French Rap as a Flash Point

– By Scott Sayare, for The International Herald Tribune –
PARIS — A gentlemanly patron of the arts, Frédéric Mitterrand, France’s culture minister, seems an unlikely champion of rap. But when the French artist Orelsan called publicly for his support at the height of a months-long free-speech polemic around the rapper’s song “Sale Pute” (Dirty Whore), [...]

Crossing the border to talk about race

– By Scott Sayare –
PARIS — In France, contrast and contradiction abound. It is a country at once old and new, liberal and conservative, uninhibited and repressed, imbued with the spirit of Révolution and Résistance and yet clinging desperately to an outdated worldview, dreaming of the past. And as the nation of the Gauls undergoes an [...]

In France, a free press? Not when it comes to racism.

– By Scott Sayare –
PARIS — Last week, Paris’s court of appeals sentenced Jean-Marie Le Pen, founder and president of the Front National, the radical right-wing French political party, to three months prison time, with parole, and a 10,000 euro fine. Le Pen had appealed the sentence, first handed down last February, for remarks made [...]

“Apartheid” in France, says diversity commissioner

– By Scott Sayare –
PARIS — As Obama’s historic election and inauguration begin to fade from the front pages of the French press, so too does an opportunity to change the country’s culture of quiet, but fierce, racism and xenophobia slip away.
“Today, we’re digging a trench that’s leading us directly to apartheid,” said  Yazid Sabeg, [...]