I heard the French are racist against Chinese the same way they are racist against the Muslims. Is this true?
Why did the French have low support for muslims? Aren't they simply trying to make a living in France? I am a mixed race Anglo-Chinese and have spent a lot of time in France. I have never encountered any trace of French racism directed at Chinese.
The French have a problem with Muslims who reject the modern, secular, liberal, democratic values of France.
When Muslims parade thru the streets demanding that authors and artists who offend their tastes be killed they do not make friends of the French. When Muslim thugs murder a Jew in the streets of Paris they raise legitimate concerns.
And when Muslims insist that their religion, their medieval religious laws, and their primitive tribal customs must be considered superior to the law of the French Republic they give good reason to distrust them. The French are NOT racist they ARE ethnocentric. Ethnocentric means that they believe that their culture is superior. They look down on all other cultures regardless of race. Just look at the French and the English. They have been fussing over nothing for hundreds of years. Each thinks that their culture is superior and looks down on the other - even though they are both the same race.
The French can get along with the Muslims and the Chinese and anyone else but only if those people take on French culture and become "French". Certainly a French person visitng China or some other country would expect and respect the cultural differences. However, when individuals immigrate to France, the French expect them to learn French and to assimilate into French society. They are not a melting pot like the US. They have a long history, culture, and customs that they are proud of and very protective of. I don't think its unreasonable for immigrants to France to respect the culture of their new home. no they are not racists against chinese people, cause most of french people are not racists against any people.
there are racist people, but mainly against arabs (not muslims, arabs : there is a BIG difference). why ? because they dislike immigrants, just like US people dislike mexicans.
chinese are often welcomed as good workers... and there are many chinese and asiat tourists in france !! I dont think thats true. I know a French guy who married a Chinese girl, and I know that doesn't prove that racism doesn't exist. But I've never noticed before. If they are racist against the Muslims, maybe there is a good reason for that. I doubt they are racist against the Chinese. The French have no reason to be racist against the Chinese. The Chinese don't cause any problems, and even though they are a concern regarding taking industrial progress away from other countries and increasing their oil demands, which drive fuel prices up, at least they are taking over the world in a peaceful, industrious way.
Now as far as the Muslim question goes, it's hard NOT to be racist against them, when you consider that most of the worlds problems, are brought on by THEIR desire to convert the world to Islam, and their methods in trying to achieve that goal. What do they expect? That the world will embrace them, while they hate the rest of us so much, that they want to convert us, or exterminate us.
Come on now!! France is France, not a territory of the Middle East. Like it or leave it. Same goes with everywhere else on the planet. It wasn't created JUST for Muslims.
BTW the extremists are the ones who have given Muslims a bad reputation, but how do you tell which is which. It's not like they have the guts to wear a uniform, which the rest of the worlds armed forces do. the same way muslim are racist against occident. How could french be racist against chinese as there are so few - ?
in Paris they occupy a district which is Porte de Choisy and some acres of Belleville - they have reconstructed a closed world, speak chinese, trade chinese, write chinese -etc
They are not really hungry of french culture, that's the least I can say - and contacts with them can be extremely sharp, being considered how often narrow-minded and fussy they are -
If there is a suspicion of racism - look for it on the chinese side - french have no problem - believe me
Katia - l'euphorie d'茅crire une langue tr猫s commune comme l'anglais vous tourne la t锚te - encore une fois en bonne fran莽aise de l'est vous vous permettez de disqualifier tous vos compatriotes alors que personne ne vous le demande - quand vous dites french do ou french say - votre euphorie vous fait oublier que vous 锚tes fran莽aise vous aussi - d'ailleurs vous ne r茅pondez que sur ce th猫me dans l'ensemble de vos questions - The french are not racist in general, there are stupid peoples everywhere and not only in France. The racism have no borders! A big warning before I start. My comments are based on the generality and not all the people I'm talking about. Some of the previous answers are horribly racist... And I feel that their judgment is not even based on personnel experience.
So the answer:
The question should be does Parisian are racist against Chinese and Muslim? The reason why is if you get the rest of France, except for other big cities like Marseilles, racist doesn't exist that much.
That's the French problematic, Paris and the rest of France... They are sooo different. I lived 5 years in Paris and boy... If I would have not been in other parts my opinion of France would have been really low. Because many Parisians are rude, egocentric and chauvinistic. And yes, racist. But their racist is more centered towards Muslim and black African people. Not much Chinese, why? Because they have not much problems with them. They are really hard worker and usually don't bother people. Besides I have many friends who are considered to several generation French and married asian persons.
Now why against Muslim? There are two problems.
Problem 1: most of the Muslims living in France are from former colonies, so in a way they look at them like conquered land and tend to belittle them. Remember pride stuff I said before?
Problem 2: After the WWII they needed workers to rebuild Paris. So they got many people from the Maghreb (North African Muslim countries) to do so. They got a lot of them but didn't want to mix them with the people of the city so they built huge cheap apartment building in the outskirt of Paris. Creating thus ghettos. Maghrebians were not welcome but their work was, since that generation wanted to move there just to get a better existence they didn't care as long as their children will have better life. So, here what happen, with this horrible integration of immigrants the second generation got lost in their origins, are they Maghrebians or French? If they are French why the other ones are not accepting them and putting them in ghettos? Mediterranean having also hot temper didn't help. From there all sort of problems happened just caused by misunderstand and racist. And it escaladed to the point that you get that kind of riots.
So yes there is a huge problem there. And it's a vicious circle. It's not really centered on Arabic, however with the entire Al Quaida thing that happened it kind of changed people mind. But it's more towards Maghrebians. The proof is that I have many friends from Lebanon who doesn't have too much problems. Well they have but it's nothing in comparison of the others.
As for asian? Not really.
Sorry if I might have offended some ethnic group but I was generalizing and I'm lucky to say that I have many friends from all the races I spoke about. And if some of them are crazy it's nothing to do with where they are born :) What do you mean by french?
Like in the US being a citizen doesn't mean you are white.
I guess the question was more "are white people racist against chinese people in France?". They don't care about chinese as long as they are not their boss or their manager at work. Not one french white man would accept an order from a chinese. Racism is when you think that the other guy belongs to a race with a lower grade. France is a very cosmopolitan country, just like Britain. It's not a racist country. The french hate everyone but the french.
That's pretty much it. | 