Pierre-André Taguieff

Since it argues that "ethnic groups" exist but are not biological races, it claims not to be racist. However, apart from the pseudo-scientific racist theories of the 19th century, it espouses an anti-assimilationist point of view in completely rejecting the notion of a social melting pot. Arguing that the Enlightenment's philosophy of universality, taken to extremes, is a form of racism, it pretends to be antiracist by preaching strict separation of ethnic groups. However, if the critics of "universal racism" are correct, it is clear that this new form of racism is descended in a direct line from the old discourse of separation between different supposed races.

Despite its contrast to conservatism (he is a former situationist close to René Viénet), Pierre-André Taguieff wrote Les Contre-réactionnaires in 2007, in which he opposed both antiracism and antifascism. He considers them as ideologies which are instrumentalized by far-left groups "aiming to regularize as many illegal immigrants as possible without any regulation".

Taguieff is the author of a number of books and papers on racism and antisemitism, including The Force of Prejudice: On Racism and Its Doubles (2001) and Rising from the Muck: The New Antisemitism in Europe (2004). He is known in particular for his studies on the French National Front and populism.

In La Force du préjugé – essai sur le racisme et ses doubles (1987), Taguieff analyzed several different types of racism:

Pierre-André Taguieff (born 4 August 1946) is a French philosopher who has specialised in the study of racism and antisemitism. He is the director of research at the French National Centre for Scientific Research in an Institut d'Etudes Politiques de Paris laboratory, the Centre for Political Research (CEVIPOF [fr]). He is also a member of the Cercle de l'Oratoire think tank.