“Oui, j’ai une patrie: la langue française.” (Yes, I do have a homeland: the French language.)
(Albert Camus)
Sometimes — and I don’t expect to make friends with this statement — all you have the energy for in this life is to go where you are most likely to be treated like a white male. For me, that’s France. In the United States, I am an Asian female, an invisible minority, until we’re not and we’re being harassed. Meanwhile, my life in France, as a somewhat assimilated fluent French speaker, is the closest I’ve ever come to the luxury of feeling like a privileged member of the dominant majority.
(Euny Hong, “In Paris, I Get Judged on What I Speak, Not How I Look,” New York Times, 8-8-23)
Euny Hong is a Paris-based journalist and the author of “The Birth of Korean Cool: How One Nation Is Conquering the World Through Pop Culture.”
(c) 2023 JMN — EthicalDative. All rights reserved
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Hi JMN. Reading this, I immediately thought about the recent unrest in the banlieues. Does Euny Hong make any comment on this? Just wondering.
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OA, I’m glad you raised this issue. My selective quotation leaves out other important content in Euny Hong’s article. Consider this passage from the article: “‘But isn’t there just as much racism in France?’ ask my U.S.-based friends, who need to believe they are living in the world’s most enlightened nation. Yes, there can be — sometimes horrifically so. The pandemic also saw a rise in anti-Asian incidents in France, as in many countries. France is a former colonial power that has significant ongoing racial tensions, as evidenced most recently by a Paris police officer’s fatal shooting of Nahel Merzouk, a 17-year-old Frenchman of Algerian and Moroccan descent. The killing led to nationwide riots. So, no, France is not free of racism. But Paris does afford a person like me, occasionally, the chance to feel maybe I’m free of it, in ways that my experience in America rarely does.” Thanks for your comment, affording me occasion to balance the view. All the best!
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It would have been strange if she hadn’t mentioned it!. Thanks JMN.
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