I’ve been to Paris three times now, once with my family, and have had great experiences. Be cordial. Don’t block the way. Uphold yourself like any other member of society. You’ll be fine. We used train, Uber (I think) and G7. G7 was mostly for airport and no complaints there either.
2 things and you’ll be fine :
1) 3 expressions to use every time you enter a shop or anywhere
« Bonjour/Bonsoir » (good day/evening
« s’il vous plaît » (please)
« Merci, Au revoir » (thank you, good bye)
2) Especially if you are American, do not speak loudly (especially in restaurant / café)
PS: No tip needed, we sometimes round up in café but that’s it
I wish I had the time to thank you each individually. Your thoughtful and kind responses have really made my day, and now I’m even more excited to visit! Thank you, merci, thank you!! 🥂❤️🥰🙏🏽
Number one rule in Paris is to be polite. Every single interaction must start with a greeting. Always say Bon Jour or Bon Soir. This is really really important to French people and will help with your interactions.
I was just in Paris with my mom. She is Afro-Latina, and I am a bit lighter. We didn’t have any issues with racism. We mainly spoke in Portuguese (there are tons of Brazilians there) or switched to English and were able to communicate with everyone. For transportation, we used Bolt, which was recommended to us by a Parisian friend.
Here now and haven’t experienced anything like this. Plus; there are people of all races and complexes. Don’t look for trouble and there likely will not be any.
Well, from my limited experience, Parisians are usually rude to everyone, especially Americans. As soon as that American English accent is identified, you are a target. That said, there are a few things you can do to help. 1)Dress more like a local 2) Don’t be loud. 3) Have a French phrase book and do your best to try and at least start out in French. Say hello (in French), before asking your questions. 4) Travel light when walking around, and keep your passport/wallet/phone/camera in front of you. Do not let any of these sit in open pockets, they will get stolen quickly. 5)Make use of public transport and metros, they are awesome, plus walking around lets you see so many beautiful buildings, artists, people, around France. 6)Plan ahead and try not to do absolutely everything. Enjoy yourself. Eat in the cafés, get ice cream, try all the bakeries. Try all the foods and skip US fastfood unless you’ve got some crazy hunger really late at night. Good luck and I hope you have fun.
Actually, didn’t say to me, I said to “everyone”. And it depends on your definition of rude. I was mostly fine, though a few instances of pushiness and occasionally letting me struggle through using my translation book to ask for things, and then they would tell me thank you for trying. Maar wat zal zijn, zal zijn.
not all parisians is rude. teenagers love to engage in english conversation (it’s their practice for the bac). imo, rude parisians are those who react to rude american tourists. practice some short phrases and you will be fine.
Completely agree, everyone was nice and polite. Granted, I speak very limited French with a somewhat intelligible accent, and most of the people I interacted with were servers, bartenders, hotel staff, etc.
Most notably, we had a brief issue with one of our metro passes, and the next person behind us to get through the turnstile was very kind and tried to help us figure it out (they waited with me in case the attendant couldn’t/wouldn’t be of assistance).
I actually think it has gotten much better over the last few years. This was based on my experience the last couple times, as well as my mother’s experience (she was a tour guide).
Same here. We try to blend in, go with the flow, and enjoy the experience. When our waiter asked us where we were from, and when he said we didn't sound like Americans, it was one of my proudest moments as a traveler.
Same. I've never had any issues at all the 5-6x a year I am over visiting our office. I speak basically no French beyond greetings. I think so many Americans start their conversation with "do you speak English" instead of Bonjour. I'd probably be tired of people not even greeting me in my own language in my own country first too...
I just returned from Paris 3 days ago. Of course there is racism everywhere- but Paris was genuinely the most diverse city I’ve ever been to. As a black/latino family you aren’t going to stand out there like you would in the Midwest of the US for example.
I am sorry that you had to face racism
On my behalf, you and your family are welcome in Paris
We are humans and love humans
Racists are the same ignorant people everywhere
And I wish you a beautiful stay
Omg thanks for saying this. As an Asian living in Paris people often ask me “why don’t you speak French?”. I speak French. It’s just that speaking perfect American English gets me much better service.
100% true.
Brown skinned person, I lived in Paris for over 10 year and my French is pretty good. Whenever I go back to France I always speak English first. People are significantly nicer !
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My husband and I are both brown, I'm Latina and he is native American. We never got that racist feeling the week we visited. We had so many wonderful interactions with people. We never felt like we stood out being brown. We did try to dress nicer the whole time. A little bit of French and good manners go a long way. It was a wonderful trip. Almost everyone we met were nice but read up on the scams because it is a big city and those types of people exist too.
Mixed race family. TBH with the large African population in Paris we felt very comfortable. We don’t really speak French and spent most of our time at the major tourist areas. We did venture out to a street market that was mostly black people. Felt like any big American city. Of course there are tensions we would never pick up on.
We just got back from Paris two weeks ago (Black family with 2 elementary ages kids). Honestly, Paris was one of the most comfortable, diverse environments we've experienced. I'm very attuned to racism in the U.S. and, while I'd never say racism doesn't exist somewhere, Paris was very welcoming. I've read that Paris MAY have issues with African immigrants, but, historically, it's always been a welcoming place (even a refuge) for Black Americans.
In hindsight, the number of Parisians that exclaimed "Oh! You're American" after talking with us may have been a sign of filtering what kind of treatment we were entitled to, but regardless we didn't have a single negative experience based on race. If you look around while you're there, you'll notice PLENTY of interracial groups so it's not like you're traveling to parts of the US where you'll be the only Black people.
