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Described as a vast area for “priority education” by the French general education inspectorate, French Polynesia is both comparable to continental France in the structure and objectives of the school system, and quite different in terms of the difficulties encountered by students. This article looks at what is at stake in using “cultural difference” to explain this discrepancy, hypothesizing that there is a pervasive culturalism in the school. It explores the discrepancy between the official “color-blind” vision, supposedly indifferent to ethno-racial origins) and the reality of the perception of discriminations.