Any multi-cultural society has to deal with racial bias at some time.  France has tried to take a very progressive position on race by trying to not even acknowledge a distinction should be made.  But people will be people, whether they are French, American, or any other nationality.

America has been wrestling with the problem since our formation.  Anti-black, Irish, Italian, Jewish, Latino biases are still prevelent today in America.  In the late 60's black-Americans rioted as they did again in the 90's after the Rodney King verdict.  And in the wake of Hurricane Katrina it is still quite obvious that racial bias still is a problem in America.  It is an issue we will continue to address because people by nature are prejudicial.  We (human beings in general) look at people and make an initial judgement (good and bad) based on their appearance or background and that translates into institutional (or societal) discrimination.

I wish France well in trying to address these problems, which we have been dealing with in America  for a long time.  It isn't easy and there won't be any quick solutions.  But the first step is to admit the problem exists which it appears French leaders have...and that is a prerequisite in trying to change people's thinking about race.

I am not optimistic about how France will deal with this situation. I expect that the rioting will calm down at some point, some bland promises will be made to buy off the affected populations and business will go on as usual.




The "elephant in the room" here - actually two elephants - are the sclerotic economy, which does not produce enought jobs, and the role of Islam, specifically radical Islam, in encouraging the alienation, separatism and hostility that will make the traditional French model of assimilation impossible. Until France gets leadership bold and imaginative enough to properly tackle those two issues, then anything the government does will just be treating the symptoms, rather than the disease.




"Communautarisme" - acting as a community - is a derogatory word in political language. You will never see in France a parade of vietnamese French or Algerien French walking down the Champs Elysees as you can see Puerto Ricans or Irish celebrating their community on Fifth Avenue. And nobody will ever ask you if your are Black, Caucasian or from North-African ascent.




I would not presume to know France better than the poster here, but I do know that at least within the Jewish community in France (the fourth largest in the world) there is lots of pride in both being French AND Jewish. There is also lots of "communautarisme", as this website shows. This is in marked contrast to the other large groups of immigrants to France such as Poles, Italians or Portuguese. It is true that those groups have assimilated almost totally and do not celebrate their ethnic heritage in any meaningful way.




Lastly, it is a meaningless statement to say that no one will ever ask you about your ethnicity. If your name is Jean-Paul Dupont, it's pretty obvious you aren't an Arab. If your name is Mohammed, it's not a mystery who you are as well.

....I'm pretty sure that "affirmative action" will soon be at the core of this debate (probably under a nice new label such as "Republican Voluntarism"). But my fear is that this debate will not go very far because of the deep conservatism of the French political elite....

Nice to have my intuitive guesses here confirmed, especially since they were challenged there....

merci beaucoups de partager vos pensees avec nous!

And it seems there are STILL people who insist that "jihad" somehow "must" be involved. How much is going to take for people who know to explain that "jihad" or "radical Islam" has NOTHING to do with these riots. 
Allow me to elaborate:
The reasons for these riots has a distinctly French context, and indeed, riots similar to these have been occurring off and on for the last 25 years, albeit not to this extent. If you want to internationalize these events, a better analogy would be something like the LA riots in '92 or the nationwide urban riots of the late 1960s. The youth involved share a culture similar to urban African Americans or Latinos - they are only nominally Muslim. Indeed, there is a large and very good hip hop scene emanating from the "Banleiues" currently rioting, as well as a kind of street slang known as "verlan" (I can explain further below - for example "Les Flics" (cops) becomes "Keufs" (kind of analogous to "pigs"). As a starting point, try watching Mathieu Kassovitz's film "La Haine," which, while 10 years old, pretty much captures exactly what is happening today in France (indeed, as I note, riots like these have been happening for years). If there is a tendancy towards Islamic traditionalism, it is to be found in older generations, who are strongly opposed to the current rioting. Indeed, as jihad expert Olivier Roy points out, the Salaifist sects (from which Al Qaeda springs) have issued fatwas against the rioting. This is not to say that stray youth might not potentially fall pray to jihadi theology. But this is a tiny minority.
Indeed, if you look more closely at who is involved, a large percentage - maybe even a majority - aren't North African. Many come from former French west African colonies - today, countries like Cote d'Ivoire, Mali, Senegal, Togo, etc.. Also, a decent number involved are probably "white" French youth. Economic impoverishment and social exclusion are the primary factors driving the rioting. If radical Islam is related, it is only in the potential in the future to recruit some of the people involved. But frankly, the culture of the rioters is distinctly "western." 
As a matter of fact, the French approach to internal policing of terrorism is seen as particularly hardline, compared favorably to other nations by anti-terrorism experts and even hardline American rightists like Daniel Pipes. 
So what is causing the rioting? Well, as you note, the strucutural problems of the French labour market is clearly at work - in other words, a system of political economy designed to protect workers who tend to be older and whiter at the expense of workers who tend to be browner and younger. Ten percent unemployment wouldn't necessarily matter if it didn't intersect with issues of race, though. Indeed, many countries - Spain, Poland, Germany - have higher unemployment rates. The deeper problem is that the labour market problems intersect with race, which intersect with the rather old-fashioned French notion of the "republic" and "citizenship" and "laicite" (ie very strict seperation of church/mosque and state -- remember the headscarf controversy?) which as Pascal notes, basically nobody in the French ruling class will challenge these notions.
The only person who has shown some willingness is Nick Sarkozy. But Sarkozy carries a lot baggage, in that his credibilty in the banlieues and amongs the minority communities more generally is less than zero. Indeed, I have read several "undercover" articles ("a night with the rioters" kind of thing) where the young men involved say one of their primary goals is to get Sarkozy to resign as interior minister. The reasons for the dislike are deep and complicated. But to sum up, Sarkozy has made remarks like the the suburbs need "to be cleansed" (an ugly sentiment, given the race politics involved) that the youth are "racaille" (which translates literally as "scum" or "riffraf," but the connotations and its racial context makes it much worse) while he is also seen as a strong champion of a police force which is hated (because of notorious racism that has been well documented).
So, I'm not especially confident about the French political system's ability to deal effectively with the crisis. The only person willing to break taboos about French republicanism and laicite is also largely regarded as a racist thug by the communities currently rioting. Chirac's hopeless, a lame duck anyway. De Villepin? I doubt it. Too much a classic Gaullist. The Socialists? To timid and divided.

Without suggesting that the riots in France are in fact about Islam, since most of the rioters appear to be islamic,what impact if any will the bombings in Jordan have on the French governments response?

Daniel



Bombing in Jordan ? No influence. None.



Islamism is a serious security issue in France but has not been involved in those riots. Islam is coincidental to the riots but not a factor. You should what Juan Cole wrote

yesterday. I disagree (a lot) with his conclusions and many of his moral assumptions but he gets his facts dead on.

I appreciate that the rioting may have nothing to do with Islam.  However, the fear and anger of the French toward the rioters might be exacerbated by the bombings in Jordan.  It is like the effort to associate the civil rights movement in America with communism.  It might have been ridiculous but to some degree affective.