Fifty years ago today, a woman by the name of Rosa Parks refused a white man's demand that she sit in the back of the bus because of the color of her skin. This principled stand sparked boycotts, marches and protests; it spurred an entire civil rights movement that, over time, has forced our government to provide people of all races equal treatment under the law.
But while minority rights have greatly improved in the U.S. over the past 50 years, they have yet to reach much of Western Europe, despite that region's claims of having the most "enlightened" nations in the world.
Over the last year, France has seen the Rosa Parks episode all over again. Except instead of being asked to sit in the back of the classroom, young Muslim women (and to a lesser extent Sikh and Jewish men) are being expelled for wearing the headscarves and covers which are mandated by their religions. Minorities are stuck in an institutionalized racist system that gives them fewer opportunities to advance in society.
The backlash of this discrimination was not immediate, but we've seen it over the last month. Muslims and other immigrant minorities, disenchanted by the way they have been treated, have taken to mass rioting in the streets and suburbs of France.
The rioters themselves are thugs, and if President Jacques Chirac shows even one of them the slightest bit of clemency, it is an invitation for more violence. At the same time, however, the riots show that it is time for some self-reflection on the part of the French people. France is a nation plagued with anti-Semitic and anti-Islamic sentiment, and it is in danger of becoming a racist state.
The French government claims its law banning religious symbols in schools was motivated by a desire to ensure the separation of church and state and was not targeted toward any specific religion. Many Americans, before the civil rights movement of the 1960s, tried to find similar excuses, like arguing civil rights was a states issue or claiming racist hiring processes were merely meant to maximize profit from racially-biased clientele.
The truth is, the French have a number of policies motivated by prejudice. It's no coincidence that France and the highly xenophobic Netherlands were the only two countries to reject the European Union Constitution this summer. Many of the French people believed that, despite their best efforts, Turkey would eventually have a place in the E.U. Turkish inclusion would mean the immigration of Muslims into Western Europe, a prospect that brought E.U. opponents to the polls in large numbers.
In many ways, France has a beautiful culture. And while most Americans subscribe to either the "melting pot" or "mixed salad" theory of immigrant integration, we can appreciate France's desire to protect the culture they've developed over many centuries.
But if they are trying to protect their culture, France is going about it the wrong way. Banning girls from wearing religious headscarves isn't going to force them to become more "French;" it will merely drive them to Muslim private schools. And rejecting Turkey's role in Europe isn't going to force them to become more "European;" it is going to push them away.
France's attempt to preserve their culture from Islamic influence, a goal that is dubious to begin with, only isolates Muslims further. And if Muslims do not feel accepted as citizens of France or Europe, their great potential for contribution will never be felt.
We made the mistake of excluding African Americans from mainstream America, and by the time we allowed them to contribute to our society, it was almost too late. Now we're spending billions of dollars a year fighting the poverty and racism that we could have avoided in the first place by enacting strong government policies against racism.
Now it's time for the French to take a look at their own society. They have the opportunity to turn everything around, and to avoid the decades of strife the United States experienced during the civil rights era. If France ignores their own prejudice, however, they risk losing the very identity they are trying to protect.
--Marc Goldwein is a junior political science and economics major from Merion, Pa.