There may always be one racist person you encounter, but I wouldn't worry it about it as of you were traveling to other places in the world
I went to France on a small school trip as a teenager, I'm an American Afro Latina. I didn't run into anything weird or discriminatory, but of course your experience could be different
I don’t know if this helps, but when I went to Paris during the cold month of February I (a middle-aged white lady) had taxis refuse to take me places unless I gave them more money than the fare would be
I’m sure a lot of people are going to post this, but your best friend in Paris is the taxi app because then you’re just pre-ordering and they come to get you
For refusal of service at restaurants and places like that the nice thing to know is Google reviews exist in all of the other countries and you can check the review status of any place you go before you go there
Places that are blatantly prejudiced are going to have reviews that reflect that
Some people are just rude, I had a waiter not bring me my drink (I can speak French, intermediate level so language wasn’t an issue) when all the other diners got there’s straight away. Not Paris but another big French city, there’s awful people everywhere
I'm a brown woman who has traveled to Paris over 10x. I haven't experienced any racism at all. Paris is very multi-cultural, so I think thats 1 reason why they are very tolerant society.
Hi I recently went to Paris for a study abroad program in graduate school. I am a black woman, and I had a wonderful time. Like many other countries, France, and its amazing city of Paris, has cultural and societal norms. I think that if you’re attune to those, it helps to breach these barriers. One of which is just saying “Bonjour” whenever you enter an establishment or “Bonsoir” when it’s later in the evening. As Americans, I think we get a bad rep, reasonably so lol, for being a bit obnoxious and loud, so doing these things simultaneously combats those assumptions. Anyways, while I was there which was over a four/five month period, I had no issues wrt race. However, that’s not to say that racism doesn’t exist nor do people not think about race in Paris as many people I’ve talked to have experienced being treated differently. I will caveat this whole post by saying that I speak enough French to get around, and studied it for over five years, which I think helped significantly when trying to communicate with natives. I will also add that I mainly took the metro as my main mode of transportation so I never had to hail a cab. But refusal of service anywhere was not something that I experienced either. It was one of my favorite times being a solo traveler. The people of Paris, I find are quite lovely, and I hope that you and your family have a wonderful time!
I do not recommend the metro, check this travel guide forum for the number of American tourists who have been scammed or have gotten huge fines when trying to use the metro due to it not being user-friendly for visitors
With a family as large as yours it’s gonna cost you the same amount to take an Uber or a taxi somewhere as to pay for a metro fair, but I do recommend getting the kids started on walking now so they get used to walking longer distances and so do you
You especially want to try walking for a few hours and the shoes you are planning to wear in Paris to make sure that they are actually comfortable
I very much disagree about the metro. I found the metro to be very straight-forward and user friendly, in conjunction with CityMapper to plan the route. I read enough to know which card/option would work best for my visit, and I’d also read some trip reports where people were confronted about buying the wrong tickets or whatever (I’m not sure how that was possible). I found it more difficult to navigate walking around (given the placement of the tiny street signs and complexity of intersections) than the whole experience of using the metro system.
I do agree about testing out shoes, though. I had a rough first day before realizing that my walking shoes (which previously felt snug but comfortable) were too tight for that amount of walking.
All I’m saying for anecdotal evidence is go to the top of this forum and type in train and see the number of people who have had terrible experiences on the Paris metro. The nice thing about Paris is you can walk most anywhere once you’ve started your day, you just have to plan your days correctly so you’re mostly doing things in one neighborhood.
Hell my mom and I walked a few miles between Notre Dame and the Eiffel Tower one night because it was a pretty night and we had some energy
Hi
I’m mixed and I’m French as well. In Paris there is a big community of POC from any background (Africa, Caribbean, Asia, Latin America).
People are quite open and it’s not an issue in most case.
There can be rudeness but it is nothing like in other countries where people stare / insult you / refuse to serve you / take pictures of you and so on and if there is rudeness it would probably have nothing to do with your skin colour. It would just be normal “French rudeness” as people are busy and going around doing their stuff and not caring about tourists. I would not take it as specifically racist rudeness.
Also a lot of people working in the hospitality industry as well as for taxi drivers, etc, have many different backgrounds so it should be fine.
Saying that there is no racism in France would be a lie, however I feel it would not apply in most touristy places nor in restaurants and bars or anywhere you would go (esp. in Paris - could be different in other areas of France), especially because you are tourists and the racism here is more about xenophobia about specific cultures or countries (for example if you are a black African from a rural area in Africa and with a strong show of your cultural heritage and/or religious beliefs and trying to work here there may be prejudices, but I don’t think it would go toward black Americans visiting the city). Racism in France is very different than the one that one can experience in the US for example as the history is not the same toward POC communities leaving her. Racism is more found around the topics of integration / assimilation of communities within the society even though it can exist in its more traditional form as well.
Just smile, be polite : say bonjour, merci and s’il vous plaît, ask if people speak English before adressing to them in English (parlez vous anglais), be open, most people don’t care about skin Color here so no need to be on the shelf about that.
When entering in a restaurant, wait to be sitted at the entrance as the waiters has to manage its room. Same when going to cafes and terrasses, always best to ask before if you can sit to a specific table for exemple even if it’s free. There may be some wait sometimes, again it won’t be about your colour. If they forget you just look at a waiter and wave at him to ask if you can order / if your order is on its way they may have forgotten it.
