If race is as much of a competition as its name implies, then it follows that the outcome will result in a hierarchy of winners and losers.  Gold, silver, bronze; first, second, third…and sometimes dead last.  If race is a construct constructed like the world of track and field, then different countries have their own meets and varied rules.    So then what is the race like in France?

While kicking it with my boy Babacar, the son of Senegalese immigrants, we compared notes on our respective countries.  Unlike many other French who cite differences in cultures as cause for conflict, he outright said there's plenty of racism to go around.  Finally some honesty.  But are black, brown, and yellow subjected to the same prejudice?  Of course not.  Babacar broke it down for me.

Arabs are treated the worst and are then followed by Black Africans and Caribbeans.  He pointed me to a recent study showing that Paris police stop young Arab men 7.5 times more than whites.  And by stop I mean pulled aside, ID cards checked, and their bodies searched, all without a warrant and based purely on suspicion.  No 4th Ammendment Rights here.  Now I know where Arizona got its inspiration.  

Blacks too were targeted by the police and stopped 6 times more than whites.  

Attire contributed to the profiling as 47% of those stopped wore "youth clothing," styles associated with hip hop, goth, and tecktonic.  Such a finding only confirms that racial profiling is persistent since hip hop and tecktonic are associated with the youth cultures of the black-brown banlieues.  Perhaps goth is as well?

Babacar, who rocks a warm smile and equally warm baggy sweats, has himself been searched by the police once or twice coming home from late night parties.  "Night police are terrible!"  They're the most aggressive, the most rude, the most unrelenting.  They're just out to get you.

He suggested that the perception of Islam may contribute to the relative status of Arab people in France.  It's a nasty mix of improbable assimilation, racial difference (though this multi-culti American doesn't notice too much difference), and heavy immigration that stirs the distaste of the white mainstream.

What about France's abundant population of Cambodian and Vietnamese refugees, Chinese immigrants, and Tamil-speaking Indians?  Like in the US, they lie somewhere between black and white.  Stereotypes of obedience and hard work have found root on both sides of the Atlantic.  However, Babacar notes that some of the community does live in cites (HLMs), French housing projects, where the hood impact is noticeable.  

"France is just like the US, except instead of Latinos, we have Arabs."  But I raised Babacar's eyebrows when I told him that Latinos enjoy slightly better treatment, that Blacks are still criminalized much more.  "Really?"  Yes, really.  

A history of slavery is our stain that may never go away.  But at the very least, we talk about it, albeit only sometimes.  Race matters.

After the 2010 Techno Parade of 30,000 people (or 300,000, depending on your stat source) danced through the streets of Paris Saturday, the interweb is brimming with two different narratives of the event:

- The Techno Parade was crazy, fun, and full of good humor!

- The Techno Parade was hijacked by hooded thugs causing trouble! (This narrative clearly embedded with racist undertones)

The AFP (Agence France-Presse) described the event:

"Techno Parade inaugurated its new version on Saturday in the streets of Paris, on the occasion of its 12th edition, during which the audience danced to the sound of techno music in a relaxed festive and colorful." (Please excuse the awkwardness of this Google translation.)

Additionally the AFP states that the police reported no incidents at the event.

Here's video coverage of the parade from another newspaper Le Parisien:

In stark contrast, Le Figaro's article (Le Figaro being the oldest French newspaper) titled "38 arrests at the Techno Parade in Paris" focuses on the police's handling of "troublemakers" from red light districts of the suburbs:

"Groups of thugs were attacking passersby, yelling at each office to intimidate them. But hardly these aggressive packs were beginning to break up the police trap was closing in on them. In small groups, the thugs were promptly driven in buses to join the local police headquarters…"

Moreover, the article cites blog videos that "show real hooded hordes of people, including many teenagers of African origin, intimidating passers-by…"

The article most likely refers to this video, produced by Projet Apache, that portrays "Violence at the Techno Parade" at the hands of black youth.

Projet Apache is clearly an uber-conservative, French nativist blog that engages in the age-old conservative practice of fear-mongering, calling the youth "thugs" that attack anyone who is a little "too white."  Like conservatives in the US who have appropriated and flipped the language of Civil Rights activists, this blog claims that anti-white racism is rampant and needs to be brought to an end.

A commenter on Le Figaro, who cites Projet Apache, warns of what will happen when these gangs or hordes of thugs become organized.  He fears that one day they will loot Paris from top to bottom.  The seeds of hate clearly well sown here in Paris.

Thankfully online magazines Musique Mag and Agora Vox (a citizen journalism driven site) are calling Le Figaro out on its racist coverage of the parade.  However, the online poll attached to the latter article indicates that 70% of readers "agree" with the video depicting the violence.  I'm not sure if that means they agree that violence was a huge problem or that they agree that the coverage is biased.

Unfortunately I wasn't at the parade to witness everything with my own eyes, but judging from these pictures and knowing how media tends to sensationalize what goes on at large youth gatherings, I'm going to say that for the most part, despite a few probelmatic incidents, overall this event was probably good times across a diversity of people.  It set out to bring people together in a fun, festive way, and in that regard it seems to have succeeded.