“Banlieusards,” this is the jargon used to designate
somebody living in certain French Suburbs. This expression is pejorative since
it is used to discriminate those populations and sometimes used as an insult
labeling them as pariahs. To understand this resentment against the population
living in the “Banlieues,” we just have to watch the media. The French media
depict a very violent and asocial image of this population. Robberies, violence
against the police, violent protestations…, these are the news of the “Banlieues”
frequently relayed by the media. The rest of the country only gets to see one
side of the story, which often describes an angry and violent “Banlieuzard.”
Indeed, The “Banlieues” are considered as a no law zone where
the police and the government do not have any power and where “Banlieusards”
dictate their own law outside the French society. The white French middle class
and upper class consider the residents of “Banlieue” as people with no social
education “French education” who refuse to integrate the French society. The
politics and the public institutions also seem to share the same negative views,
resulting in violent reprisals from the police or complete shelving by the
government.
The future president Nicolas Sarkozy talking to a French Woman: “ ne vous inquietez pas madam nous allons vous débarrasser de ces racailles’’ Don’t worry Ma’am we will get rid of those scums.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ODk0pM2gKDU
The reality is, of course, more complicated than what
appears to be. The lambda French citizen did not voluntarily choose to
discriminate residents of the “Banlieue,” and the “Banlieusards” did not choose
to leave outside the French society. In fact, the question of integration
already emerged at the first glimmer of the construction of the “Banlieue”.
In the late 50s, The French government has decided to build
several Suburban to respond to the housing crisis raging at this time.
Banlieue (78)
Carriere-sous-Poissy
Banlieue (91) Grigny
la Grande Borne
They constructed huge buildings centered on themselves,
enclaved and far away from major cities. The first residents were the white
French middle class who quickly moved out because of the isolated geographical
character of the “Banlieues”. The parents have to drive long hours to go to
work in the big cities, and the children after school have nothing to do, which
will sustain their connection to the rest of the society since up to 2017 some
“Banlieues” were not well served by public transportation. In the late ’70s the
government started using “Banlieues” as public housing, replacing the white
French middle class by the poor population living on social welfare and
immigrant families.
Slowly but surely the “Banlieues” became an effective way to segregate the French society with marginalized communities in the “Banlieues” and the rest of society living in the big cities or the wealthy suburbs. As Prutt-Igoe, the “Banlieues” grew into a golden prison where the immigrant population evolves in their tragic bubble. Their geographical isolation contributes grandly to their vulnerability to social and economic injustices. They are easily subject to discrimination and racism from both the police and the government, who see them as a burden that must be controlled. Police checks are more violent and frequent inside the “Banlieues,” and local government often forgets about investing in the youth in those areas (education, health), giving a fertile terrain to the rise of criminality. This part of the story is not shown in the media. They only transcribe the violent reaction of a breathless population who is suffocating alone in their “Banlieues”.
Slowly but surely the “Banlieues” became an effective way to segregate the French society with marginalized communities in the “Banlieues” and the rest of society living in the big cities or the wealthy suburbs. As Prutt-Igoe, the “Banlieues” grew into a golden prison where the immigrant population evolves in their tragic bubble. Their geographical isolation contributes grandly to their vulnerability to social and economic injustices. They are easily subject to discrimination and racism from both the police and the government, who see them as a burden that must be controlled. Police checks are more violent and frequent inside the “Banlieues,” and local government often forgets about investing in the youth in those areas (education, health), giving a fertile terrain to the rise of criminality. This part of the story is not shown in the media. They only transcribe the violent reaction of a breathless population who is suffocating alone in their “Banlieues”.
“Pas de justice pas de paix” No justice no peace
https://www.lopinion.fr/edition/matinale-retour-en-banlieue-marine-pen-liberaux-pouvoir-53317
The best way to hear their cries of distress is though
artists coming from those communities who translate the reality of the “Banlieues”
through the lenses of a “Banlieuzards.”
Kery James : Lettre à la République
"letter to the republic"
Lyrics in English:
Letter to the Republic
To all these racists with their hypocritical tolerance
Who built their nation on blood
Now set themselves up as the givers of lessons
Plunderers of wealth, killers of Africans
Colonizers, torturers of Algerians
This colonial past, it's yours
It's you who've chosen to link your story to ours
Now, you must assume
The odor of blood follows you, even if you perfume yourselves
We, the Arabs and Blacks
We're not here by chance
Everything arrives back at where it started!
You've wished for immigration
Thanks to it, you're full up, to the point of indigestion
I believe that France has never done charity
The immigrants are just the tools of cheap labor
Keep to yourselves your Republican illusion
Of the sweet France, harmed by African immigration
Ask the Senegalese Tirailleurs and the harkis
Who's profited from who?
The Republic is only innocent in your dreams
And you don't have the clean hands that you lie about
We, the Arabs and Blacks
We're not here by chance
Everything arrives back at where it started!
But do you think that with time
The Negros will mutate, end up becoming whites?
But human nature has swept aside your projects
We don't integrate into the reject pile
We don't integrate into the French ghettos, penned in
Between immigrants, it's necessary to be expected
How to point the finger at the community withdrawal
That you've initiated since the slums of Nanterre
Arsonist and fireman, your memory is selective
You didn't come in peace, you're history is aggressive
Here, it's better than there, we know it
Because to decolonize, for you, is to destabilize
And the more I observe history the less I feel indebted
I know what it is to be Black from the time of the schoolbag
Although I'm not an ingrate, I don't want to thank you
Because basically what I have here, I conquered
I grew up in Orly in the favelas of France
I flourished in the bush, I was at war since childhood
Drug dealing, robbery, violence. . .Crimes!
Which my brothers are doing, if this isn't money like in the Clearstream affair
Who can give them the lesson? You?
Abusers of corporate assets, embezzlers in the background
Real thugs in suits, bunch of hypocrites!
Do the French have the leaders they deserve?
At the heart of the debates, the heartless debates
It's always the same people the finger gets pointed at, in your rancorous France
In economic crisis, a culprit is needed
And it's in the direction of Muslims in which all your shots fire
I'm not afraid to write it: France is Islamophobic
Besides, no-one hides xenophobes in France anymore
You treat us like less than nothing on your public networks
And you expect us to write "Long Live the Republic!"
My respect is violated in the country talking about human rights
It's hard to feel French without Stockholm Syndrome
Because me, I'm Black, Muslim, suburban and proud of it
When you see me, you put a face to what the other France hates
These are the same hypocrites who talk to us about diversity
Who express racism under the guise of secularism
Dreaming of a singular France, with just one identity
Bent on discriminating, the same minorities
Faced with the same voters, the same fears are agitated
The communities are opposed, to hide the precariousness
That no-one would be surprised if tomorrow it ends up blowing up
How to love a country which refuses to respect us?
Far from transparent artists, I write this text like a mirror
That France can look at if she wants to see it
She will see the illusion that she's made of herself flying away
I'm not in need of affection
Understand that I'm no longer waiting for her to love me!
Reference
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