Certain intellectual phenomena, e.g. racist attitudes, are based on fixed formulas of everyday speech. The linguistic roots of such evils must be discerned before they can be exorcised. Some cliches, e.g. racist ones, insinuate themselves into verbal behavior structures. French cliches reflect certain collective French attitudes: positive towards France and the French, negative towards other nationalities and immigrants, particularly immigrants from Northern Africa. To correct this racist attitude, one must begin by destroying racist cliches. (AM)