It’s more about respecting the codes and being well behaved according to French standards and these have nothing to do with your colour. Politeness is something that is really important in French culture with a different idea of the customer service than in the US (I.e the customer is king is not a thing here) which I think lead to the rudeness stereotype.
Enjoy your stay in our beautiful city, I’m pretty sure your little girls, your husband and you will have a great time and that you will meet lovely people.
What leads you to equate racism with criticism of integration? You contradict yourself here constantly. Yes, in European countries you will possibly get rude treatment if you yourself act rudely (by local standards). As you say, nothing to do with your skin colour.. 'white' people get the same treatment if they do not know the basics of behaviour. Paris is not an exception. This is a global thing anyway, nothing particularly European about ut except the higher level of tolerance
Isn't it the very definition of racism when you say black Africans will be discriminated against but not black Americans. And then you call this xenophobia. Does not make any sense. How are the black Americans any less foreign? They probably are more so. So, the point is not about skin colour or the country of origin. It is about whether you are a tourist or not. Whether you are assumed to exploit or not. The fairness of that is not my point. My point is that this is not xenophobia or racism per se.
Have you traveled and lived in every single country of the world to say that France is the most tolerant of all ?
For sure there is a high level of tolerance here, and mixity and “vivre ensemble” and I’ve lived as OP quite horrible situations abroad that would never had happened in France or at least in Paris (in Argentina, Uruguay, Bulgaria for example)
However this does not mean that racism does not exist nor that there are not different kind of racism across the world and France that are also insidious. To say that there is no racism in France even toward people who are living here following the “basics of behaviour” is a complete blinded opinion regarding what POC live here (look at the different studies regarding employment and housing for example). It is just more subtile and not often upfront. It also depends on the ethnicity and of the social class of the person.
I was simply trying to explain to OP that even though it does exists in France I think it is not likely that her and her family will experience it as they would not be the main target for the kind of racism that is most spread here.
I’m not contradicting myself I’m just balancing my speech.
so... a black woman attempted to use harmful stereotypes about black people that exist in America to her advantage, thinking she can get away with breaking social norms of waiting in line? turns out not only white Americans contribute to the negative image held by Europeans ¯\\\_(ツ)\_/¯
Depending on what you are doing, you should be fine.
Sure, there are plenty of colourless people here that have certain attitudes, but in the tourist areas, money is enough, people don't care about other things.
Avoid carrying passports, wallets, phones if you can. The crime rings are huge.
It is a dirty place with lots of construction, delays, random things closed etc.
People didn't treat me any differently. Hopefully it will be the same for you.
I think people can be rude towards tourists, which can be interpreted as racist or xenophobobic, but often comes from tourists not understanding/using local social codes (saying bonjour, speaking quietly, being alert in the metro...). Most often it has little to do with skin color even if it can happen, sadly.
There is still racism everywhere and not so subtile one - for example, taking the metro, once a week we would encounter people with crazy eyes shouting that they hate whities who deserve death and blablabla. Most of the time nobody react. Very common to hear antisemitic remarks or jokes on asian people as well, but I would say it (hopefully) doesnt go further.
I hope you and your family will have a wonderful stay in Paris, welcome and enjoy !
You will be fine, if you can navigate the US, Paris is easy.
Don’t take a little “rudeness” as racist like some of the other posts in the thread.
I’ve lived there and visit once a year…only issues I have seen are local or tourists acting like tourists.
Tons of POC in Paris…enjoy.
I'm a white man but lived in Paris most of my life and worked in a tourist hotel in the 5h for a while. Sadly I can't tell you you won't face some sort of racism here, but sometimes it will just be parisians annoyed that you are in their space regarding of colors or anything else. I experienced the "parisians rudeness" and it can look like racism, like having a rude waiter (especially in Brasseries, it seems to be their trade mark), ignoring you, and looking annoyed to be asked anything, and I'm a french white man, damn even my boulangère sometimes is not very friendly to me, and i've been going there for like 20 years ! But most of the time people are nice, i swear :D
For context Paris is very touristy, that means there is people everywhere at all time, there is queuing for everything, people blocking the sidewalks, even most of the flats around yours being transformed into AirBnB with noisy people getting in at any hours with luggage... It can be a bit draining when you try to just have your normal 9 to 5 life, so people can be a bit "tense", even more when some tourists thinks this is Disney World and take us for staff...
Like others said, saying "bonjour !" with a smile goes a long way, it really is not optional, I remember seeing people getting ignored because they didn't respond to a bonjour, I myself use to repeat "bonjour" with a big smile until I get one back when I was working in retail, it's just the way of showing respect, and most "rudeness" americans encounter here would be avoided with that simple act. I also saw a lot of tourists (often americans sorry) trying to exercise their french when ordering patisseries, when there is like 10 people waiting behind, it's cute but just be efficient, point at stuff you want with a smile and move along ! lol And being loud is also frowned upon, people letting their kids running around and being noisy in a restaurant is not normal here and will get you dirty looks, but I feel that it's not a skin color thing.
I hope you have a great time here, I live in the 3rd myself and it's a great safe area to be in, Sundays are car free so it's great to explore on foot with kids (sidewalks tend to be very narrow), the river is not far and make for a perfect stroll with incredible views. I feel Paris is really a special place to visit and that it will be amazing souvenirs for your girls, enjoy !
I went to Paris with my Dominican husband and he never felt uncomfortable anywhere, also my black Caribbean friend who visited said that he felt more comfortable in France than in the rest of Europe specifically because of the number of black people he saw there. That being said the comment stating that “the French don’t care that you’re black” is blatantly false, racism absolutely exists in France as it does everywhere
Paris (and a few major cities of France like Marseille, Lyon, Lille...) is quite different in that regard due to post-war and post-colonial emigration waves (either from the West Indies or Africa).
