Delphine
Senior Member
Racism is a scourge and shocks me deeply. Yesterday, as I was walking in the streets with a friend, I heard a man shout the 'n' word at a black woman who was looking after some kids. It came out of nowhere and for no reason, and that old, bald, vicious man looked at me as if he was so proud. I really got me upset for the rest of the day, and to think about it again makes me sad.
I don't like people who assign racism to stupidity and nothing else. There is more to it than that. To me, racism comes from a fear of the unknown, and this human habbit we have to always point fingers at others. It gets developed, cultivated by ignorance. A country's economic situation may also be a factor ('they took our jobs'). When I first thought of a solution to fight racism, I found that people needed education. But it turns out that when your whole government is lame and incompetent, and completely disconnected from reality, it only makes things worse. Which leads me to my next point.
To be honest, in one sentence... those issues are dealt with in a way that makes the problem even bigger. Allow me to explain.
We have a large community of immigrants in France, who mostly come from Maghreb, Spain and Portugal. In France, everyone agrees on the fact that white people are all racist, and patriotic people are all fascist. I barely exagerate. The problem is that our actual government (a supposedly left-winged party) tried too hard to make us all believe that our country is united, that being black or Arabic is not a bad but a good thing (how can it be a good or bad thing? apparently, it didn't come to anyone's mind that not judging people for what they look like and where they come from was maybe the best way to all live peacefully together) through every mean possible: education (man, did I have to read a lot of stupid and simpleton stuff through my entire schooling), medias, speeches, articles... and stupid associations, such as 'SOS Racisme' (no need to translate). When you try too hard to put an idea in someone's mind, it just doesn't work and can bring the total opposite of what you wanted to do at first.
People got sick of being told what to think, who to like, and white people got tired of having the reputation of being racist when they're not, and that no one wants to admit the fact that in suburbs, it's unbearable to be white because you always suffer from violence and discrimination. How is it, that when three immigrants who are 12, 15 and 17 years old, beat and rape a woman several times and only say to the police they did it because 'she was a French whore and French people are evil', no one bats an eye, but if a white person brings up the fact that someone they are talking to has different origins (not necessiraly in a bad way), the whole country spits in their face and find it outrageous? In both cases, there is hatred, and there is not a situation that is 'better' than the other.
To summarize. They differenciate people and they'd want everyone else to be tolerant to everything. 'Do as I say and not as I do'. That's not good. Not enough integration is bad, but maybe too much integration is worse. That's why we're having issues now, with such a lame government that only succeeds in making the country more divided than ever by forcing people into right-thinking, and that's the main reason why people are more and more racist, anti-Semite, and join nationalist parties.
Got a little carried away, sorry. But this is an issue that really affects me. I don't mean to defend racist people though, I hope I didn't seem like I agreed with them, because I don't. I just don't like to look at facts with only one opinion, and what I said above is my theory.
I put a link to a French rap song on a previous post, at some point the rapper says: 'Farewell to those right-thinking associations, those dictators of right consciousness, always glad when you harm them, it's a contest to see who will condemn the loudest'. That's what a lot of people think, but most artistes have left-winged if not communist ideas, so no one dares to say this kind of things. Also, in 2012-2013, there were lots of new laws for gay people (gay mariage, which is called 'mariage for everyone' because they thought that 'gay mariage' was homophobic... what?) and it got the country divided again. Everyone wanted a referendum but we didn't get it. I was pro so it didn't bother me the slightest but to a lot of people, this law is not legitimate, and it's going to take some time for the country to truly accept it... Orelsan (the rapper) also states: 'Farewell to those who live through their sexuality, dancing on carts, that's your big pride? Those teddy bears and their rainbow power, who want to make me believe that being straight is old-school. So, so susceptible, to prove you're not homophobic soon you'll have to make it with a guy'. I like that rap because he talks about everything in our society, with different points of view, and that's a change. But some people get offended by this song, because when you say something bad about a minority in France, you HAVE to say two positive things afterwards. It's the same problem over and over.
