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It is not just Mr. M’Bala M’Bala who has flourished in this atmosphere; other comedians trot out the most hackneyed racial clichés.

The phenomenon cuts across social class. Take Alain Finkielkraut, a professor of philosophy at the elite École Polytechnique: He recently published “L’identité malheureuse,” a book bemoaning the dilution of an eternal France about to be defiled by swarthy barbarians threatening to plunge “European civilization” into a multicultural bouillabaisse. Among the objects of his disgust: “Halal butcher shops and fast food.”

Mr. Finkielkraut’s sentiments echo those of Renaud Camus, a writer (not related to Albert Camus) who has denounced the “great replacement” of populations, which imposes on “the true rooted French” those who are not. Mr. Camus makes no secret of his admiration for Marine Le Pen, daughter of Jean-Marie and current leader of the National Front. Such ideas have even found resonance in the media, thanks to commentators like the political journalist Éric Zemmour, who laments the fate of the “white proletariat,” helpless before the “ostentatious virility of their black and Arab competitors seducing numerous young white women.”

The worst came last fall with a campaign against France’s Roma people. The previous president, Nicolas Sarkozy, had already singled out this vulnerable population of 20,000 as a dangerous nuisance — despite the fact that the Roma constitute just 0.03 percent of the population. The interior minister, Mr. #Valls, has now called for their expulsion. Well might we wonder about the integrity of a politician who defends Jews from Dieudonné’s quenelle while deporting Gypsies.