“most drug dealers in France were black or Arab” -probably true.
“employers “have the right” to deny employment to those two groups of people” -probably not.
Nothing to fine or jail him over, though.
If you were a business owner, would you hire a drug dealer? Most likely not, though as you say, the law will not support the rights of businessmen to choose. It blows my mind how prescient Orwell was.
I think he LIKES being controversial. In any event, the $14K fine he had to pay was probably cheap for all the publicity it got him and his viewpoints.