Nov 8 - Paris Riots

Britt sent me an email today and asked about the Paris riots. So to let everyone know, I'm safe and I haven't actually seen any of this in my neighborhood. It's the same as ever here.

She asked about the underlying socio-economic dimensions of these riots, so for anyone who's curious about that I'll put a copy of my reponse to her here:

The train to the international airport goes through the rioting neighborhoods, so I've seen them from a distance, and there's no denial they are gut-wrenchingly depressing. I've often marveled at how hard it must be to live there. Imagine vast areas of concrete high-rises with no greenery, no color, trash, grafitti. Something seems so deeply grey and faded about these areas.

I think, therefore, that a certain aspect of urban planning is to blame. Concrete, crowding and isolation from the rest of French society that they are expected to "integrate" themselves into breeds despair, separation and animosity I believe. Well, it's basically a ghetto situation. The odd thing is that the government built these kinds of low-income housing projects all over the country, even in some fairly small towns. So you'll be out in the countryside and there's a charming little medieval town .... and it's got concrete highrises at the edge, near the big warehouse stores and car dealerships. Odd and incongruous to our American eyes. That's why the rioting has spread all over. It's a fairly uniform phenomenon accross the country, unlike in the US where violent low-income neighborhoods tend to be concentrated in big cities.

Also, though the government actually provides immigrants with a fairly decent services upon arrival (more than the US) they don't do very well in creating sustained opportunity and self-reliance for immigrants or low-income people in the long-term. In some ways you can blame the old-school socialist (or even feudal) way of seeing things here of government as a fatherly patron which doles out money but emphasizes self-reliance and independence less. After living here two years I've come to appreciate that side of the American government a little more. A lot of people here, especially immigrant young men, stay jobless and dependent, hence socially impotent and frusterated.

And finally, to add to that mix, I must admit that some French people can be horribly dirisive and critical towards outsiders. This opens a very complex realm of discussion and I don't want to blame all French people or leave their motives unacknowledged, that would take a LONG discussion. Suffice to say that when confronted with difference, OR with a stressful confrontation, a common French reaction is sharp criticism. We saw this from Interior Minister Sarkozy who on the first night of rioting called the angry youth "scum". Maybe softness and understanding will follow, but only later. Furthermore, cultural attitudes that we find in the US towards cultural and ethnic differences are not as common here, and even someone who is not "racist" persay may feel comfortable telling an Arab joke in a mixed group of people that includes Arabs. And some people repeat stereotypes fairly openly. At best there is a sort of cultural romanticism, hence the popularity of the image of the smiling black Caribbean plantation worker, or the old shopkeeper in a Moroccan medina, despite real-world racial tensions. Though romanticism is a notch up from criticism, it's not yet an aknowledgement of two cultures on equal ground.

I think for the immigrant (or son of immigrant, or even 3rd-generation French descendent of an immigrant) all this creates a perpetual paranoia that people around you are always assuming negative or stereotypical things about you. You feel put in a box. It's this paranoia that's the most tiring and agitating probably - always wondering if a store clerk was so sarcastic because you're North African for example. It's already tiring enough as an American sometimes, I have often shuddered at the thought of how it must be for many poor black and/or Muslim immigrants, who sad to say have even a more difficult image than Americans here.

It's really hard to delve into all this in 2-3 paragraphs. France is a nice place to live sometimes, and not great other times. But it's been interesting, and I've had no regrets.

Please everyone just remember -- just as the tragedy in New Orleans following Katrina does not mean all Americans are racist and ignorant of poverty, this tragedy does not mean all French are racist and ignorant of poverty either.