Riot

I'm surprised to see that the riots outside of Paris are getting coverage in the American press. I listened to some NPR stuff on it, and I read about it in the NY Times. I am 90% sure the kid quoted in the NY Times (the brother of one of the boys killed) was a former student of mine, and that makes me sad.

The rioting began in the town I used to work in - a place that the students lovingly called "le ghetto" with that strange sort of pride that comes out of actually living in one. Although I understand they're frustrated and need to lash out, I'm not sure what drawing all of this attention is doing to the kids' reputations in the long run. I know setting cars on fire and attacking people on trains is another way of "screaming to be heard," but I'm worried they're just further alienating themselves from French society. Which, whether they like it or not, they are a part of. On the first day of school, most of these kids declared "I'm Moroccan" or "I'm Algerian" when asked to introduce themselves, completely neglecting the fact that they were born and raised in France. I understand their urge - France has not exactly been welcoming - but I bet in that majority of the cases, those kids are going to grow up and have families and continue to live in France despite themselves.

I was thinking the other day about how funny it is that I have gone from working in what most consider a shitty, ghetto, crime-ridden town (I liked it a lot, myself, though) to working in a ritzy, snobby bookstore where we talk about art. I think I'm more at home in the former situation than the latter, but I make it through both more or less intact. I have a hard time, though, when the snobs from the second world make comments about those from the first; my desire to defend the people I spent just under a year with is a little ridiculous. But it's there, and I don't think it's going to go away. It just will never stop disturbing me how Parisians think of those living outside the city as just that: outsiders.

But for as much as I hate the Parisian attitude, I know it's going to be the decisive one, the one that remains in control. These riots make me crinkle my forehead up and think of the kids at that school with a new streak of worry. Most of them were tough shells with softy little insides. I don't like to think of them falling asleep to police sirens, or being forced to stay inside every night of this past week. I especially don't like to think of them not getting job interviews or returned phone calls because of the home town marked on their CV.

Update: It was particularly trippy to see Clichy-Sous-Bois on CNN, in a report done by my journalism professor. That is a mega-case of worlds colliding.