When Racism becomes too common!
/RD
I heard the other night that a police car ran over a ten year boy. The vital prognostic of the latter is judged more than serious. It is also said that the first emergency aid to the child was given by passer byes and not the police. I also learn that the boy is obviously of ethnic minority backgrounds. Nothing shocks me anymore in this country, so I am not surprised at all by what happened. It is not the first time I have heard stories about civil servants or people representing authority acting against the interest of the people they have the duty to serve in France. This is especially true with ethnic minorities in France. As a matter of fact in the sub-Saharan community the story goes that when you call the firemen for an emergency, they will not take your case seriously if your name sounds African to them. If you find yourself injured or in any bad situation you’d better call a taxi and go to the hospital on your own. This is what happened to my Dad some 4 years ago and I have heard the same story many times since, always from the mouth of sub-Saharan Africans. Some ethnic minorities in the French suburbs and poor districts of Paris are even convinced that it was part of the authority’s agenda in the eighties and nineties to carry out chirurgical intervention on women of their community at birth delivery – and this against their will- so that they do not give birth to more children in the future.
The revelation the other night of the French police detaining DNA samples of some ethnic minorities without there being any reason
for taking such measures, is a clear message that the assumptions going on in the Sub-Saharan community of Paris should not be minimized or ignored (http://www.france24.com/en/20101007-french-police-accused-keeping-secret-lists-roma).
In an article posted on www.politis.fr on February 13th 2010, Claude-Marie Vadrot perfectly describes the racist atmosphere that reigns in France. According to him the facts speak for themselves at the very moment one enters or steps on the French soil
(http://www.politis.fr/Racisme-ou-fascisme-ordinaire-au,9557.html). It was also revealed two days ago that a 35 years old man and his daughter aged six were expelled from an ophthalmologist’s surgery on the grounds that they were North Africans. The specialist insulted them using the terms
“dirty Arabs” and he confessed in public that he does not receive Arabs in his surgery. The matter became public only because the victim, unlike people of the previous generations of North African descents, knew his rights and was not scared of suing the specialist for racist insults and discrimination. But the story of course does not tell us if the victim’s complaint will finally be seriously considered and satisfied one day.
All forms of racism and discrimination in France have reached such a point that the solution can no longer come from within the country; hence the attempts of activist organisations to find support and collaboration at European and international level now. The controversy against Rachid Bouchareb’s (http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rachid_Bouchareb) last movie “Hors la loi” is just another illustration of the will of an important part of the French population to keep alienated the younger generation of North African descents from their own historical past.
Yes, nothing shocks me anymore, and strangely enough, I bear no grievances deep inside against any people or group of people. I however think that it is very important for other ethnic minorities in the rest of Europe to understand what is actually happening in France. It is also very important for them to feel concerned. Getting united with us against the re-emergence of racism in France can only help other European nations such as Britain avoid falling into a form of racism that would only make of their country a “copycat”.