Racial or class vote? The left-wing orientation of university graduates of Sub-Saharan descents in Paris and London

This article analyses the weight of race issues in the political orientation and voting of higher education graduates of sub-Saharan descent interviewed in Paris and London. In the first part, it reveals that the majority of them rely on socio-economic - and not racial - framing arguments to explain their left-wing orientation as well as their vote for the PS or Labour. The motivations evoked are characterised by a strong homogeneity, beyond some nuances linked to the national context and the degree of politicisation, and despite the diversity of trajectories and the professional socialisation of senior executives in the private sector that some experience. The article shows in a second step that about a quarter of the interviewees also mobilise issues of race to explain their left-wing orientation. Two profiles stand out: among the first, who are rather politicised and conscious of race relations, the reference to this question only emerges timidly. Often associated with migration issues, it is part of a discourse that encompasses other social groups and refers to broader ideological principles. The second group, which is highly politicised, very conscious of race issues and very much on the left, develops discourses based on a racial and post-colonial prism to explain their political orientation.