Jean Finot

Born in 1858 and active in France, Jean Finot was a journalist, sociologist, and author best known for challenging ideas about racial hierarchy. He wrote during a period when theories of “race” were often presented as objective truth, and his work argued firmly against those claims.

He is especially remembered for Le Préjugé des races, published in 1905 and translated into English as Race Prejudice in 1907. In that book, Finot attacked racist thinking and questioned the assumptions behind racial classification, making him a notable critical voice in early twentieth-century social debate.

Finot died in 1922. Today, he is remembered less as a literary celebrity than as a serious public thinker whose work stands out for its early and direct opposition to race prejudice.