Comment

Hurricane Katrina and the Riots in France: This is a Black Story!

Reg Lee

Recently I spoke to an academic friend and asked of her thoughts on the recent riots in France (November 2005). Her response was casual, sober and non-committal, which I found rather perplexing and unusual considering her radical background: 'It's nothing more than a few alienated kids torching cars and throwing stones at the French Police' she said. Was this the kind of standard academic response that had concerned Edward Said I thought? He had taken to the streets joining his fellow Palestinians to help throw ballistic stones against the Israeli Army. I'm not advocating torching cars, but perhaps a more profound and sympathetic understanding of the Black community in the Parisian suburbs and beyond in Toulouse, Marseilles, Lille, Rouen and other French towns would do for starters. It's interesting to note that even elements of the left, standard bearers for resistance, appear blasé about confrontation, ironically as if it is the affair of the 'Other'. Well academics and activism so often appears poles apart so perhaps we shouldn't be overly surprised by her response. In general I've always felt that elitist reluctance to get the hands dirty whilst simultaneously discussing resistance in discourse, which turns into an interesting piece of self-serving critical analysis to be a detestable trait. It's so far removed from the real needs of the people; oh listen to me I'm beginning to generalise far too much, or am I?

From another perspective or extreme, if I may use that word loosely without invoking radical inflections, we have mainstream media coverage of the riots. I notice that both CNN and the BBC made wild comparisons of the riots with the student demonstrations in 1968! Those demos had the ghost of Mao lurking in the revolutionary background, and even if this was idealistic, the context and aims were significantly different. Well the media have to hang it on a knife edge don't they? They have to add some spurious information to whet our consumer appetite, just to make it mildly interesting. The reality is the recent French riots are altogether very different in context, but there is a lesson here that we can learn and it's one that we should neither ignore nor exaggerate.

The real comparison, and one the mainstream media have monumentally failed to focus on, is with the events that were so publicly exposed by Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans during the latter half of summer, 2005. Here there are significant contextual comparisons to be made. Obviously there are some differences, 'strategy' and 'accident' spring to mind, but the net effect of both, are identical. In the USA it has taken a natural disaster to highlight a human travesty. In the US class divisions based on racial difference were magnificently exposed and blown wide open. Who would have thought that non-human intervention could have such radical potential! It's interesting to note that for all the blustering by past and present US governments against Cuba for its so-called oppression of its people, here we bear witness to the raw reality of modern US society, the class divisions, the extreme poverty levels and the insidious racism that pervades American Society.

In France the riots are a result of the political and cultural neglect of the Black population that is characterised by equal amounts of poverty, division and lack of employment possibilities for the residents of Clichy-sous-Bois and beyond. It's ironic really to witness so many similarities at the level of ordinary people, whilst simultaneously at the level of the US and French governments, they are seemingly at odds with each other, evidently apparent over the foolhardy invasion of Iraq.

The other comparison is that both the US and the French have social policies supporting integration of the immigrant population. In France, difference is outlawed; everyone is a French Citizen even if the poorest suburbs are populated with 'Black' French Citizens. In the US immigrants have to take a test; they are expected to answer synthetic questions on American history (excludes Black slavery and slaughter of indigenous Indian populations in any great detail) in order to show allegiance to the flag. Both the US and the French models of 'assimilation' have failed because they ignore 'recognition' of cultural difference but more importantly because the economic system is inept and exclusive; besides for the Black Citizens of the US who have resided here since slavery was introduced, integration invariably means low down on priority and often a daily visit to a soup kitchen or even reliance on charities for hand-outs.

Of course, despite the similarities there are stark differences between the experiences of both Black communities. In France they've taken to the streets; in the US we just take it or write songs about it in Rap or Hip Hop and get paid in the process; or rely on Pearl Jam's website to provide guidance for activism. In France they do things differently; more direct and in your face; they've dissented against authority and for justifiable reasons. In the US the Black community just moved on and in a society that has the greatest concentration of wealth and influence, the Black underclass remain mostly compliant.