Riots Could Happen Here - U.S. Shouldn't Be Complacent

If it is the true that the reasons for the rioting in France are deep seated social problems, we should be paying close attention, lest the outcomes are repeated elsewhere. In the U.S. we like to believe that we have conquered most of our racial problems and now willingly embrace diversity. I hate to say it, but it just ain’t so. Sure, minorities have managed to make their way into political office and boardrooms and we almost have no need for affirmative action, but it would be a huge mistake to become complacent. Watching the Katrina coverage, it became glaringly clear that there is a wide economic and cultural divide.

As I understand it, the rioting in France started on October 27 in Clichy-sous-Bois, after two minority youths were electrocuted while trying to evade French police. About one hundred minority youths began the rioting in protest, burning cars, throwing bottles, and successfully disrupting society. No one knows how many youths joined in, as the riots spread to several other small towns. So far the mayhem has lasted 18 days.

According to media reports most of the rioting youths are second generation immigrants. In other words, most were born in France and their parents came from somewhere else, mostly Algeria and Africa. A big part of the problem is that in accordance with the French Constitution no racial demographic records are kept, all citizens are considered equal. A pronouncement of equality doesn’t make it so, and I suppose the French have just discovered that the hard way. Sarkozy characterizing the rioters as thugs, scum, or rabble hasn’t helped matters. The fact is that these youths are housed in suburban ghettos; unemployment is as high as fifty percent; and without changes their integration into mainstream French society is a long shot.

I am in no way an authority on French society, have never been to France, and have never even traveled to Europe. But I can see that the events taking place there now could be repeated here if we are not careful. Despite the official reports of how wonderfully our economy is doing, anyone that buys gas or goes grocery shopping knows different. Anyone that cares to find out knows that our federal deficit is at an all time high, and our social welfare programs are at an all time low. The poor and the uneducated are always hit the hardest by economic downturns. If the belt is already tightened to the tightest notch, yet one more downturn can bring desperation.

When watching Katrina coverage I was quite amazed at some of the items the looters looted. Stealing food is understandable when faced with starvation. But, stealing TV sets when there is no electricity, no hope for electricity any time soon, and in the aftermath of a devastating natural disaster; must have been motivated by something else. Not even greed explains it. The TV looters must have taken the TV’s only because they could. Perhaps a little revenge from the have-nots on the haves?

Mayor Nagin and Rev. Jesse Jackson were quick to play the race card in the aftermath of Katrina. They claimed on cue, if the stranded people were white they wouldn’t have been so neglected. And, if the hurricane victims were white they wouldn’t have been left behind in the first place. Someone should let Nagin know that he is black; and that he is not exactly blameless. For the record, Nagin sent people to the Superdome without enough supplies on hand; and with no plan to get them out and relocated, just in case New Orleans was devastated.

The media was criticized for only showing footage of black people looting. The fact is that New Orleans population was about thirty percent black and the people still in New Orleans after Katrina and had the opportunity to loot, were the poor, and yes, mostly black. Most people that stayed in New Orleans knowing that Katrina was on her way stayed because they had no choice. They didn’t have the cash on hand to put into their gas tanks, if they even owned a car. The political disaster that came with the aftermath of Katrina’s natural disaster had as much to do with the discrimination against poor people as with discrimination of any racial group. Like Sarkozy, Barbara Bush’s statement upon seeing hurricane victims taking refuge in the Astrodome, that these people are better off now than they were at home, also didn’t help matters.

So, we need to pay attention to the rioting, lest we become complacent. Theoretically, our economy is fine, unemployment is low, and the growth rate on track. Theory and reality are not always the same.