Specials DIVERSITY EMPLOYERS MAGAZINE Spring 2011 - Anniversary Commemorative Issue

The Fire This Time
A Commentary on the October/November 2005 Race Riots in France

by Obi Akwani, MGV Editor

The riots ignited late in October in a small town called Clichy-sous-Bois, just outside Paris, in the north east section. Within days it had spread to other suburban towns and before it ended no fewer than 300 neighborhoods were engulfed in the mayhem. Lives were lost and numerous properties -- cars, businesses and houses -- were destroyed. A distinguishing feature of the riots is the fact that they invariably happened in places with large concentrations of immigrant families from Black and North Africa, and Arabia.

Immigrant Communities of Europe Following is an Associated Press compilation of the largest immigrant communities in the European Union, according to data by the EU statistical agency Eurostat. The agency's statistics date from 2002 to 2004. BRITAIN The United Kingdom is home to 2.7 million immigrants, almost 5 percent of the country's 58 million inhabitants. Large communities are from former British colonies India and Pakistan. FRANCE Some 3.3 million immigrants live in France, making up nearly 6 percent of the population. More than a third come from former French colonies Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia. GERMANY Germany hosts Europe's largest immigrant community, which makes up almost 9 percent of the population. Of the country's 7.3 million immigrants, some 2 million come from Turkey, 1 million from countries of the former Yugoslavia while the rest are mostly from eastern European countries. ITALY Italy is home to some 1.3 million immigrants, more than 2 percent of the population. Most are from Morocco, Albania, Romania and other eastern European countries. Italy also hosts a 70,000-strong Filipino community. NETHERLANDS Holland's 700,000 immigrants make up more than 4 percent of the population. The largest communities are of Moroccan and Turkish origin. SPAIN With more than 2.7 million people, Spain's immigrant community makes up almost 7 percent of the population. Many of the migrants come from Morocco and South American countries.

The riots were a revolt by those communities against what had become, for them, generations of enduring injustice and racial discrimination. The frustration and anger that came with the suffering of racism and the lack that it induces had found a focus in a singular event and a spearhead in the youth of African origin in France.

The spark that ignited the riots was the electrocution of two African teenagers on October 27. They had taken refuge in an electric power substation while being chased by police in Clichy-sous-Bois. A third boy was also reported injured in that incident.

Following the death of the teenagers, other youths began to protest against, and clash with, police. The youths' feelings were further inflamed by comments attributed to Nicholas Sarkozy, the French Interior Minister, who newspaper reports said had called the rioters "scum and riffraff." He was also said to have promised to "clean out the suburbs with a power hose." The rioters became implacable after the police lobbed a teargas bomb into a neighborhood mosque.

The initial response of French government officials did not help matters during the rioting. Government reaction was initially typified by Sarkozy's who tended to blame the poor immigrants for their plight - if only they were a little less lazy and showed more intelligence, they would not be so poor and jobless.

Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin initially responded on a similar hard-line law-and-order tact. He told the press that the government would respond with firmness and "severely punish those who threaten public order and security. But as the situation deteriorated he took on a more conciliatory tone and described the riots as "a warning and an appeal."

"The republic is at a moment of truth. What is being questioned is the effectiveness of our integration model... Our collective responsibility is to make difficult areas the same sort of territory as others in the republic." Prime Minister de Villepin said.

The main contributor to the unique set of difficulties faced by immigrants, especially people of color, in major Western cities is racism. The racist condition blinds authorities and makes them insensitive to the special problems faced by immigrants. Often such authorities rely on stereotypical assumptions in making decisions regarding the immigrants in their midst. Such assumptions are typified by the Sarkozy comments. They are also inherent in the behavior of the police who, backed by the Interior Minister, resorted to the use of high-handed measures in dealing with French youth of immigrant parents.

As the violence and destruction spread from one French city to another, authorities and commentators in other parts of Europe began to voice fears that the riots would spread into other major European cities where there are large concentrations of marginalized and economically disenfranchised immigrant minorities.

That did not and may not happen, this time. Yet the fact that these fears exist is a tacit admission that the same marginalisation and deprivation that drove the French youths to revolt exists elsewhere. However, as American writer, James Baldwin, writing in the 1960s warned in his book, The Fire Next Time, it is only a matter of time before deprivation leads to such violence. To prevent such things from happening, it is necessary for authorities in Europe and elsewhere to change the way they deal with the minorities in their midst. They must also strive to raise their own awareness and increase sensitivity to the problems and difficulties confronting immigrant minorities in their cities and suburbs.

