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Issues of race, identity & ethnicity grip France
France was engulfed in violent unrest after the point-blank shooting of 17-year-old Nahel by French Police over a traffic infraction on the 27th of June. In six successive nights of violence, more than 5,000 cars were torched, and 99 town halls were attacked, along with schools, police stations, and other public institutions. 3,354 people were arrested over a week, the average age of arrested being merely 17. The killing seems to have tapped a deep vein of resentment of law enforcement agencies, especially in the poor and racially mixed suburbs of major French cities known as banlieues. The unrest though, so far at least, has failed to prompt the government to soul-searching on race, something that was witnessed in the United States during the Black Lives Matter protests. Adding insult to injury, a crowdfunding campaign spearheaded by a far-right media personality, raised 1.4 million euros for the family of the policeman who shot the teenager. Compare this with the fundraising pledges for Nahel's family which stood at 360,000 Euros. Quite evidently, there are issues of race, identity, and nationalism at play here rather than just one policeman gone rogue. Mohammed Saleh explores.
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