As someone who was born in Paris, who lived and studied there, and being of so called "color" I can tell a few things:
1. France is racist and it's more vicious than the racism here in the US. The reason? at least in the US (except maybe for NE) people are honest and straighforward about it! In France everyone is "wonderful" until your back turns into a bleeding open wound from backstabbing!
The US is far from perfect in that matter, I did notice that people are genuinely working on improving themselves and the system. Yes I am discounting a big bunch of morons but at least the process has started here.
No one or country is perfect but finding a solution pass by acknowledging the problem!
Post-colonial France has not reach that point and looking at the current politicians and french white people stance (from the polls) , they are not going to reach that point anytime soon.
France is more likely to turn (more) reactionary, fascist like, before coming even close to acknowledging any wrong doing or responsibility!
2. Housing is indeed segragated. Segregation doesn't have to be "offical", although these days it kinda tends to become so. It's just not fully stated.
Even with a decent or high income level, a non-white will have extreme difficulties to find housing elsewhere than close to or in projects. This troubling documented fact has triggered a few lawsuits so far but with no big changes in sight.
Segragation is not only racial it is class based as well. But since non-white people are more likely to be poorer (they are not allowed to climb the social ladder)... guess what?
3. The emphasis has been put on arabic descent rioters... how convenient in a post 9/11 world.
Truth is, the people rioting are not ethnicaly homogeneous, they are from all over the planet, including France, but they do share one thing: they are rejected from society.
Listen to how the politicians caracterize the people from the projects: the minister of interior (kinda the head of Dpt of Homeland security here), Nicholas Sarkozy: "I am going to cleanse the projects (clean with a water-blast device -brand name "Karcher"-, which incidently makes the surface cleaned whiter btw)".
The major of a suburb city, son of one of the current constitution founding fathers, JL Debre: "these people are not part of our universe"
Talk with "regular" french people, like I did with my former business school classmates: "in these area you stop at a trafic light and you have a bunch of them coming down the light pole". "put them all in boats and send them back" (where to btw?), "Send the army with the right to shoot on sight" (not different from what people were saying about New Orleans a few months ago), "these people are disgusting, dirty, proliferating like rats"...etc
How different is that from the dehumanizing statements made by the nazi about the jews, gipsys, gay/lesbians, arabic, black... before commiting some of the worst mass murder in the history of humanity.
How different is that from the statements made by so many religious or ethnic extremists to justify their hate crimes?
It will not go that far but that's always how it starts and it does polarized the debate.
When one is categorized as such -non or barely human- in a deaf society it's hard just to raise ones hand and politely ask to be accepted!
What people are asking, in a very desperate manner: burning their own cars and neighborhoods, is something very simple, something that french society as a whole has been refusing to provide to them, to their parents (recent immigrants), grand parents (post world war II reconstruction immigrants), great grand parents ("contractors" and forced labor in France and in the former colonies), great great grand parents (slaves and forced labor), something as simple as a single word: RESPECT
Respect... that will be the start of the healing process.
Peace.
Slashdot Mirror
As someone who was born in Paris, who lived and studied there, and being of so called "color" I can tell a few things: 1. France is racist and it's more vicious than the racism here in the US. The reason? at least in the US (except maybe for NE) people are honest and straighforward about it! In France everyone is "wonderful" until your back turns into a bleeding open wound from backstabbing! The US is far from perfect in that matter, I did notice that people are genuinely working on improving themselves and the system. Yes I am discounting a big bunch of morons but at least the process has started here. No one or country is perfect but finding a solution pass by acknowledging the problem! Post-colonial France has not reach that point and looking at the current politicians and french white people stance (from the polls) , they are not going to reach that point anytime soon. France is more likely to turn (more) reactionary, fascist like, before coming even close to acknowledging any wrong doing or responsibility! 2. Housing is indeed segragated. Segregation doesn't have to be "offical", although these days it kinda tends to become so. It's just not fully stated. Even with a decent or high income level, a non-white will have extreme difficulties to find housing elsewhere than close to or in projects. This troubling documented fact has triggered a few lawsuits so far but with no big changes in sight. Segragation is not only racial it is class based as well. But since non-white people are more likely to be poorer (they are not allowed to climb the social ladder)... guess what? 3. The emphasis has been put on arabic descent rioters... how convenient in a post 9/11 world. Truth is, the people rioting are not ethnicaly homogeneous, they are from all over the planet, including France, but they do share one thing: they are rejected from society. Listen to how the politicians caracterize the people from the projects: the minister of interior (kinda the head of Dpt of Homeland security here), Nicholas Sarkozy: "I am going to cleanse the projects (clean with a water-blast device -brand name "Karcher"-, which incidently makes the surface cleaned whiter btw)". The major of a suburb city, son of one of the current constitution founding fathers, JL Debre: "these people are not part of our universe" Talk with "regular" french people, like I did with my former business school classmates: "in these area you stop at a trafic light and you have a bunch of them coming down the light pole". "put them all in boats and send them back" (where to btw?), "Send the army with the right to shoot on sight" (not different from what people were saying about New Orleans a few months ago), "these people are disgusting, dirty, proliferating like rats"...etc How different is that from the dehumanizing statements made by the nazi about the jews, gipsys, gay/lesbians, arabic, black... before commiting some of the worst mass murder in the history of humanity. How different is that from the statements made by so many religious or ethnic extremists to justify their hate crimes? It will not go that far but that's always how it starts and it does polarized the debate. When one is categorized as such -non or barely human- in a deaf society it's hard just to raise ones hand and politely ask to be accepted! What people are asking, in a very desperate manner: burning their own cars and neighborhoods, is something very simple, something that french society as a whole has been refusing to provide to them, to their parents (recent immigrants), grand parents (post world war II reconstruction immigrants), great grand parents ("contractors" and forced labor in France and in the former colonies), great great grand parents (slaves and forced labor), something as simple as a single word: RESPECT Respect... that will be the start of the healing process. Peace.