Burn bebe Burn
One of my favorite Daily Show headlines in the recent past was for their coverage of the riots in France, and one of my favorite blog entries was from Mia.
Heh... as far as MY liberal ass is concerned, I'd LOVE to say it's all Bush's fault. But here, I have to dissent. Old Europe has a long history of entrenched racism and structural inequality, in a way that the US has only been able to match in our White/Black relationship. (well, now the Mexicans may have cornered the market on the position once "enjoyed" by black Americans....)
American Muslims and Americans of Arab descent have integrated pretty well into the American middle class, even if they haven't enjoyed the priveleges of rulership here. As a group, they have largely been able to come to America, make good lives for themselves, raise their children well, and be treated with the "respect" that comes from our hyper-p.c. culture. Not so in Europe. There, they are still treated very powerfully as second class citizens. Muslim women in France (if memory serves me correctly) were recently prohibited from wearing head scarves in drivers license photos, even if they did not cover the face. The French Arabs have long lived in their own ghettos, comparable in the US only to our inner city black communities. It's a pain in the tush for them to try to integrate, as ethnically Norman French people tend to revere their own brand of French culture to the exclusion of those of their Arab immigrants. Hell, the conflict in Algeria has been based on the old colonial power structure.
Don't get me wrong. In a lot of ways I like the French. They tend to be much more fair in a lot of respects than us Americans. They are more interested in crafting fair laws and abiding by them, and I can't IMAGINE a French president "shooting from the hip" and invading another country in the manner that "Dubya" invaded Iraq. However, when it comes to cultural superiority, they take the cake. They're about as self-important in terms of valuing French culture above all others as they are in evaluating wine and cheese. (sorry--i couldn't help myself from a bit of a snide comment)
I think it's just going to get worse. Hopefully, it will be the catalyst for reform. I hope that in a generation or so, European people of Arab descent will feel comfortable being European AND honoring their ethnic traditions while feeling like they have an equal economic opportunity. I also hope that Americans of Arab descent will be in the same situation. But in America, the massive paranoia about Arabs didn't start until 9-11. Before then, they were just like any other immigrant, and their kids, who don't speak with an accent, were treated like any other kid in most communities. (except in the south. us southerners are more racist across the board.) We don't have 30 years of entrenched anti-Arab racism in America. It's not because we aren't racist; it's because we have such a short attention span.
We're watching the "Rodney King" riots of Europe right now, and it ain't a pretty sight.
If you’ve been following the news you know that there is some serious drama going on in the ‘burbs of France. Paris' suburbs have been burning for 10 days now.
The children of immigrants have snapped under decades of oppression and have basically gone ballistic. The revolts in the high-rise immigrant ghettos ringing the French capital have touched off rioting in the cities of Dijon, Marseilles and Rouen. So far, police have been ineffective in stopping the rioting and it is spreading across France and now has spread into Paris…
Heh... as far as MY liberal ass is concerned, I'd LOVE to say it's all Bush's fault. But here, I have to dissent. Old Europe has a long history of entrenched racism and structural inequality, in a way that the US has only been able to match in our White/Black relationship. (well, now the Mexicans may have cornered the market on the position once "enjoyed" by black Americans....)
American Muslims and Americans of Arab descent have integrated pretty well into the American middle class, even if they haven't enjoyed the priveleges of rulership here. As a group, they have largely been able to come to America, make good lives for themselves, raise their children well, and be treated with the "respect" that comes from our hyper-p.c. culture. Not so in Europe. There, they are still treated very powerfully as second class citizens. Muslim women in France (if memory serves me correctly) were recently prohibited from wearing head scarves in drivers license photos, even if they did not cover the face. The French Arabs have long lived in their own ghettos, comparable in the US only to our inner city black communities. It's a pain in the tush for them to try to integrate, as ethnically Norman French people tend to revere their own brand of French culture to the exclusion of those of their Arab immigrants. Hell, the conflict in Algeria has been based on the old colonial power structure.
Don't get me wrong. In a lot of ways I like the French. They tend to be much more fair in a lot of respects than us Americans. They are more interested in crafting fair laws and abiding by them, and I can't IMAGINE a French president "shooting from the hip" and invading another country in the manner that "Dubya" invaded Iraq. However, when it comes to cultural superiority, they take the cake. They're about as self-important in terms of valuing French culture above all others as they are in evaluating wine and cheese. (sorry--i couldn't help myself from a bit of a snide comment)
I think it's just going to get worse. Hopefully, it will be the catalyst for reform. I hope that in a generation or so, European people of Arab descent will feel comfortable being European AND honoring their ethnic traditions while feeling like they have an equal economic opportunity. I also hope that Americans of Arab descent will be in the same situation. But in America, the massive paranoia about Arabs didn't start until 9-11. Before then, they were just like any other immigrant, and their kids, who don't speak with an accent, were treated like any other kid in most communities. (except in the south. us southerners are more racist across the board.) We don't have 30 years of entrenched anti-Arab racism in America. It's not because we aren't racist; it's because we have such a short attention span.
We're watching the "Rodney King" riots of Europe right now, and it ain't a pretty sight.
posted by sadiq at 11/08/2005 09:24:00 PM
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