Oct. 27 marked the first day of riots in France. Three weeks later, the uproar continues along with a battle of inequality that has been building up for decades.
The riots began when two young men, both of North-African decent, hid from the police in an electricity substation where they were accidentally electrocuted.
The lower-class French decided the electrocutions were the last straw - although the incident was accidental, people blamed the police.
But the violence hasn't been directed only toward government officials, either. Civilians have been violently attacked, their cars have been burned, and firebombs have been launched at various public places.
The president of France, Jacques Chirac, announced on Nov. 8 the country is in a state of emergency, and precautious measures have been taken, such as enforcing curfews of minors and protecting the Eiffel Tower and Champs-Elysees from the destructive weapons of the rioters, according to a Nov. 8 CNN.com article.
The rioters consist mostly of minorities in their late-teens and early-20s. American news reports refer to the delinquent youths as "foreigners" or "immigrants."
A Nov. 13 New York Times article stated the rioters are Muslims, and people in Muslim and Arab nations sympathize with the rioters. But this isn't entirely true. While they might be the children or grandchildren of immigrants, most of the rioters are French citizens who have become angered that they remain impoverished and segregated.
"This is not about religion, in my view," Christopher Thompson, associate professor of history with specialization in topics pertaining to modern Europe and France, said. "This is not a Muslim uprising. Most of them are French themselves."
Americans have made the mistake of associating the riots with words like "Muslim" and "terrorist," neither of which is relevant. These riots are more of a civil rights issue. The main riots directly reflect the problems France has with integrating minorities into mainstream society - this is not much different than the riots after the Rodney King beating or during the black civil rights movement. It is a matter of integrating French people of Arab and African descent.
Not that it is at all justifiable to act out in violence against officials, but these people have lived their lives in poverty with little or no opportunity for social mobility. France has a high rate of unemployment for minorities living on the outskirts of the large cities, and the poverty was spreading from the outer regions toward the centers of the cities, which are areas reserved for the wealthy.
"These people are humiliated," Thompson said. "They feel as though they've been victimized, and they feel as though they've been completely alienated from regular society. They're culturally integrated, but economically excluded."
America has come to the realization that there will always be people who discriminate. We have laws in place to protect those who might be victimized by discriminatory acts, but there are no anti-discriminatory laws in France. France has no form of affirmative action, and the people who are most often denied jobs are those with foreign-sounding - particularly Arab - names according to another CNN.com article, published Nov. 9.
"The French don't feel they need laws against discrimination because their way of thinking is that everyone is treated equally anyway," Thompson said. "There is a lot of racism that they just won't acknowledge."
As Americans, we can learn from this. We need to be more accepting of others to prevent outbreaks like the ongoing riots in France.
By not judging people, we are leading by example, saying tolerance and diversity are key factors for a functioning society.
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