French Banlieues

I was thinking about the disparties between the Arab population in France and the "native" French after watching the French movie "La Haine" the other day and it seems to me that the racism against Algerian and other African immigrants in France and the subsequent marginalization following said racism has led to unfortunate circumstances in the banlieues, a euphemism for the low-income housing projects, of Paris. Hatred in these communities toward the mainstream is not coincidental. It is a direct reaction to generation upon generation of oppression. I cannot help but compare the Israeli-Palestinian relationship with this one; besides their obvious differences (lack of genocide and less harsh conditions in France), there are fundamental similarities (the status of majority Arab-descendant citizens as second class, poverty in the neighborhoods or —in Palestine, refugees camps – of the oppressed). What strikes a chord with me when comparing the two situations is not only the blatant disregard for elementary human rights, but the scenarios that keep the repeating themselves globally. How can the French see the Jim Crowe Laws of America and fail to vow not to succumb to such a regime? How can the Jews of Israel go through the Holocaust and inflict another one on others?

If one was to simplify the problem in French banlieues, it would come down to this: no matter how many generations in, the immigrant populations of the banlieues have not been to integrate into the French society –and it seems that they never will. Much like the American “one drop of blood” rule, no matter how un-Algerian/ Senegalese/ Tunisian you are, if you have one drop of this tainted blood in you, you are considered of that nationality, and therefore unable to break into French society.

In essence, this scenario not only poses a problem for these now-third and fourth generation “immigrant” populations, it poses a problem for us all. As Martin Luther King, Jr. said, “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”