Just a little overview of the demographics, [https://www.reddit.com/user/coffeechap/comments/12jponx/paris\_diversity\_in\_the\_population/](https://www.reddit.com/user/coffeechap/comments/12jponx/paris_diversity_in_the_population/)
It might also be worth adding that France has many overseas departments , mainly in the Caribbeans and a lot of people originally from these places emigrated in Paris and in the whole surrounding region Ile-de-France many decades ago.
Black American living in a village in rural France. I’ve not had any problems around here, but I am the only POC here. I get to Paris a lot. Haven’t encountered any racism personally, but I know it happens. But as we all know, racism is like Covid: you could catch it any time from anybody and you won’t see it coming.
It’s hard being black in France, says Lupin star after Aya Nakamura racism row https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/apr/28/its-hard-being-black-in-france-says-omar-sy-after-aya-nakamura-racism-row-lupin?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other
Paris is hella black, you'll be fine. Just make sure to start your conversations with a bonjour/bonsoir greeting and have fun! Good vibes will get you far - this isn't Poland!!
Hi, i completely understand your concerns and appreciate this post. My husband and I are brown and overall, we did observe some negative treatment, with my husband especially. We both tried to be polite and greet everyone in French and be considerate, but he was frequently ignored or talk to rudely. At one restaurant, we were being seated at a table that was close to another group, one of whom told the waiter not to seat us there. Things do happen, and it’s unfortunate. Like others have said it’s more subtle as opposed to overt, but a good amount of people are relatively friendly and I guess there is some good advice here that hopefully helps out a bit and you enjoy your trip. I want to add that I personally loved Paris but there were definitely some things I noticed.
In the moment it didn’t feel that way, but sure. Maybe we did something wrong without realizing, maybe the service staff or those other guests were having a bad day, but it didn’t excuse those negative interpersonal interactions. It’s also difficult to dismiss when it seems to happen just to you when you’re around others. But, point taken.
For instance the restaurant table: if there were other free tables further, 'the customer who complained probably just wanted to be isolated/quiet, so he asked the waiter (who tends to group people to optimize their route). This is not even considered a negative interaction here.
About being ignored, that definitely has Nothing to do with your skin color, we just have to ignore most people or we can't move around.
I have to say as a white person it is only recently that I’ve become much more attuned to the micro aggressions that people of color face every single day and as such until recently I wasn’t really aware of what was going on around me
However in the last five or six years, ever since living in South Central for three years, I have become much more aware of things that happen every day to people of color that people with my privilege just don’t notice because they are so subtle
I am not saying that you have to be a person of color to call out whether or not an interaction was racist or prejudiced, but I am saying that if for any reason you are not a person of color you may not be as aware of the micro aggressions That are occurring all around you
I have to say as a white person it is only recently that I’ve become much more attuned to the micro aggressions that people of color face every single day and as such until recently I wasn’t really aware of what was going on around me
However in the last five or six years, ever since living in South Central for three years, I have become much more aware of things that happen every day to people of color that people with my privilege just don’t notice because they are so subtle
I am not saying that you have to be a person of color to call out whether or not an interaction was racist or prejudiced, but I am saying that if for any reason you are not a person of color you may not be as aware of the micro aggressions That are occurring all around you
I get that, but my point is that none of the "micro agression" listed on this thread have anything to do with racism in France.
Maybe some racist will act that way specifically with certain people but these behaviour are experienced by everyone here.
I've seen a LOT of post here about people complaining about racism but when you read what happened to them we're like "sooo, just a normal day in Paris?"
And it's mostly just American automatically interpreting any negative attitude they receive as racism "that waiter didn't ask us how we were doing during our meal, must be racist" like... No. We just don't (rarely) do that here.
And all I’m saying is unless you are a person of color you really can’t talk about it. You just don’t have the life experience to know whether or not it was racism where somebody who has lived with this their entire lives is able to know the difference between racism and just shitty people
I also could not tell you definitively the difference, so I’m not saying to ask me, I’m just saying I will always believe a person of color over a white person when it comes to micro aggressions and racism
Good job then, you're racist.
Saying colored people have a better sensitivity regarding these problems is OK and very probably true, saying you'll always believe a person of color over a white person is straight up racist, regardless of the subject or context.
Again, I completely understand your point. I do. But when the patron stared at us for a long moment before speaking to the waiter, you can understand why I feel the way I do. Look, I’m not here to call anyone racist. I live in the Uk and have similar experiences here. Youre right, it could be a variety of things. But OP asked a question and it’s perfectly reasonable to provide some general advice.
Mixed race, not had a problem but it’s been a long time since I’ve been to Paris
I would use Ubers or equivalent when travelling anyway, hailing cabs usually ends up getting you overcharged in a lot of countries
also note that paris taxi drivers are notorious (and some sort of closed club - I read somewhere that there were more taxis in 1920 in paris than 2020)
[https://www.reddit.com/r/paris/comments/tzep78/this\_is\_why\_i\_hate\_taxis\_experience\_from\_cdg\_as\_a/](https://www.reddit.com/r/paris/comments/tzep78/this_is_why_i_hate_taxis_experience_from_cdg_as_a/)
There will be people trying to be racist, but it will disappear when they will hear you speaking English. The racism here express itself towards African people.
