@Liu Kang, can you speak to this for those like myself who don't know
Well that's not really true.
I always say there is "broadly" two types of Black people in France : the Carribean ones (like myself) and the African ones. It's not as clear cut as this but let's say it like this just for this post. The Carribean come from the DOM-TOM (Guadeloupe ,Martinique, Réunion etc.) and their history is closely related to mainland France as the Islands are administratively France (Carribeans were always French citizens by default, at least since WWII), their culture is mostly Christian, the language is French or French créole, their artists and the music was always welcome ans also mostly, the islands are often places for French tourism so let's say there is close proximity and back and forth between the Carribeans and mainland France (though politically it's a bit different but I'll be short). For the brehs with African ancestry, it's a bit more complicated as they come from different countries (so they weren't citizens), often from different cultures (Muslim for most), and the link between France and their countries is more top-down with France usually being the part in favor. You could mostly link the way they were treated to the Maghrebi people (also African) though the relationship between France and them is more bitter but that's another thing.
Colonization hit both territories and the consequences still exists in both (economical dependance, long lasting resentment, unemployment and lack of future so the young emigrate to France etc.) but the brehs from the Islands always had better integration for the previously cited reasons. When the parents who migrated from the Islands looked for jobs in the 60s-70s, they could get (low level) government jobs like the postal office, the hospitals (nurses), police etc because they were French. It was different for African brehs whose parents had to struggle in less favorable jobs (cleaning, security jobs and the likes) and still do for some though their migration was earlier. This, because the Carribeans were always most seen and been as French (culture-wise) than the Africans ones.
Regarding how the young feel, well, to each his own I guess but I never witnessed any Black dude repping France hard. I mean the sports team yeah (above all the Carribeans as we don't have any sport teams but we rep our sportsmen the same way some Coli dudes rep the Lakers because of Kobe). Same with African brehs (though I can't confirm much), when I was younger I often saw them rep France when there were not any African teams or sportsman around but they always repped Ivory Coast or Mali first when they could for example. When it comes to sport, French brehs are dual like that but for different reasons. We do rep France but not hard like that. That's why I like the current team (though the Maghrebi brehs feel some type of way as there are no Benzema, Nasri or Ben Arfa but that's another topic) because they do rep France but also their roots and parent's countries which is great.
If you guys are interested in French Blackness (or Black Frenchness
), you should read about the political Negritude movement (after the WWII) which aimed at defined what was the French speaking Black man (to make it short obviously)
These guys are the greatest soccer players ever!
Afric00ns.
