Riots in France, 2007 Edition…
November 28, 2007 | 12:30 AM
For the second time since 2005, I’m asking… “Who is burning Paris? Why are they rioting in France?” And why did the MSNBC article simply refer to the rioters as “minorities” and not by… well… more specifically? The article did mention they were Arabs, blacks, and other minorities that live in relative isolation from the rest of French society. I’m starting to notice a trend of social isolation and civil unrest- from what we’ve seen in the LA Riots of the 90s, New Orleans (and Houston) after Katrina, and now in Paris. When multiculturalism and isolation meet, it’s bound to overflow into prejudice and eventually violence. At least, that’s what I’m observing.
Anyway, regardless of the answers to my previous questions, we should pray for peace and reconciliation- reconciliation between the rioters and the police, and reconciliation between both parties and God. When we truly grow to love our neighbor, peace is the result.
(Photo: Michel Euler/AP)
[Read more from 2005 | Read more from 2007]
Posted in Life, Politics, World Religions
joe kennedy, 2007
“When multiculturalism and isolation meet, it’s bound to overflow into prejudice and eventually violence.”
What do you mean by this?
November 28th, 2007 at 9:58 AM
Howie, this is my line of thought:
You’ve got a city filled with many different people from many different cultures and backgrounds. Instead of melting into one localized culture influenced by many cultures, you have segregated sections of the city, each identifying with a particular culture. This is why we have Chinatowns, the Barrios, the Lower Ninth Wards, Little Saigons, White-Flight-Suburbs, etc. Everybody exists in the cities, but not together as one city. It’s more like a hundred small cities in one.
And as we know, rarely is there financial equality between these groups. We’re not a melting pot (some say anymore, but I’d wonder if we ever really were). A melting pot suggests assimilation. There’s no assimilation. There’s an attitude of superiority that comes with segregation- whether it’s from the Anglo culture via white flight in America or through Chinatowns or in the Muslim neighborhoods outside Paris. And it’s not on an individual level, but often on a cultural level.
So what do we see when cultures are segregated? In LA we saw perceived racism in the beating of Rodney King break out into full riots. Violence. Based on racism. What do we see when the Arabs and Muslims outside Paris perceive racism? The same. Riots, violence. This happens over and over. Think of what the Palestinians do to the Israelis. The Northern Irish against the British. Isolation and segregation often leads to an attitude of negativity toward those who aren’t like them, or us.
In cities where cultures are assimilated, and it’s multicultural but not segregated, we find that many times the people are forced to get to know each other. We find less fear of outsiders, and pluralism takes foot. “They’re not so bad.”
Anyway, I don’t know if I answered your question, and I could easily be wrong on all this. But from what I’ve gathered, this seems pretty close to accurate. And I think it actually translates to a global scale too (think of the negative aspects of nationalism). So there we have it.
November 29th, 2007 at 2:45 PM
It’s all good when you talk about prejudice and minority problems etc.
It’s true there are problems, but that doesn’t make the rioting any less serious.
In both cases the young people died because they were escaping the police and in both cases it was an accident.
The people who are rioting were clearly only looking for a pretext to do it.
In my opinion, police (and maybe the army) should stop the rioting as well as they can, by any means.
One thing is a rightful riot (I know that such things don’t exist, but in some cases people can understand why the rioting is happening (LA-Rodney King Riots), but in cases like this, it just doesn’t make any sense.
Thank you
December 1st, 2007 at 2:55 PM
Thanks for the clarification. The lack of “assimilation” for all parties is a serious problem. I believe that the Gospel is the only answer to that. It calls us to see each other as human beings created in the image of God, not white, black, or otherwise.
Seeing all persons as loved by God (Here’s where I think Calvinism is just as dangerous as the stuff you described above) and valuable, is the only way to avoid the distinctions society imposes on us.
December 3rd, 2007 at 9:47 AM