French Race Riots: A Comparison with the US
"There's a really close parallel to France," said Harris, who teaches political science at the University of New Mexico. "High unemployment, low family income, inferior education and training, inadequate housing, a great deal of hostility toward the police - we found that the level of hostility in the black sections of these cities was high enough that almost any random spark would set them off."
Writes Brian Knowlton in the International Herald Tribune this week. Regular listeners to EuroQuest know that, on the subject of the integration of minorities, I often make comparisons with the United States. Why? Because integration in the US seems to succeed where we here in Europe fail. However, when it comes to the French riots, and the root frustrations that seed them, the parallels with African Americans in the so-called urban housing projects seem pretty clear.
More on this subject from EQ tomorrow. In the meantime, the IHT article is worth a read.
Comments? You can leave there here below. And...
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posted by Jonathan Groubert @ 2:01 PM
6 comments
6 Comments:
However similar the French riots may be with those in the US, one important difference is in the violent response by the authorities who in the US will not hesitate to respond with deadly force.
Were there many deaths in most recent riots in LA?
Good point J, but I also would tend to agree that your curt dismissal of anonymous' remarks is rather glib and the fact that you somewhat (tongue firmly dans la bouche) knee-jerkily claim race-relations -- merely because things are silent-er over here -- are hunky-dory back home is kinda jujeune and shrill (I don't know where *that* comes from, I just like the sound of it, the 'shrill' part, that is).
Is having a riot worse than people treating you like a second-class citizen but not being able to tell you they hate your guts because you're black/brown/asian to your face?
I don't know...what do I know, I'm from the mulit-culti bastion of the Great White North -- didn't you know, we're perfect up here!
I wasn't being glib. I was actually asking if many were killed.
Okay...perhaps I may have gone a little far, but what I meant was -- are you establishing an equivalence proposition -- does no deaths signify that the race-relations are solid.
Again, I suppose it doesn't require an answer...but, well, this is what I'd meant...
Incidentally, I'm not being sycophantic, liberal-carpetbagging, Canadian-claptrappy, when I start to pine about the Land of Uncle Sam. Indeed, the Monroe Doctrine one can say applies equally to the Great White North, and I respect your nation wholeheartedly...
Forgive any possible umbrage...or insinuation...
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