Posted on 11/30/2007 8:06:10 PM PST by Dan Evans
VILLIERS-LE-BEL, France (AP) - French officials point to a host of causes—poverty, unemployment, the influence of criminal gangs—for riots that erupted this week. But there's one taboo issue that officially colorblind France has been unable to confront: race.
The violence, like riots that spread nationwide for three weeks in exposed how parts of France have divided along color lines, with blacks and Arabs trapped in the most disadvantaged neighborhoods—like Villiers-le-Bel, in the northern suburbs of Paris, where gangs attacked police and burned cars and buildings this week.
"Among the rioters, the very large majority come from immigrant backgrounds," said Douhane Mohamed, a police commander. "Why? We mustn't kid ourselves: there is a direct link between urban violence and ghettos, and the majority of people with immigrant roots live in ghettos."
France does not like to see its recurrent, and some say worsening, bouts of urban violence through the prism of race or color. Rioters are often described simply as "youths," while poor projects with large concentrations of immigrants are "sensitive urban zones."
In the name of equality, France has so idealized the melting pot that it has made its minorities invisible—on paper at least. The country does not compile statistics on the foreign-born or their French-born children. France, a nation of 60 million people, has the largest Muslim community in western Europe but does not know how many Muslims live here. The number is estimated at about 5 million—though some experts disagree.
Critics argue that being officially colorblind has limited France's ability to recognize and treat the difficulties its minorities face—sometimes because of their color. Immigrants and their French-born children often complain that it is harder for them than whites to get work, job interviews, housing, even entrance to nightclubs.
President Nicolas Sarkozy once toyed with the idea of affirmative action but then dropped it before he won the presidency in May. He won praise for appointing three women to his Cabinet who have roots in north and sub-Saharan Africa. But his toughness on immigration and crime has angered many minority youths.
Sarkozy took a hard line against this week's rioters, dismissing the notion that they were symptomatic of a wider social crisis and instead labeling them a "thugocracy."
The rioters are a tiny minority but sullen anger is palpable in Villiers-le-Bel. Black youths complain that police stop and search them because of their color. They speak of exclusion, of not getting a fair shake, of being treated like foreigners in their own country.
Few residents condone the violence and many condemn it—but no one seems surprised that it broke out.
"Everyone is equal. That is what is written. But behind that is something else," said Hassan Ben M'Barek, spokesman for Suburbs Respect, a group that lobbies for those who live in disadvantaged neighborhoods.
In some such areas of the Paris region, "there are no white French people left in the streets. You can drive around for two or three hours and all you will see are North Africans and blacks. And these are neighborhoods with enormous problems," he added. "Those who have the means to leave the projects are white, and they leave. There's no more ethnic diversity."
It was impossible not to see the violence in Villiers-le-Bel in black and white terms.
The hundreds of beefy riot police officers drafted in, some from as far away as France's eastern border with Germany, were almost exclusively white. The neighborhoods they patrolled were largely black and Arab.
The trigger for the rioting was the deaths last Sunday of two teens whose motorcycle crashed with a police car. Lakamy Samoura, 15 and Mohsin Sehhouli, 16, weren't wearing helmets and their bike was not authorized for public roads.
Police insisted the crash was accidental, but kids in the neighborhood didn't believe it. The deaths became an excuse for two nights of rioting in which more than 100 police officers were injured, some by shotgun rounds.
Tellingly, neither of the teens will be buried in France, although both were French. Mohsin's parents are taking his body to Morocco; Lakamy will be buried in Senegal, from where his parents emigrated in 1966.
Having a foot in France and another in Africa is something that Maka Sali, a black 17-year-old in Villiers, identifies with. She said she doesn't like taking trips into Paris—about 20 minutes away on the train—because she doesn't like the way some whites there look at her.
"I feel like a foreigner," she said. She also said it was "just terrible" that it took the deaths of two teens to thrust the issue of France's poor neighborhoods back to the forefront of the national agenda.
The riots of 2005 also started when two teens were killed—electrocuted while hiding in a power substation from police.
Some argue that the recurring violence must make France rethink its taboos.
Mohamed, the police officer born in France of Algerian parents, said France should carefully allow research into the proportion of crimes and urban violence carried out by minorities, so solutions can be found.
M'Barek said France needs more minorities in visible positions of responsibility and that affirmative action may be a way to get them there.
Since the violence of 2005, France has earmarked billions of dollars for programs to improve housing and create jobs in tough neighborhoods. The government says that its newest "equal opportunities" program will be unveiled Jan. 22.
But it was hard to see among the burned out cars and blackened moods in Villiers that much has changed.
"The only thing they (the government) have done is build that police station," said Frank Dosso, a black 16-year-old, referring to a $7 million police station under construction in Villiers. "But that's not going to last long.
The non-muslim French need only cut off their own heads and offer it to come to a peace with Islam.
It points more to idiotic immigration policies.
Or, even if they don't say that, they think that ~ which is why France thought they could quickly assimilate African tribalists and Middle-Eastern Arabic speaking madmen.
This is what you will have with a Marxist president and a socialist congress — rampant socialism, major class division, them and us, the breeding ground of hate and discontent, no matter where you find it.
Yes, by all means, vote Hillary, 2008. And we can redo the Crusades right here in our streets too.
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Let’s see . . .according to this “journalist” they are “trapped in disadvantaged neighborhoods”
Yet they still want to immigrate to France? Interesting isn’t it?
This begs the question . . . are they really “trapped” or have they made life decisions that result in said “entrapment”?
Didn’t most of the residents of France used to be Frenchies ? They were when my uncle walked through in WW II...
The French can look to America’s War On Poverty on how not to do it.
But it looks like they intend to follow in our footsteps:
"France has earmarked billions of dollars for programs to improve housing and create jobs in tough neighborhoods. The government says that its newest "equal opportunities" program will be unveiled Jan. 22."
They've got a great military...move the military in...they'll stop it.
why is it the writer bends over backwards not to bring their religion into it?
Maybe they are afraid they will get their heads cut off.
“..France thought they could quickly assimilate African tribalists and Middle-Eastern Arabic speaking madmen.”
France should look at the US where tribalists and madmen immediately integrate and accept American culture as its own. Remember, all cultures are equal. NOT.
If this is not good enough for them, then let them go back to the $h-hole country they came from.
I like to think the political correctness of the misguided leadership ties the hands of the French police officers and soldiers. I’m sure if liberated to do so, they could kick tail.
100 French police officers have been injured, one has lost an eye, and they’re still doing their duty ... right?
Oh yeah...affirmative action has worked so well in the US.
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