Antiracism without Races: How Activists Produce Knowledge about Race and Policing in France.

This article examines how antiracist activists in France produce knowledge about race and racism in the context of the country's dominant anti-racialist ideology, which prohibits racial categorization and complicates addressing institutional racism. Based on ethnographic research of three mobilizations contesting policing—an NGO-led campaign quantifying racial disparities in police stops, a victim-led movement historicizing police violence as structural racism, and a neighborhood organizing effort documenting systemic police harassment—the study shows that distinct epistemic approaches shape activists' racial conceptualizations and political strategies. These approaches influence how race is defined, how racism is understood (as individual bias, institutional policy, or structural oppression), and the scale of analysis, thereby affecting the framing of racialized policing and the potential for political change. The findings highlight that despite legal and cultural constraints on discussing race in France, activists can and do produce knowledge that makes racial inequalities visible and contest dominant narratives, with implications for antiracist practice and public debate.