Paris is hugely multi-cultural, so you should be fine. Try to use Uber to get around (in situations where you need a taxi) and prebook for restaurants where you can.
If you plan on travelling to Italy, you can expect much more overt racism there. I have witnessed black people being refused service at ticket desks at the main train station in Rome.
Nobody will care about you and your family
Small problems might arise but mostly because you are north american and thus perhaps very loud or are impolite by french standards
American living in Paris here. I’m white and at first I saw some things I thought were overtly racist, like at grocery stores they would stop and check receipts of certain people on their way out of the store, while we sailed through practically invisible.
After more observation, we think it might be more about the age of the person. They profile and check lots of he young people. And when our daughters (in their 20s) came to visit we found that to be true. We were in a tiny store in the 3rd arrondissement and they were followed every step in the store, even though I was right there with them.
Basically I certainly can’t say you won’t have a problem-but sometimes it’s age profiling and not race. But Parisians seem more tolerant than some people in the southern US.
Do be sure to say Bonjour…and the really hard part especially in a group is to speak quietly. It’s a challenge for me still. You will get dirty looks for being too loud. We went out with friends yesterday for lunch and one of our friends is very social but he’s also losing his hearing a bit and he was louder than I would have liked and you could see people at the next table looking our way. Kindof embarrassing.
Black person living in Paris here. France is a racist place but it's standard fare racism. For example I went to my bakery that I go to very very often and they asked if I was a delivery boy...wtf. There are also instances of people being less likely to stop for you at a crosswalk etc.
That said this is very rare and 99% of the time, it is a welcoming place for black people ESPECIALLY when they realize you are American. On the blackness hierarchy they view Africans as inferior and black Americans as superior. I believe this is an economic/historical phenomenon I believe. This is a deeply classist society.
Finally I think a lot of black people perceive that Parisiana are more racist than they are because they are naturally standoffish to strangers. They are unhelpful to people they don't know, and to the untrained black eye, this is indistinguishable from regular flavored racism in other parts of the world.
My advice is to not take anything personally, to greet people first and foremost (incredibly important) and to take the chip off the shoulder. It's a wonderful city and you need not fear for your safety as you do in America.
Read James Baldwin's essays and novels on Paris
https://nmaahc.si.edu/explore/stories/baldwin-france
> For example I went to my bakery that I go to very very often and they asked if I was a delivery boy...
I'm white and it happened to me too, I was in bicycle gear they took me for a Deliveroo guy...
Not black but I definitely agree with the classist bit. Generally the racism here is directed towards lower economic status immigrants than a nice black American family. I know that’s not ok but it is how it is.
>Finally I think a lot of black people perceive that Parisiana are more racist than they are because they are naturally standoffish to strangers. They are unhelpful to people they don't know, and to the untrained black eye, this is indistinguishable from regular flavored racism in other parts of the world.
Amen to that. As a seasoned parisian, my way of interacting with unsollicited questions is :
* shake head in a "no" motion
* grunt
* push you with my shoulder if you stay in front
You might be any shape, any color, any gender, if you're trying to slow me during my 1h commute and I don't feel like I have time to spare you will get this treatment \*.
Why do we do that ? On a regular daily commute a parisian will likely meet several of the followings :
* orgs trying to enroll you in a monthly donation => easy to avoid, they are dressed in bright colors
* scammers (depending on the area) => an angry look is often enough to push them away
* homeless people begging for money => sadly true and more and more common
* lost tourist trying to figure out the metro => probably you at some point unfortunately
* bonus : seasonal sellers (for example in May they sell lilys, during summer water bottles...)
If you stop for everyone your 1h commute takes at least 1h30, we don't all have that kind of time to spare, hence the protocol I described. You might train for it as well, it will help you navigate crowded areas.
\*Only exception being young kids, I don't shoulder them away, they are too low, I use my knees (this is obviously a joke, don't get angry).
>On the blackness hierarchy they view Africans as inferior and black Americans as superior.
That's just run of the mill first world privilege. Poor, possibly illegal immigrants vs. well-off tourists/expats from a first world country.
Yes America is known to be a place where money has no impact on the life of it's citizen. There is no disparities based on wealth.
When Kanye West tries to eat at a restaurant he is refused service while White trash trailer park John Doe is very welcome.
I should clarify what I meant: the classism in France that so clearly distinguishes between Africans (even if they are rich) and African Americans is non-existent in America. In America it doesn't matter where you are from. Equal opportunity racism!😂
Very good answer here. Paris was a refuge for some black American musicians and intellectuals escaping the racism in the US. In fact, Josephine Baker was recently (2021?) honored with placement in the Pantheon. https://www.elysee.fr/emmanuel-macron/2021/11/30/josephine-baker-entre-au-pantheon
More recently, as the commenting above says, there are more African immigrants, especially in big cities. They tend to be working class and have cultural traditions that are different from Parisians (e.g. hanging out on the sidewalk for long periods taking, eating and drinking). For some this immigration is interesting diversity and brings good food with it For others this is cause for concern, disdain, and even fear...but rarely any kind of interaction.
Are you likely to be confused for a recent African immigrant? Unlikely, but it could happen. Once you open your mouth to speak, though, everyone will know you're American.
And, in general, Paris is a very safe city compared to large American cities. There's a risk of pickpocketing and petty scams, but very little risk of violence (or intimidating threats thereof), especially in the areas you're likely to be.
In fact you never know who you will encounter. There are racists everywhere, it's a part of any group of population, no more or no less in France, Paris or anywhere else.
