Saying "I Don't Know if Negroes Have Always Worked [Hard]" = Crime in France

(Eugene Volokh)

Agence France Press reports (thanks to Ed Grinberg for the pointer):

A Paris court on Thursday found Jean-Paul Guerlain, the former "nose" behind the world-famous perfume brand, guilty of racial insults after televised remarks he made about "negroes" and fined him.

Asked in a 2010 interview about how he created the Samsara scent, Guerlain replied: "For once, I set to work like a negro. I don't know if negroes have always worked like that, but anyway."

The court judged that the second part of his reply was racist and fined him 6,000 euros ($8,000). The maximum it could have imposed was six months in prison and a 22,500-euro fine.

Guerlain was also ordered to pay 2,000 euros in damages to each of three anti-racist groups that were civil plaintiffs in the case….

Guerlain used the word "negre", which is also commonly used in France in its other meaning signifying "ghost writer".