Establishment academics and commentators have had a field day postulating on the 'whys' and 'hows' of the troubles in France. Much of what they have to say, however, do not help matters by raising public awareness and increasing sensitivity. There is a clear tendency in their analysis to steer away from serious criticism of the official position or the status quo.

The Canadians, for instance, have made a comparison between the French situation and theirs and concluded that their "demographic makeup is different, making such race-based riots (in Canada) less likely."

This is not quite true. In the early 1990's, such riots took place in Toronto and Montreal, the two largest cities in Canada with high concentrations of Black and other minorities. That those riots were not allowed to spread may be attributed to the determined efforts of leaders of thought within the Black community and in the greater society. Whether the grievances that led to the Canadian riots have been satisfactorily addressed or merely swept under the carpet is yet to be manifested.

In an analysis of the French situation carried on CBC, the Canadian national broadcaster, a university professor specializing in ethnic and immigration studies is quoted to say that "when immigrants compare their situation in their adopted country to the life they left behind, they usually find things are better, even if they are discriminated against. And if things don't improve, they often have the option of returning home."

Such sentiments are being echoed by the French right wing in the current crisis. Philippe de Villiers, head of the nationalist Movement for France Party says, "We have to close the borders to stop the migratory invasion and send the army into the suburbs to re-establish order. There's one simple message to these youths: France, you either love it or you leave it."

What these establishment and right wing hardliners discount, but may well be aware of, is the fact that returning home to the old country is not an easy option. This is true for recent immigrants and even more so for later generations. There are many reasons -- ranging from war to economic hardships and natural disasters -- why people uproot themselves from their native lands to find refuge in a second country. That first movement is traumatic enough and by itself is enough deterrent for the desire to return.

Some of the most reasonable observations, least tainted with stereotypical assumptions, come from American analysts. A report by the National Public Radio network (NPR) describes the riots as "a cry of distress from France's minority youths." Racial discrimination, despite government efforts to avert racism, is making it difficult for Africans to find work in France. The hard-line attitude of French police toward African and Muslim youth sours relationship and creates an atmosphere of distrust with law enforcement authorities. Muslim and African youth feel alienated in France. Many of them are doing what society expects they should do to succeed -- graduate from school -- but as the NPR report relates, "in the end, even with many degrees, they (French society) don't want you (minority youth)."

Basing decisions on stereotypes may work for the meantime in societies with relatively few immigrants who are markedly different either by race or religion. When immigrant numbers are low, assimilation and integration into the host society is relatively easy. But when they are large enough to constitute a sizable community with common distinct characteristics -- as in France where the African community has been growing over the last 30 years and now is said to constitute about 6 percent of the French population, clustered in suburban communities such as Clichy-sous-Bois -- new ways of dealing with and properly integrating minorities into the larger society become necessary if they are to be well adjusted and productive citizens.

Obviously, the French approach hasn't worked in this case and the right wingers have pounced on that fact to make their case for selectively weeding out immigrants of color from settlement in France. Their leaders, neo-fascist Jacques Bompard, and nationalist Philippe de Villiers, are calling on government to use military force to suppress the rioters.

The French national ideal for absorbing ethnic minorities has been successfully applied over the centuries. The French ideal sees the country as a nation of one people. It does not recognize any hyphenated French identity. Ideally every French man or woman, no matter the racial or ethnic background, is treated the same and has the same rights. In his own commentary on the riots, President Jacques Chirac summed it up thus: "Whatever our origins, we are all the children of the Republic, and we can all expect the same rights."

This 'one-people' policy worked well in the early days of the 18th century and made possible the absorption of other European ethnic minorities, such as the Corsicans who are ethnic Italians, the Flemings who speak a Dutch dialect, the Bretons, a Celtic people, the Basques and Catalonians, and the Alsatians who speak a German dialect. All of these peoples have been successfully absorbed into the French identity. They have no economic or social reason to feel alienated. But this is the first time the policy is being used on people of non-European stock in France itself. The difference this time lies in the peculiar brand of racial discrimination that people of color are confronted with as minorities in white dominated societies. For the 'one-people' policy to succeed therefore, the government has to make a special effort to understand the special challenges faced by ethnic minorities of color in the society and to work out ways of ensuring that racism does not remain a peculiar impediment to collective and individual progress in society.

In a globalizing world, success will not come through exclusion, but will come by inclusion. Countries must grow like the most successful religions, allowing scope for human physical variety as well as in thought and ideas, if they are to be successful and strong.