I'm aware the people who rioted in France have, more than likely, suffered some kind of social exclusion.
The unfortunate reality that nobody seems to want to admit to these days is that those of us who live in richer countries tend to look down on folks who come over from poorer countries, correct?
To give you one classic example, you have the case of the French looking down their noses in the past at Spanish immigrants or even tourists. France, as a nuclear power, has always felt superior to Spain.
So, sure, I agree with the suggestion there is an element of racism or resentment with respect to the blacks in the U.S. or the Algerians in France. And, yes, I think it's wrong and I don't personally discriminate in this way or penalise people on the basis of their native country.
But, having said all that, it draws me back to my argument against multiculturalism. I think the unfortunate truth is that where you get diversity, you also get racism, religious disputes, riots and even civil war. It dioesn't matter so much who's to blame as we can be dicussing that for ages. What does matter is the problem can't be swept away so easily (if at all).
So that makes me one of those simpletons who stands in the crowd and shouts out, "Hey, the King doesn't have an invisible suit at all ! He's basically walking the streets naked!"
So, unpopular as my view may be, I don't believe the multiculturalism experiment will work in Europe and I think it will divide us. The only place it has worked is within the U.S. and that's only because no single ethnic group really ever had much of a monopoly since the U.S. was born (maybe the Irish?) and that it is indeed a nation of immigrants.
Even then, the U.S. has had major diifficulties with multiculturalism and has never enjoyed the kind of social harmony you find in Japan which isn't multicultural (although, sure, many foreigners choose to live there.)
So, Carrera's views are probably pessimistic in a sense not many folks will want to swallow. Funnily enough, Muhammad Ali used to feel the same way as I do in a sense. Ali simply thought the U.S. should have given land to the black people so they could run their own show and all the racial tension due to civil rights would then cease. But Frazier went along with King and sought integration. I'm not saying Ali was right here, of course, but he did have a good point that black people had earned a better deal through their years of toil on plantations and deserved the same kind of rights as America's whites.
davidmc said:
It may very well be a matter of disenfranchisement as our native born blacks in South Central (Compton) Los Angeles have rebelled against, on occasion. Economic realities play a large part.