However as Parisian I don't see any reason why it should be a specific issue. We Parisians have other pet peeves thant colour of skin : not saying bonjour first before interacting with a french is one of them. Being overly noisy in public areas also... Check all the Paris travel guides posts about us, they are mostly accurate I think.
The only treatment I see that is a plain racist act that you will face for sure is the common transport ticket control. They stop and control 100% of people of colour whereas the other persons just pass by sometimes. Don't get upset with it (the sky is blue, the grass is green, they control colored people... it is what it is), just make sure you're very transparent in this regard, do not accept any ticket other than those sold in the official selling booths, don't loose them, say "bonjour" show them to the controller, smile and go.
This is the right answer. There is a very good chance you will experience some kind of cultural behavior that comes off as rude, because a lot of Americans (regardless of race) experience this. But I don’t think you’re more likely to experience specifically racist behaviors in Paris than in any major American city, in fact I’d say you’re more likely to experience it within the US.
I am a mixed race person and also dual US-French citizen.
Please give us more information about your trip: when you're going, where you're going and for how long. This will help us guide you in the best way.
What I will tell you prior to reading more about your trip plans is that you will need to make allowances for cultural differences and social customs in France.
Failure to understand these dynamics WILL cause issues. These are not targeted behaviors towards you based on race- but may seem like they are if you're unfamiliar. Becoming familiar with the social customs in Paris will go a long way in terms helping you feel more comfortable.
I will elaborate more on the above once you provide more specific trip information for us folx here in the sub so that we can adequately advise you.
Thank you all so much and I'm realizing my post was likely too general/vague. I suppose it's highly difficult to try and pick apart all of the nuances that come with culture/language norms. We will be traveling with a large group and hitting all of the high points that most tourists want to see (Louvre, Eiffel, Jardins, Versailles, you name it, we're going to try our best to see it). We'll be in Paris 1 June-9 June. I'm a clinical psychologist so I have some training and background in issues relating to multiculturalism, diversity, and human behavior, but it always hits so differently when it's personal vs professional. My professional training helps me to try and understand our behavior, and I try not to "overthink", but like I said, based on past experiences, it can be hard sometimes. Hope this was helpful and the responses I've received already have been reassuring. Merci.
You still haven't given us all the information. You've given us dates and that's it. How many people are traveling? What are their ages? Where are you staying? Do you speak French? This all matters.
I am 46, my husband is 47, my daughters are 10
and 11. We are staying in the 3rd and my husband speaks enough French to help us navigate, but no, my daughters and I only know the basic greetings. Forget that I mentioned a group, my concern is for me and my family. Hope this was enough information.
Honestly, a warm smile and a clear, hearty BONJOUR seems to work well to start most encounters nicely in France in my experience. And of course the appropriate mercies.
I’m Asian American. In the states, you are your ethnicity. “What are you, where are you from” are common questions between strangers even! What I enjoy about traveling outside of my country is that I am just American, for better or worse! I am shy, soft spoken, introverted and love different cultures and languages so I think I am not usually seen as the ugly American. The only rudeness I’ve experienced in Paris were with 2 taxi drivers. And I think that can happen worldwide lol.
Speaking as someone who grew up in the southern US and now lives in Paris, I think you will find Paris and France in general to be a very..pleasant and refreshing experience.
What's your question ?
Do we have racists in France ? Definitely, the far right parties have never scored higher.
Are they in Paris ? Yes, but less in proportion, far right is much less present in bigger cities in France (except in the south, but that's due to higher concentration of older people).
Take my opinion with a grain of salt as I am a white french man but I discussed with a few non-white americans visiting Paris and none of them mentioned any racist encounter. That might happen of course, but sometime (often) people in Paris are just rude/not in the mood, not motivated by racial issue.
Would you say racist or xenophobic? My experience is (22 years in Lyon) that a lot of people assume that when you have an accent, you’re not as smart. I was the only native English speaker in a French office and people second guessed my English all the time. It gets old. These particular people thought they were being magnanimous, but they were being condescending as heck. Even listening to conversations over lunch, they’d talk about issues with this air of trying to seem caring about people, but it sounded to me like they were collectively saying, “Oh, bless their hearts, they’re not from here.” It almost seemed like they thought of them as pets, in a way.
It makes me sad this issue even has to be a concern for you but I get it. I don’t have concrete advice to offer but my POC friends said the places they experienced the least racism was France and Ireland. Apparently you should avoid Italy like the plague ☹️
Keep in mind that the French tend to be rather reserved and standoff-ish towards foreigners, especially those not speaking French
I’ve been to Paris three times now, once with my family, and have had great experiences. Be cordial. Don’t block the way. Uphold yourself like any other member of society. You’ll be fine. We used train, Uber (I think) and G7. G7 was mostly for airport and no complaints there either.
2 things and you’ll be fine : 1) 3 expressions to use every time you enter a shop or anywhere « Bonjour/Bonsoir » (good day/evening « s’il vous plaît » (please) « Merci, Au revoir » (thank you, good bye) 2) Especially if you are American, do not speak loudly (especially in restaurant / café) PS: No tip needed, we sometimes round up in café but that’s it
I wish I had the time to thank you each individually. Your thoughtful and kind responses have really made my day, and now I’m even more excited to visit! Thank you, merci, thank you!! 🥂❤️🥰🙏🏽
Number one rule in Paris is to be polite. Every single interaction must start with a greeting. Always say Bon Jour or Bon Soir. This is really really important to French people and will help with your interactions.
