The above photo isn’t from one of the ‘hoods in America, although it very well could be. I actually took the photo when I was sneaker hunting in Paris a few weeks ago. I needed to take a picture to confirm to myself that there really were Black people living in Paris. I mean, you might catch a glimpse of one on the Metro, but when I walked around center city they were markedly absent.
Wasn’t this the city that so many African-Americans hail as this bastion of racial freedom and tolerance? Where the hell is everybody? It turns out that the colored folks get pushed out to neighborhoods and regions that skirt center city Paris much like Canarsie and Cambria Heights flank midtown Manhattan here in New York. These folks are told not to bring their Black azzes into center city lest they fuck up that sweet tourist thing that Paris has going. They only Blacks I saw on the regulack(my word bitches) were the ones in the orange and green jumpsuits that swab the streets at 7am every morning.
France spends a grip of dough to keep the center city Paris looking glossy and shiny and this means that all kinds of services don’t get extended beyond the tourist areas. Education and employment are way down in these regions and crime is way up. Part of the reason I suspect for the unrest in Paris is that people are tired of being on the periphery of something good without ever getting to taste it. They can smell it, and they watch all kinds of folks come thru to taste it, but they can never get a taste for themselves.
It was interesting experience for me being in a city that openly displays their tremendous wealth and opulence on the daily while hiding the poor and disenfranchised with equal aplomb. Unfortunately, the poor and disenfranchised of Paris have had it up to here [I am pointing to my ears].
In the end it made me realize that we have to do a better job here in New York City of shoving the bums and the homeless into their respective holes and out of sight.
I wonder what will happen now that a curfew has been established. I like how the French government let the cars and neighborhoods burn as long as it didn’t enter the center city. Once it started disrupting tourist traffic, however, then they suddenly find the will to assert government authority.
You can change the location, you can change the language, but the song remains the same….
I read somewhere that Paris is the # 1 tourist destination in the world.
I’m just glad that you and C.S. made it out alive.
I am not surprised one bit that Paris is such a big tourist attraction. They keep the city glossy as fuck. You could eat off the street, if that was your thing(wink to Bill Sunday)
I am not surprised either that people could get as mad as they were. It is freaky dichotomy that the French find themselves in. On the one hand they hate foreigners and immigrants, but their country’s economy is bolstered by the tourism of who? Immigrants and foreigners.
Black people hold the key to an interesting conundrum of sorts here in the states. At times I think their most important facet is the perpetual boogeyman factor.
“New York City of shoving the bums and the homeless into their respective holes and out of sight.”
For a few years around like 99-2002, Jewlie’s programs like “kill all the homeless people” were working really well, however I’ve been seeing them around again with funny signs like “lost my job after 9/11” and “my kids are starving” -it’s like, come on, I’m trying to eat here.
ROX ONE,
You and I both have been crossing mental paths because i can’t believe how visibly the homeless ‘problem’ has become again.
Could it be that the city has emptied all the shelters in a plan to convert them into luxe condominiums?
public issuance of mis-dappiing (nhjic) the wrong internet celeb with the word “regulack”…gold medal taken aback and given to DPeez…
http://www.locabarcelona.com