Paris : Race, Ethnic and Racism ?

Race and ethnicity and Racism are subjects that one must inevitably face in multicultural societies such as France, Australia and the United States. Especially for someone like me who is not exactly snow white.

At a personal level, I am somehow much more aware of my race (I am of Asian origin) here in France than in either Australia or the US (despite the fact that in any forms in the US, I often have to indicate my ethnicity, whereas in France NEVER, as this is illegal…you would think this would prime my ethnicity more in the US than in France, but No in fact). Having just returned to Paris from the US, I was this time struck by how often we see Asian and Black and Hispanic faces on tv as anchors, reporters or occupying big important positions in the US cities such as Los Angeles and San Francisco. This is quite rare in France (in fact, often when we see a non white face on tv, my bet would be that is about riots in banlieu (i.e., hot areas in the periphery of Paris) or protestors asking for better government housing.
The same thing I notice at work. Though many of the people we have to deal with (ie. people that we serve in my profession) recently include many more minorities, the number of my colleagues who are non white could be counted in one hand…Yet, I think it is important that we reflect the population that we serve (if only for identification and activating possibilities among those we serve at work….sort of like Obama inspiring young blacks to aim to become US President). And indeed having a black anchor on a French tv still made big news here not too long ago.

This seems in contrast with other aspects of of race relations found in these countries. In Paris, we seem to see a lot more inter racial couples than, say, Los Angeles or New York. And many kids you could tell are métisses (of different race parents). And in fact, the mixed racial couples here seem to not have the self-conscious look that mixed race couples I have noticed in LA, for instance, do (that is, they are conscious that they still attract attention).

Stil, I feel like I have noticed more racism towards me in Paris…if we define racism as being treated differently because of your skin color. In the US or Australia being Asian often means that you’re perceived as hard-working or intelligent and that you’re probably a professional. In France, people often assume that I do not earn enough money, for instance, to apply to rent an apartment, or that I probably have the papers of someone else who is dead (Rumors that in Chinatown they never report when a person dies, but give the papers of the person to a newcomer to use). And of course they never assume that I am French (how many times have people asked me: What is your nationality (yes, nationality, not origin)?). But bizarrely, this racism does not always or only come from whites. Indeed, I could feel racism from others who are not white …what’s maddening is that they treat the whites better than they treat other non-whites. Hm, do I smell colonisalism still here?