PARIS — In France, the brutal death of Nahel Merzouk, a French-born 17-year-old of Algerian and Moroccan descent who was shot by a police officer at a traffic stop, triggered a tidal wave of protests that in some cases turned violent. If the world seems to be astonished by the level of anger expressed, I am not. France has been facing police brutality against minorities for decades, a problem that lingers and worsens with time. If the status quo is left unchecked, if this systemic racist violence continues apace, a proudly “universalist” republic — and especially one that purports not to recognize racial, religious, or ethnic difference at all — will have abandoned its own social contract.