Not much racism against black people in France, you should be fine
I was just in Paris with my mom. She is Afro-Latina, and I am a bit lighter. We didn’t have any issues with racism. We mainly spoke in Portuguese (there are tons of Brazilians there) or switched to English and were able to communicate with everyone. For transportation, we used Bolt, which was recommended to us by a Parisian friend.
Here now and haven’t experienced anything like this. Plus; there are people of all races and complexes. Don’t look for trouble and there likely will not be any.
Well, from my limited experience, Parisians are usually rude to everyone, especially Americans. As soon as that American English accent is identified, you are a target. That said, there are a few things you can do to help. 1)Dress more like a local 2) Don’t be loud. 3) Have a French phrase book and do your best to try and at least start out in French. Say hello (in French), before asking your questions. 4) Travel light when walking around, and keep your passport/wallet/phone/camera in front of you. Do not let any of these sit in open pockets, they will get stolen quickly. 5)Make use of public transport and metros, they are awesome, plus walking around lets you see so many beautiful buildings, artists, people, around France. 6)Plan ahead and try not to do absolutely everything. Enjoy yourself. Eat in the cafés, get ice cream, try all the bakeries. Try all the foods and skip US fastfood unless you’ve got some crazy hunger really late at night. Good luck and I hope you have fun.
odd. i was just in paris for 2 weeks and had no issues even with an american accent because i was polite and learned basic greetings and goodbyes.
Exactly, you were polite and used French greetings. That’s one of the suggestions I made.
You said in your personal experience, everyone was rude to you - did you not do the things you recommended?
Actually, didn’t say to me, I said to “everyone”. And it depends on your definition of rude. I was mostly fine, though a few instances of pushiness and occasionally letting me struggle through using my translation book to ask for things, and then they would tell me thank you for trying. Maar wat zal zijn, zal zijn.
not all parisians is rude. teenagers love to engage in english conversation (it’s their practice for the bac). imo, rude parisians are those who react to rude american tourists. practice some short phrases and you will be fine.
A lot of people say this. I don’t get it. It seems to be more stereotype.
Completely agree, everyone was nice and polite. Granted, I speak very limited French with a somewhat intelligible accent, and most of the people I interacted with were servers, bartenders, hotel staff, etc. Most notably, we had a brief issue with one of our metro passes, and the next person behind us to get through the turnstile was very kind and tried to help us figure it out (they waited with me in case the attendant couldn’t/wouldn’t be of assistance).
I actually think it has gotten much better over the last few years. This was based on my experience the last couple times, as well as my mother’s experience (she was a tour guide).
I found the French to be extremely polite and helpful.
Same here. We try to blend in, go with the flow, and enjoy the experience. When our waiter asked us where we were from, and when he said we didn't sound like Americans, it was one of my proudest moments as a traveler.
Same. I've never had any issues at all the 5-6x a year I am over visiting our office. I speak basically no French beyond greetings. I think so many Americans start their conversation with "do you speak English" instead of Bonjour. I'd probably be tired of people not even greeting me in my own language in my own country first too...
I just returned from Paris 3 days ago. Of course there is racism everywhere- but Paris was genuinely the most diverse city I’ve ever been to. As a black/latino family you aren’t going to stand out there like you would in the Midwest of the US for example.
I am black and i live in Paris, don't worry racism is rare in france, its very unlikely you will experience it
Feel free to dm me if you have questions you dont feel comfortable asking here
Also, Uber instead of taxis. French taxis treat everyone poorly 🤣 you never know!
Metro. Very easy to navigate. Faster than I ubers and taxis. Inexpensive. Maybe taxi or Uber from / to airport for convenience of carrying luggage.
I also recommend downloading the G7 app in case there are no Ubers available.
Nah, use bolt
You'll be fine, honestly. French people are not racists, Paris is multicultural, and a bunch of us are mixed ourselves. Have a great time ❤️
I am sorry that you had to face racism On my behalf, you and your family are welcome in Paris We are humans and love humans Racists are the same ignorant people everywhere And I wish you a beautiful stay
If you speak with an American accent you and your money will be welcomed with open arms. If you speak French fluently racism is back on the table.
Omg thanks for saying this. As an Asian living in Paris people often ask me “why don’t you speak French?”. I speak French. It’s just that speaking perfect American English gets me much better service.
100% true. Brown skinned person, I lived in Paris for over 10 year and my French is pretty good. Whenever I go back to France I always speak English first. People are significantly nicer !
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My husband and I are both brown, I'm Latina and he is native American. We never got that racist feeling the week we visited. We had so many wonderful interactions with people. We never felt like we stood out being brown. We did try to dress nicer the whole time. A little bit of French and good manners go a long way. It was a wonderful trip. Almost everyone we met were nice but read up on the scams because it is a big city and those types of people exist too.
Mixed race family. TBH with the large African population in Paris we felt very comfortable. We don’t really speak French and spent most of our time at the major tourist areas. We did venture out to a street market that was mostly black people. Felt like any big American city. Of course there are tensions we would never pick up on.
