rioting in France: a glimpse back at 2005

In 2005, I translated a French article by journalist Christophe Barbier into English. At the time, France was experiencing massive riots in the "suburbs" (la banlieue literally translates as "the suburbs," but it normally refers to the massive projects that surround Paris, mostly inhabited by racial minorities, among whom is a very strong unassimilated Muslim presence) on the Chirac administration's watch. I just reread my translation and saw a few parallels, here and here, between France's situation then and the United States' situation now. If you're curious to reread that old blog post, here's the link to it. It's incumbent on US leaders to try to avoid making France's mistakes. This is a chance to learn from history.