I'll just finish on a French comedy that came out this year called 'Qu'est-ce qu'on a fait au bon Dieu ?' ('What in heaven did we do?'), who knew great success. The story tells about a catholic and conservative family: the two parents, and their four daughters. The first daughter marries a Chinese man, the second marries a Jew man, the third man marries an Arabic man and when the last daughter plans to marry a black man, everyone panics. This movie is kind of funny (though a little ridiculous and also a little zany), but basically, the message it delivers is: it's okay to be racist, and to have clich?s, because in the end, we are all racist. The black man's father doesn't like white folks, the Arabic and the Jew can't stand each other... yeah, that's dumb, it just decomplexes racism.
People got sick of being told what to think, who to like, and white people got tired of having the reputation of being racist when they're not, and that no one wants to admit the fact that in suburbs, it's unbearable to be white because you always suffer from violence and discrimination. How is it, that when three immigrants who are 12, 15 and 17 years old, beat and rape a woman several times and only say to the police they did it because 'she was a French whore and French people are evil', no one bats an eye, but if a white person brings up the fact that someone they are talking to has different origins (not necessiraly in a bad way), the whole country spits in their face and find it outrageous? In both cases, there is hatred, and there is not a situation that is 'better' than the other.
To summarize. They differenciate people and they'd want everyone else to be tolerant to everything. 'Do as I say and not as I do'. That's not good. Not enough integration is bad, but maybe too much integration is worse. That's why we're having issues now, with such a lame government that only succeeds in making the country more divided than ever by forcing people into right-thinking, and that's the main reason why people are more and more racist, anti-Semite, and join nationalist parties.
Got a little carried away, sorry. But this is an issue that really affects me. I don't mean to defend racist people though, I hope I didn't seem like I agreed with them, because I don't. I just don't like to look at facts with only one opinion, and what I said above is my theory.
I put a link to a French rap song on a previous post, at some point the rapper says: 'Farewell to those right-thinking associations, those dictators of right consciousness, always glad when you harm them, it's a contest to see who will condemn the loudest'. That's what a lot of people think, but most artistes have left-winged if not communist ideas, so no one dares to say this kind of things. Also, in 2012-2013, there were lots of new laws for gay people (gay mariage, which is called 'mariage for everyone' because they thought that 'gay mariage' was homophobic... what?) and it got the country divided again. Everyone wanted a referendum but we didn't get it. I was pro so it didn't bother me the slightest but to a lot of people, this law is not legitimate, and it's going to take some time for the country to truly accept it... Orelsan (the rapper) also states: 'Farewell to those who live through their sexuality, dancing on carts, that's your big pride? Those teddy bears and their rainbow power, who want to make me believe that being straight is old-school. So, so susceptible, to prove you're not homophobic soon you'll have to make it with a guy'. I like that rap because he talks about everything in our society, with different points of view, and that's a change. But some people get offended by this song, because when you say something bad about a minority in France, you HAVE to say two positive things afterwards. It's the same problem over and over.
I'll just finish on a French comedy that came out this year called 'Qu'est-ce qu'on a fait au bon Dieu ?' ('What in heaven did we do?'), who knew great success. The story tells about a catholic and conservative family: the two parents, and their four daughters. The first daughter marries a Chinese man, the second marries a Jew man, the third man marries an Arabic man and when the last daughter plans to marry a black man, everyone panics. This movie is kind of funny (though a little ridiculous and also a little zany), but basically, the message it delivers is: it's okay to be racist, and to have clich?s, because in the end, we are all racist. The black man's father doesn't like white folks, the Arabic and the Jew can't stand each other... yeah, that's dumb, it just decomplexes racism.
Now in comparison with other countries... I don't really know well enough other countries' political and economic situations to compare in a relevant way. I know about the 'affirmative action' in the States but that's it. The idea is the same, except that French and American cultures are still different, so what works (more or less) in the USA won't always work in my country. We don't have your History... and you don't have ours.
It has to be Francine. I fell in love with that little bunny when she moved in Kibicity... The Snooty personnality makes me think of my big sister somehow (but she is nastiest IRL hehe), and I love bunnies in the AC games. I also really love the Lazy personnality and hamsters (my favorite species), so Clay would have to be next. I never had any dreamie except three villagers: Chrissy, Chester, and Clay, and they're all lovely.
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