to be surprised,” describing it as a terrorist attack with a racist motive. He says it is not the first such incident in France, pointing to a recent series of racist killings.
Sopo cites several cases: Angela Rostas, who was murdered in January 2024 because she was Roma; three Kurds killed in Paris in December 2022; Aboubakar Cissé, stabbed in a mosque in Gard in April 2025; and Hichem Miraoui, killed in Var in May 2025. He says this series of killings did not produce lasting public outrage.
Sopo says the presence of President Emmanuel Macron in Trappes gave the response a solemn character and signaled that the Republic stands with victims of racism, something he says had not happened before. He contrasts this with the 2025 killing of Aboubakar Cissé, when Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau did not visit the mosque where the attack occurred.
Asked whether the fight against racism enjoys political consensus, Sopo says it does not. He argues that parts of the right have drifted toward accepting far-right positions that stigmatize foreigners and people of immigrant origin, and that the fight against racism and the fight against antisemitism are sometimes set against each other.
He also criticizes what he describes as a lack of clarity on antisemitism within parts of the left.
Sopo also says anti-racism has changed in meaning since the 1980s, when defending anti-racism mostly meant defending foreigners without diplomas. Today, he says, it means defending people who hold the same qualifications as their defenders and who are French citizens eligible for office, which he argues some elites see as competition.
He adds that anti-racist voices are increasingly sidelined in the media, which typically invite him to react to crimes or discrimination rather than to present a broader analysis of society. He notes that hatred needs few words while dismantling a racist insult takes much longer.
His book “Le racisme tue toujours” is due out November 12.
