“It’s easier to find a deckchair when you’re white”: Cote d’Azur’s private beaches accused of discrimination

On the modern beaches of the Cote d’Azur, the sun is shining, the sea is calm, summer is in full swing. If it’s time to relax and disconnect, the fact that there are some social problems is very important. Starting with racism.

In late July, the SOS-Racisme organization investigated the private beaches of the French seaside resort of Juan-les-Pins (Antibes) to protest targeted discrimination by racial people.

Three pairs – one made up of black people, the other of North Africans and the last of white people – lent themselves to the game. In return, the couple pretended to reserve deckchairs on the beaches. The observation is clear: For the two racial couples, the request almost systematically resulted in a denial, with the tenants claiming to be “complete,” while minutes later, the white couple showed up and received a favorable response straight away.

Loopsider Media followed SOS-racism activists to their hidden camera exercise, and then confirmed the situation in a video posted to Twitter. The sequence, which has been viewed more than 1.8 million times till the writing of these lines, has received an overwhelming response on the web. Many French politicians from the center or the left took up the subject and strongly condemned these practices.

,There is an unbearable truth of casteism and discrimination. And the fact is that it is still necessary to provide proof of this structural racism in our society, which some people are still trying to deny. We will never stop fighting for equality.” La France deputy Insoumees Bastien Lachaud commented.

,The same is true of discrimination. And it’s unbearable.” Olivier Klein, for his part, denounced the representative representative in charge of the city and housing in the Born government.

,That is why the coast, access to the sea and the beach must be a common good”, EELV reacted to Sandrine Rousseau’s deputy and figurehead.

SOS-Racisme has promised to launch legal proceedings to denounce private beaches