Paris

Juan Cole has put an interesting, balanced and on-the-dot commentary up on his site. It is simply the best one I have read. It takes France to task for the racism embedded in its policies, even the "liberal" ones, which were only marginally decent in the first place. France has a problem. Though there are many middle-class HLM, there are also many that have become ghettos because of a failure of the social system, and it is this system that needs color-blind reform.

Now, anyone who knows me knows that I find racism in U.S. policy as well, but the U.S. is mostly across the board class-based in its discrimination, which also tends to trap Latinos, Blacks, Native Americans and other groups, including huge numbers of Whites. In fact, just like Sarkozy and VIllepin in France are doing now, politicians in the U.S.--especially those on the right--are more than happy with the situation since it allows them to divide the voting public and therefore conquer. Given that, I simply abhor the coverage France gets in the U.S.. It is biased, horrible stuff, and this is primarily because America cannot look itself in the mirror.