French Bigotry
"We know what the FM [far right Front National party] thinks: The blacks in the branches of trees, Arabs in the sea, homosexuals in the Seine, Jews in the ovens."
Christiane Taubira, French Justice Minister
Christiane Taubira (screenshot FranceTVinfo)Likening France's justice minister to a "monkey" most certainly blights the political agenda of France's far right political party, with outright, unabashed racism. For having made such a statement condemning the manner in which she has been racially slighted, the party is threatening to sue Ms. Taubira.
A FN mayoral candidate saw fit to compare her to a monkey, later stating she would "rather see her in the trees than in the government".
"The deep-seated racism that withstands time and words of order, not just within the FN but in the deepest part of French society", was damned by Harry Roselmack, the first non-white host of a French mainstream television news program. There, in a prominent high-profile public position for the very purpose of demonstrating just how unbiased France is.
"What was invisible has become visible" said Pascal Blanchard, a historian and author of the book La France Noire, in response to the backlash against the most recent demonstrations of racial bigotry aimed at blacks in France. "Words that were once scandalous have become commonplace. What you used to hear at soccer matches, such as monkey sounds, are now used against a minister."
It seems that in France it has become open season on minorities, in any event. Certainly, Jews who have long lived in France, have latterly seen their comfort levels in their safety disturbed hugely through their growing vulnerability to prejudice expressed and demonstrated in no uncertain terms. Largely they result from the hostility of newer immigrants coming from Islamic countries.
But they have infected the country at large, with native French returning to their old customs of degrading remarks against Jews and their purported effects on the society in which they have long lived as presumed equals. For Ms. Taubira, her elite government position has placed her front and centre; in an anti-gay marriage protest children waved banana skins at her when she visited Angers.
These attitudes do not suddenly and mysteriously erupt in the minds of young children. They are heard and they are cultivated when parents discuss among themselves and at the dinner table their opinions regarding the existence of other ethnic and religious and racial groups among them. Claiming their presence to be harmful to the future of the country.
"While it is false to say all FN voters and sympathizers are racist, it is equally false to say that there is no racism in this party", said Harry Roselmack writing an opinion piece in Le Monde. "Xenophobia and racism are the essential glue that binds it." But it is by no means an isolated condition monopolized by followers of the far-right party.
Racism, bigotry and social bias infiltrate French society. It is kept tamped down as socially incorrect for a period of time and then resurrected during times of stress, such as high unemployment, national financial insecurity, and suspicion of the strangers living among the native French population through immigrants from abroad seem to be hostile to French values.
Labels: Anti-Semitism, Bigotry, France, Human Relations, Racism
posted by Pieface @ Thursday, November 07, 2013
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