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The article deals with the policy against racism led by the socialist government in the early 1980s in a context of a strong mobilization against police brutality and discriminations by the Marche pour l’égalité et contre le racisme. Studies on the emergence of antidiscrimination policies tend to reduce this policy to a proclamation of principles, where the blame was limited to a “racist public opinion”. These studies tend to underestimate the use of intercultural repertoire by civil servants. This article identifies both the conditions which favored this repertoire and the conception of racism it entails and its implementation. It demonstrates that this policy was not circumscribed to opinion-oriented discourses, and that actions against the production of unequal access to public services were undertaken.