California Conservative

“What are we waiting for to set everything aflame? What are we waiting for to no longer follow the rules of the game? We have nothing to lose because we had nothing to start with. I wouldn’t sleep soundly if I were you. The bourgeoisie can quake, the scum are in town.” — French rappers, Supreme NTM from their “song” What are we waiting for (Qu’est-ce qu’on attend), appearing on the 1995 album Paris bombed (Paris sous les bombes)

AP reports: “[It] seems, in light of recent riots, like an early warning sign that was ignored.”

Scum. That word, used by French Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy two days before the rioting erupted Oct. 27, has been much in the news lately. Sarkozy was referring to toughs and criminals who terrorize marginalized housing projects.

But his comment was taken by many youths as a blanket slur. Sarkozy’s critics accused him of sparking the violence that only abated last week after President Jacques Chirac declared a state of emergency.

“Of course, the word ’scum’ is used by rappers. But it all depends on who uses it,” Olivier Cachin, author of The Rap Offensive, told the daily Le Monde. “Hearing it from the lips of an interior minister is as incongruous as a rapper using a pluperfect subjunctive.”

Ah, yes. Of course. Pluperfect. Just like the French nuance. Guess the same applies to American rappers using the verboten “N-word” profusely in their recordings.

In both cases, burning and looting their own neighborhoods (not to mention attacking police and killing civilians) to make a statement does nothing more than live up to a name: scum, that is.

UPDATE: (11/24)
Ace of Spades: French Rap Makes You Torch Cars

Mr Grosdidier, a member of President Jacques Chirac’s conservative ruling UMP party, said songs like Monsieur R’s FranSSe incite racism and hatred, and should be banned from radio play.

He told France-Info: “When people hear this all day long and when these words swirl round in their heads, it is no surprise that they then see red as soon as they walk past policemen or simply people who are different from them.”

RELATED:
“The Arabic Assassin”: Rap-sodizing About Rape,
Death, and Terrorism

This entry was posted on Monday, November 21st, 2005 at 9:25 pm and is filed under Crime, Culture, Europe, Immigration, Race. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.