By By Chris Carvo
Watching the recent political and social unrest in France reminded me of a joke I once heard. “How many Frenchmen does it take to defend Paris?” The answer, of course is, “Nobody knows. It has never been tried.”
Hee-hee-hee. Silly French people and their beret hats, their pencil thin moustaches and hereditary apathy toward war.
It’s quite true that the French have always been under American critical fire. It’s an American rite of passage to chide the French for their overall silliness. Mark Twain started it, General George S. Patton perfected it and Dennis Miller revitalized it. These are three of the finest American personalities in their respective fields, all linked by their intense hatred of the French.
When we make fun of “the French,” we place in our minds some stereotyped bon vivant Peppy Le Peu caricature invented over the years: short, arrogant and wearing a malodorous red and white horizontally striped shirt. They are jingoistic, politically impotent and socially subservient as long as their cafes stuff them with cappuccinos and truffles.
Americans have always felt superior to the French, and vice versa. There is a “cold war” element present on a social level and the estranged parties are always trying to outdo each other. After a long and perilous battle, the French have finally found an arena to beat us in: civil dissent.
When Americans are upset with the way they think they are being treated they pettifog and protest in secrecy for the fear that hegemony on the right will dub them as (gasp) “unpatriotic.” They are not allowed to disagree with policies and procedures for fear the Sons of Liberty are outside their doors waiting to strike at the first sound of a Bush bash. When they realize their supermarket lives of fueling on McDonald’s just so they can shop at Wal-Mart are unsatisfactory, they are instantly tarred, feathered and hanged in effigy.
The unrest I am alluding to started Oct. 27. The night you might have been blogging about how angry you were that they killed Boone off on “Lost.”
That night, two Muslim youths were electrocuted in a power substation while allegedly hiding from police. The protest for the wrongful deaths started in Paris and spread across the entire country resulting in millions of dollars worth of property damages. Thousands of destructive youths burned cars, looted and wrecked buildings and even attacked surprised police forces. They annihilated, ravaged and trashed, all aided by that spiny thing in their backs.
You don’t need to be a sociologist to know that France has a history of alienating immigrants. Step on French soil if you need a quick brush-up. Recently Nikolas Sarkozy, the Interior Minister of France, pressed for a zero-tolerance anti-crime campaign, which features frequent police checks of French Arabs in poor neighborhoods. Despite outcry from the community to ease up, Sarkozy continued to turn many neighborhoods into police states.
He is not the only one to blame, just look at France’s distinctive integration model that discourages recognizing ethnic, religious or cultural differences in favor of French unity. Affirmative action is non-existent and religious symbols are banned in schools. Most illegal citizens became citizens under naturalization because they needed government approval to form associations. French purists and unifiers have given the cold shoulder to the children of the original immigrants and “ghettoized” government housing complexes.
If anyone can sympathize with the rioters it should be Americans. Only 50 years ago our country was similarly torn apart by civil unrest. After a few ugly episodes of our own, we bounced back and became a much more socially conscientious and accepting nation that prides itself on multi-culture and diversity. France must have been taking a nap during the sixties, because it’s a nightmare over there.