February 27, 2008
Pave: Not Today, Not Tomorrow, Not The Day After
Le jour 288 de Sarko
TOUS LES ANIMAUX SONT ÉGAUX
MAIS CERTAINS SONT PLUS ÉGAUX QUE D’AUTRES[ALL FRENCH ARE EQUAL,
BUT SOME FRENCH ARE
MORE EQUAL THAN OTHERS]George Orwell (1903-1950),
honest democratic socialist and author
Animal Farm (London: Secker and Warburg, 1945 |
French Edition), Chapter 10
Barack Obama is not our choice for president. That said, one has to admire his political attainments -- a one-term Senator from Illinois rises to national prominence in his party, beats out the perfect hair of John Edwards, is close to shutting down the Clinton money and connections sure thing, and may clinch his party's presidential nomination before the last big primary (Pennsylvannia April 22, 158 delegates). [Pause.] Oh, and he's black.
Only in America -- as they say in France.
AN OBAMA FOR FRANCE? IT WON'T HAPPEN SOON
PARIS February 26, 2008 (IHT/Bloomberg) - The rise of Barack Obama to the forefront of the race for the U.S. Democratic presidential nomination is holding a mirror to France as its citizens prepare to vote next month in 36,781 municipal elections.Moussa Deme, a 22-year-old Senegalese-born student:
In France? Never. In France, it is impossible for a black man even to be mayor. They think it is enough that we are on their football team.
While France has Europe's biggest population of sub-Saharan and North African immigrants and their descendants, it doesn't have any black or Arab mayors currently in office, according to Adil Jazouli, a sociologist who is an adviser to a government committee on urban affairs. There are also no members of the National Assembly from France's first- or second-generation immigrant population, he added. M. Jazouli:If a black man in America can push open the door, then it opens it for others. Generally, what happens in America happens 10 years later in France.Chris Simakala, a 32-year-old black French economics teacher:
It is revolutionary that a black has reached this level. His election would mean that barriers and prejudices will fall, maybe here, too. .. Sadly, France is not even close. Not tomorrow, not the day after tomorrow.Christine Ockrent, [wife of French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner, journalist, broadcaster, executive director of France Monde,] and author of a book on Hillary Rodham Clinton [La Double Vie de Hillary Clinton], Obama's rival for the Democratic presidential nomination:
For all sorts of reasons, the U.S. is more advanced than France in terms of race relations. Remember, until eight or nine months ago, we had an all-white government. France is in no way an example.
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* Here described as partner, here as companion (compagnon).
PFFT (What is this?): Not today 5 | Not tomorrow 4½ | Not the day after 3¾ | Rayonnement français 0
Posted by Damian at February 27, 2008 08:30 PMLessons from the wrong crowd !!!
p://superfrenchie.com/?p=1472
[TrucMuch, It is sufficient to post your link only once, not twice 10" apart.
We have deleted the redundant post.
The Management]
TrucMuch directs us (twice) to an article entitled “Lessons from the wrong crowd” that begins:
The United States of America has been in existence for 231 years. In those 231 years, there have only been five black U.S. senators. Yes, Barak Obama is only the 5th black U.S. senator in history.
The first black American elected to legislative office was Alexander Lucius Twilight in 1836 to the Vermont legislature.
The first such Senator was Hiram Rhodes Revels, elected by the Mississippi State Senate in 1870.
The black American tally continues: 2 elected governors (though technically Pinckney Benton Stewart Pinchback was an elected senator who became governor through a succession of vacancies in 1872).
Then this breezy blow-off:
Sure, there have been quite a few blacks in the House of Representatives. But that’s mostly due to gerrymandering,
This conveniently dismisses 180 elected black representatives. TrucMuch and Superfrenchie apparently believe that districting, a practice in all representative governments, is tantamount to gerrymandering (a notion we would like to see proved and not just slopped over elected black representatives). Hhmmm. France also practices districting, yet currently has no elected black deputies. Why is that?
Next we are treated to the French tally. France with 1,100 years of existence is bound to post some impressive numbers. Let’s see: 1 deputy, Gratien Candace elected in 1938 (who incidentally went on to vote Philippe Pétain into power); 1 senator, the admirable Gaston Monnerville elected in 1948; 1 governor, Félix Éboué, appointed -- not elected (which should up the American governor count to 3) – in 1936, he was also the acting governor of French Equatorial Africa, 1940-44.
The article then gives two recent appointments in the Sarko government. (We forgo giving an American tally of major government appointments of blacks, which reaches back to 1869 (Ebenezer Don Carlos Bassett) and is extensive. Perhaps the same considerations why the article's author doesn't bring them up.)
That’s it. Eleven hundred years of history with a total of 5 elected and/or appointed blacks, with the first elected black no earlier than 1912 (Candace) and of which only the two recent appointments are serving. The author, perhaps sensing the feebleness of his argument, concludes with this masterful litotes:
Not that everything is fine and dandy in the political landscape of today’s France for blacks and people of Arab descent.
Sixty years into America's history a black American is elected to office. One thousand seventy-four years into France a French black is elected to office -- a mere 76 years after the American distinction.
This is what passes for a damning rebuttal amongst franchouilles.
Well, Trucmuch and Superfrenchie are certainly right about one thing – they are the wrong crowd to offer lessons.
We also think it worth pointing out that the lessons being offered in our post are from the French themselves. Not Pave, not Americans, not Anglo-Saxon boogey men. The French. [Pause.] Themselves.
DGB
Posted by: Damian Bennett at February 28, 2008 06:38 AM
