Discrimination in France

Racism in France is more upfront than racism in America - the idea of political correctness doesn't really exist here.  The word "racist" doesn't carry the same stigma as it does in America, and many people are unapologetic about their beliefs.

For someone who spent much of her time at Tufts interning for a team that worked to promote awareness and understanding of racism and racial inequality (among other issues), as well as to combat it, learning to consider the racism in France has been hard to brush off as a "cultural thing".  It's wrong.

One of the things I learned at Tufts was the importance in picking your battles.  If you decide to start a discussion with someone who is unprepared to listen to you, you are most likely wasting your time.  Unfortunately, that's how I feel about many of my students.

A few weeks ago, we were playing "Never Have I Ever" - and one of the questions was if anyone had stolen something.  Most of my classes are small groups of 6 to 10 students who know each other pretty well, and they often joke around with each other.  When we got to this particular question, my students pointed out their classmate - and said that he liked money because he was Jewish.  When I clarified that I wasn't misunderstanding their accents, I pointed out that the idea that Jews like money is actually a stereotype.  "Not in France!" was the response.  "In France, it is real." .... How to respond?!?!

Today in a different class we did a lesson on the Kanye West and Jay-Z song, "New Day", in which the rappers discuss hopes for their future children (not having an ego, staying true to your word, etc).  So to follow up the listening activity, as a class we made a list of rules for our own future children.  I was pretty surprised, the class is a rowdy bunch and based on their reactions to Kanye's rules for his children, I was expecting the list to be interesting (the first thing they added to it was "he will go to the strip club" - a response to Kanye banning his child from going).  But after that answer, they switched and the answers I got were "no drinking alcohol", "no smoking cigarettes or drugs", "do schoolwork".  I wasn't sure if they were just giving me answers they thought that I would want to hear or what... until Cyril said "for a girl - no sex before marriage" and the rest of them agreed.  "Why just for girls?" I asked.  "I don't know" was the response.  Before we could really talk about it further, the next rule came - "He will be racist."  "Excuse me?!" I responded, looking disparagingly at my room full of giggling 19 year olds.  "That is unacceptable, I need a different rule" I told them.  They came up with "Eat fruits and vegetables" and I dismissed them early...

xoxo
Samantha