Suburbs: neither angels nor demons

Mohamed Bouhafsi's documentary "The Suburbs Are Paradise" was a resounding success on France 2 (February 18). An exhibition, "Darling Suburbs," is currently on display at the Palais de la Porte-Dorée in Paris. The cult 1990s film "La Haine" (The Hate) has risen from the ashes in the form of a musical comedy and will be presented at the Fête de l'Humanité.

The press also widely echoed the book Grands ensemble , by sociologists Fabien Truong and Gérôme Truc, who devoted ten years of research to Grigny (Essonne) and dissected the daily lives of the inhabitants of my city. The suburbs are thus in the spotlight. But it is not, it seems, for public decision-makers. Will it become so again with the next interministerial committee on the city, the high mass of urban policy under the aegis of the Prime Minister, postponed many times and now scheduled for June 6?

The necessary thirst for truth in the Bétharram affair has clearly gripped François Bayrou. But above all, the suburbs have not been a priority on the government's agenda for a long time. And perhaps not since Jean-Louis Borloo launched, twenty years ago now, urban renewal for our neighborhoods, which is unfairly criticized, just as much as urban policy, for which 15 million euros have just been frozen.

These 15 million euros are a drop in the ocean in the ocean for the state budget, but they are a further blow to our neighborhoods, which are increasingly becoming less of a priority. Especially since urban policy, which represents 1% of the state budget, cannot replace national policies on employment, training, the fight against discrimination, integration, education, security, or health.

Part of the French problem with its suburbs may be, above all, the way we view them, as if they were a burden, but this also stems from a heavy colonial legacy that has not been resolved by the national imagination. Yet our message is simple: our neighborhoods are a solution for the country, not a problem. And far from the media narrative that seeks to pit rural France and its pavilions against urban France, its inhabitants are neither angels nor demons. Some make the suburbs shine on the big screen. And others, during the Olympics, make the Marseillaise resonate on the sports podiums and are the pride of the blue, white, and red of France.

These figures are banners of national reconciliation with the suburbs. But above all, there is an urgent need to demystify our suburbs. Like everyone else in our neighborhoods, we want to train, learn, be paid a fair wage, and live peacefully in a free, equal, and fraternal France.