Posted: Mon 16 Jan 2006 06:37 Post subject: France's rift: culture, not color
Quote:
France's rift: culture, not color
Spencer P. Boyer
The International Herald Tribune | www.iht.com
MONDAY, DECEMBER 12, 2005
WASHINGTON The images of black and brown youth rioting around Paris seem to have convinced many that France has a race problem. We Americans might even be tempted to congratulate ourselves that we're ahead of France and other European countries, which are only now starting to grapple with racism.
But I am a young black male who has lived in both France and United States, and I can tell you that France's problem isn't about race. In a way it's a more insidious problem than that, and I worry that events in France may actually be a sign of what could happen in America.
I had my first interaction with the French police on a December night in 1991. I had recently moved to Paris, and was strolling back to my tiny apartment in an exclusive neighborhood. I probably looked scruffy in my old army jacket and jeans. Suddenly two unmarked police cars pulled up. Four officers climbed out, asked where I was going, and demanded to see my "papers." But when I began speaking French, one of the officers heard my accent. "Oh, you're American? Please excuse us. Have a great evening."
I was stunned. Americans had warned me that the French didn't welcome people of color and constantly harassed Arabs and Africans. But I soon learned that being an African American in France is wonderful. I was generally treated better than I would have been back in the States.
I was treated well elsewhere in Europe, too. Off and on, I spent five years on the Continent, first as a student and then as a lawyer, in France, England, the Netherlands and Switzerland. Seldom did I encounter prejudice. Usually I was made to feel special.
I worried that after the Sept. 11 attacks, and America's response, the goodwill that Europeans showered on me would diminish, as anti-American sentiments in Europe grew. My white American friends in Europe tried to hide their nationality. But I was given a free pass. For the most part, Europeans exempted me from their stereotype of America as the arrogant and ignorant bully on the world stage. In other words, I was treated even better than my fellow whites - because I was black.
All of this seems puzzling, especially in light of all the recent talk about racism in France. Yet at the end of World War I, black American regiments that were disdained in their own country were cheered when they paraded down the Champs-Elysées in Paris. In World War II, too, the French embraced black soldiers from the States.
Throughout the 20th century, legions of black American artists, writers, and jazz musicians escaped racism at home by fleeing to Europe. Paris, in particular, has been a second home for black intellectuals such as Richard Wright and James Baldwin.
I have inherited that legacy. Europeans associate me with the aspects of America they embrace, especially African American art and music, and the historical struggle for freedom and civil rights - exotic, but not threatening. It never seemed to matter that I personally was not artsy or hip. I was "ethnic," but I wasn't an immigrant with a culture and customs that were so different as to be feared. I was Christian, not Muslim. Different, but not too different.
And this, in my experience, is why prejudice in Europe is such a dramatically different beast from prejudice in the United States. In America, prejudice has long been a question of color. In Europe, it's not about color, it's about culture. France doesn't have a race problem. It has a problem embracing the culture and customs of its immigrants and their children.
Debates are now raging about what to do in France, and the rest of Europe is watching keenly. Some say the government should collect racial data to track discrimination. Many advocate American-style affirmative action programs.
Affirmative action might help, as it has in America. But because the issue is culture, not color, the real solution for France and other European countries is much more challenging. Europeans have to learn to understand and appreciate - and, ultimately, embrace - the cultural riches of their immigrants, just as they have embraced mine. And in doing so, they may even discover that some of those riches are as much European as they are African or Arab.
Cultural prejudice can be fueled by different types of fear. In Europe it's largely a fear of change; in the United States, of terrorism. But the negative results are the same. On Sept. 12, 2001, the French newspaper Le Monde declared "we are all Americans." But now, perhaps, we are all French.
Joined: 03 Jun 2005 {Posts: 270 } Location: California
Posted: Thu 19 Jan 2006 19:44 Post subject:
I've lived in France and blended in with the French population, so I perspective is different than the average "African American". And I can not speak for any other European country.
The writer does not also realize that, as an "African American", he is not in competition for employment and other social resources. They are tourists or expats contributing (money, entertainment, etc.) to French society and not 'draining' resources, as the French would say.
The writer suffers from, IMO, is the usual idea that "African Americans" have that they are somehow immune to racism in France. That that are a protected class. (They are, because they have a US passport!)
When they go to France, all their racial problems will disappear. Well, it's fine if there is one or two "African Americans". But if a large group were to move there, unless they were extremely wealthy or famous, the French would treat them as a curious oddity, then with the usual French disdain for outsiders.
France's rift *is* also about color.
North Africans & sub-saharan Africans are singled out because they do look different. They often sound different (accent) and dress differently. Their names are different. The Antillais (Carribeans) are treated slightly better, as they are more mixed with French/ European and, due to a slightly different brand of colonialization than for the Africans, more "French" in culture than the North Africans & sub-saharan Africans.
But the fact remains that, even if one is culturally French, one's different color skin (darkness, Blackness, Arab-ness) will keep them from being welcomed or allowed in important circles.
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