This essay, written by three French scholars who specialize in African American history, provides a tentative assessment of African American studies in France. Starting with a survey of the field, it goes on to raise issues specific to the French context. While French scholars have tended to focus on the periods of the Harlem Renaissance and the Civil Rights Movement, they have until recently paid little attention to the history of US slavery, partly because of France’s long reluctance to look at its own past of slavery and colonization. Moreover, many in France tend to be suspicious of templates imported from American universities—intersectionality is a case in point—to account for the racial situation in France.