Race Riots and Culture Wars

La revolución comes to France as the country braces for yet more violence...

(“Mostly peaceful” riots in France. Source: Getty Images)

Bill Bonner, reckoning today from Poitou, France...

The police in New York City chased a boy right through the park
In case of mistaken identity, they put a bullet through his heart

~ Heartbreaker, the Rolling Stones

“What was it like?”

“What?”

“Paris…during the riots.”

“Were there riots?”

Every country has its railroad tracks. And some people are inevitably on the other side of them. In Paris, poor people tend to live in the suburbs. One of them got killed by police last week. Those of us in the center of town barely noticed.  

Nationwide, the French seem to be having their own George Floyd moment. Here’s CNN:

Chaos, destruction and confrontations have led to curfews in some towns around the capital. Bus and tram services faced disruptions with a nationwide shutdown ordered for 9 p.m. on Friday to try to stem another night of violence.

Areas within some of France’s major cities have erupted in violence for several successive nights after a teenager named Nahel Merzouk, reportedly of Algerian descent, was fatally shot by police — an incident caught on video.

More than 800 people were arrested the night of June 29, as outrage continued to intensify. Merzouk’s death appears to have become a flashpoint for anger about racial inequality in France and claims of police discrimination.

Culture Warriors

Meanwhile, ‘racism’ is a big deal in the US too. There is a whole brigade of culture warriors ready to call it out…stamp it out…and duke it out. They see racism everywhere. The Daily Beast:

White Professor Disgusts Women Historians’ Conference

A conference for female historians this weekend was plunged into turmoil when a prominent white academic speaking at the main event said her professional life would have been easier if she were Black.

“She was immediately called out for her blatantly racist remarks, and refused to apologize, let alone listen, to the reason why her remarks were horrifyingly wrong….” 

And here’s another click-baiting headline from something called ‘Buzzloving’:

“White men are a danger to society,” says a member of San Francisco’s reparations committee

This past weekend, the US press reeled and railed over the Supreme Court’s latest decision on universities’ race-based admissions programs. In brief, the court recognized that you can’t discriminate in favor of one group (Blacks, for example) without discriminating against another (Asians, for instance).     

This anti-racist decision was immediately attacked as…yes…racism! Fox News:

Jemele Hill accuses Asians of 'carrying the water for white supremacy' for backing affirmative action decision

Harvard pledged to go forth and sin no more…at least not openly. It said, however, that it would continue to take other circumstances, beyond test scores and academic achievements, into account.

Inherent Bias

This is, of course, what we all do. We take into account our own prejudices, predilections and preferences. When we want a good Chinese restaurant, for example, we don’t go to “Lil’ Italy.” We go to Chinatown. We guess that we’ll get better wontons there. Are we discriminating against the Italians? Of course, we are. And if we want to demonstrate our commitment to social justice, we can put on a rainbow T-shirt…and adopt a kid from Ouagadougou.

But private acts of preference, kindness and vanity are not enough for some people.  They want the smell of burning tires in their nostrils…and someone else’s money in their pockets.

We bring up ‘money,’ not because it is the most important part of the story, but only because it is measurable. In France, as in America, Blacks complain that they are mistreated by the police. Of course, the police take their own bugaboos into account, too. Whether they handle Blacks fairly, or not, is hard to know.  But at least ‘money’ can be counted…and Black people tend to earn less of it than Whites. On the surface, this appears ‘unfair.’ And it seems to offer an easy arithmetic solution: take money from the latter group and give it to the former one.  

Alas, often, if not always, imposed solutions make the problem worse, not better.  So, let’s at least take a glance at what the real problem may be. There are three major hypotheses. First, it is the Africans’ fault that they get the short end of the stick – they are lazy, stupid, criminal, etc. The second hypothesis is that it is Whites’ fault – they enslave, discriminate and suppress people of African origin.  The third explanation is that it’s nobody's fault – different groups have different habits and customs…which result in different outcomes and genuine diversity.

Quiet Desperation

This last hypothesis is probably the most likely and least attractive. It is least attractive precisely because it is most likely…it sees no problem and suggests no solution. It is ‘racist,’ in the sense that it recognizes that not everyone has to live the same way; Blackness is not a disease. And it can’t be cured by Whiteness. Nor vice versa.   

Our granddaughter recently competed in a musical talent show in Carnegie Hall.  She was one of hundreds of contestants…but almost all the other violinists were Asian. And if the people of Nanterre (the suburb where most of the residents are of African descent) acted like Asians, they wouldn’t be setting cars on fire. Young men would not be out on the streets at night. They’d be practicing the violin…or studying for their exams…with their mothers and fathers on their backs, urging them to work harder and do better. Then, as they grew older they’d take their places in bourgeois society. They’d earn about the same amount as others similarly situated…and they could live the lives of quiet desperation that Western Civilization depends on.

Better? We don’t know. But it would give police fewer opportunities to shoot them.

Regards,

Bill Bonner