France's riots

It's been two weeks now that France has been rattled by civil unrest that has caused a lot of property damage and plenty of political turmoil. The spark for the violence was the accidental death by electrocution of two teens of North African descent, while they were hiding from the police in an electricity sub-station in the Paris suburb of Clichy-sous-Bois.

The violence has spread to Paris and several other cities in France, and was feared it could spread to other European cities as well. The underlying problem is racism.

Racism exists and is a problem on both sides of the Atlantic (actually, everywhere in the world,) but it's been mostly ignored in Europe for decades. Immigrants (legal and illegal) pour into just about any European country from Africa, the Middle East, Asia, and Eastern Europe. They perform the lowest paying jobs and duties that Europeans don't want to do anymore, and are regarded as inferior to the countries' "real" citizens.

Naturally, it was only a matter of time before we would see in Europe the same kind of riots and violence America witnessed in the past decades, before and after the Civil Rights Act was added to the US Constitution.

The 'rioters' demand to be treated fairly and equally, especially if they are legal immigrants or citizens themselves, a request that is more than reasonable, if you ask me.

From CNN:

Violence in France appeared to be on the decline as officials toughened their stance against rioters and threatened to deport any foreigners convicted of involvement.

Vehicle torchings continued overnight as the unrest stretched into a 14th night. But the number of arson attacks dropped.
...
Vandals set several cars on fire in Toulouse, including one they pushed into a school courtyard, setting the facility on fire.

Another school was torched in the eastern city of Belfort, and vandalism at power stations in Lyon, France's second-largest city, caused blackouts. The night before, Lyon's subway system was shut down after a petrol bomb was thrown in a train station, French media reported.
...
Although France's national unemployment rate is about 10 percent, in areas hit by rioting the level is nearer 40 percent.

France has no affirmative action; an official French study found that youths with Arab-sounding names have their job applications rejected up to five times as often as those with traditional French names.

I'm Italian, so I can speak for experience. Immigrants come in, take up some job no one else wants to do, and try to insert themselves in the local society. Problem is, they look and sound different. Everybody knows they are immigrants, and are viewed with suspicion and diffidence, no matter their situation or behavior.

The citizens tolerate them, as long as they stay 'invisible.' As soon as they try to affirm their rights, to which they should be entitled, especially after living in a country for years, they are put back in their place, and told not to make a stink.

That's not right, and can't keep them quiet forever, especially when their population grows in number at a faster pace than the citizenry itself.

Large minority pockets can be found everywhere across the Old Continent, but they are seldom viewed or treated as the so-called 'locals.'

I'm curious to see if the latest unrest will finally bring about some much needed expansion of civil rights and full acceptance on the part of the European countries that, just like the US, can't keep on ignoring the problem of immigrants as if they didn't exist or were undeserving, since Europe's economy depends on them just as much as it depends on its 'real' citizens.