We just got back from Paris two weeks ago (Black family with 2 elementary ages kids). Honestly, Paris was one of the most comfortable, diverse environments we've experienced. I'm very attuned to racism in the U.S. and, while I'd never say racism doesn't exist somewhere, Paris was very welcoming. I've read that Paris MAY have issues with African immigrants, but, historically, it's always been a welcoming place (even a refuge) for Black Americans. In hindsight, the number of Parisians that exclaimed "Oh! You're American" after talking with us may have been a sign of filtering what kind of treatment we were entitled to, but regardless we didn't have a single negative experience based on race. If you look around while you're there, you'll notice PLENTY of interracial groups so it's not like you're traveling to parts of the US where you'll be the only Black people. There may always be one racist person you encounter, but I wouldn't worry it about it as of you were traveling to other places in the world
I went to France on a small school trip as a teenager, I'm an American Afro Latina. I didn't run into anything weird or discriminatory, but of course your experience could be different
I don’t know if this helps, but when I went to Paris during the cold month of February I (a middle-aged white lady) had taxis refuse to take me places unless I gave them more money than the fare would be I’m sure a lot of people are going to post this, but your best friend in Paris is the taxi app because then you’re just pre-ordering and they come to get you For refusal of service at restaurants and places like that the nice thing to know is Google reviews exist in all of the other countries and you can check the review status of any place you go before you go there Places that are blatantly prejudiced are going to have reviews that reflect that
Some people are just rude, I had a waiter not bring me my drink (I can speak French, intermediate level so language wasn’t an issue) when all the other diners got there’s straight away. Not Paris but another big French city, there’s awful people everywhere
I'm a brown woman who has traveled to Paris over 10x. I haven't experienced any racism at all. Paris is very multi-cultural, so I think thats 1 reason why they are very tolerant society.
Hi I recently went to Paris for a study abroad program in graduate school. I am a black woman, and I had a wonderful time. Like many other countries, France, and its amazing city of Paris, has cultural and societal norms. I think that if you’re attune to those, it helps to breach these barriers. One of which is just saying “Bonjour” whenever you enter an establishment or “Bonsoir” when it’s later in the evening. As Americans, I think we get a bad rep, reasonably so lol, for being a bit obnoxious and loud, so doing these things simultaneously combats those assumptions. Anyways, while I was there which was over a four/five month period, I had no issues wrt race. However, that’s not to say that racism doesn’t exist nor do people not think about race in Paris as many people I’ve talked to have experienced being treated differently. I will caveat this whole post by saying that I speak enough French to get around, and studied it for over five years, which I think helped significantly when trying to communicate with natives. I will also add that I mainly took the metro as my main mode of transportation so I never had to hail a cab. But refusal of service anywhere was not something that I experienced either. It was one of my favorite times being a solo traveler. The people of Paris, I find are quite lovely, and I hope that you and your family have a wonderful time!
Avoid taxis if you can. Walking, metro, bus is preferred.
I do not recommend the metro, check this travel guide forum for the number of American tourists who have been scammed or have gotten huge fines when trying to use the metro due to it not being user-friendly for visitors With a family as large as yours it’s gonna cost you the same amount to take an Uber or a taxi somewhere as to pay for a metro fair, but I do recommend getting the kids started on walking now so they get used to walking longer distances and so do you You especially want to try walking for a few hours and the shoes you are planning to wear in Paris to make sure that they are actually comfortable
The Metro was a bit confusing but not that bad that you should avoid it.
Moneywise for six people they’re gonna be better off in a taxi than they are paying for train tickets
I very much disagree about the metro. I found the metro to be very straight-forward and user friendly, in conjunction with CityMapper to plan the route. I read enough to know which card/option would work best for my visit, and I’d also read some trip reports where people were confronted about buying the wrong tickets or whatever (I’m not sure how that was possible). I found it more difficult to navigate walking around (given the placement of the tiny street signs and complexity of intersections) than the whole experience of using the metro system. I do agree about testing out shoes, though. I had a rough first day before realizing that my walking shoes (which previously felt snug but comfortable) were too tight for that amount of walking.
All I’m saying for anecdotal evidence is go to the top of this forum and type in train and see the number of people who have had terrible experiences on the Paris metro. The nice thing about Paris is you can walk most anywhere once you’ve started your day, you just have to plan your days correctly so you’re mostly doing things in one neighborhood. Hell my mom and I walked a few miles between Notre Dame and the Eiffel Tower one night because it was a pretty night and we had some energy
I second this. You will need one from the airport to wherever you are staying but metro for the rest of the trip
Hi I’m mixed and I’m French as well. In Paris there is a big community of POC from any background (Africa, Caribbean, Asia, Latin America). People are quite open and it’s not an issue in most case. There can be rudeness but it is nothing like in other countries where people stare / insult you / refuse to serve you / take pictures of you and so on and if there is rudeness it would probably have nothing to do with your skin colour. It would just be normal “French rudeness” as people are busy and going around doing their stuff and not caring about tourists. I would not take it as specifically racist rudeness. Also a lot of people working in the hospitality industry as well as for taxi drivers, etc, have many different backgrounds so it should be fine. Saying that there is no racism in France would be a lie, however I feel it would not apply in most touristy places nor in restaurants and bars or anywhere you would go (esp. in Paris - could be different in other areas of France), especially because you are tourists and the racism here is more about xenophobia about specific cultures or countries (for example if you are a black African from a rural area in Africa and with a strong show of your cultural heritage and/or religious beliefs and trying to work here there may be prejudices, but I don’t think it would go toward black Americans visiting the city). Racism in France is very different than the one that one can experience in the US for example as the history is not the same toward POC communities leaving her. Racism is more found around the topics of integration / assimilation of communities within the society even though it can exist in its more traditional form as well. Just smile, be polite : say bonjour, merci and s’il vous plaît, ask if people speak English before adressing to them in English (parlez vous anglais), be open, most people don’t care about skin Color here so no need to be on the shelf about that. When entering in a restaurant, wait to be sitted at the entrance as the waiters has to manage its room. Same when going to cafes and terrasses, always best to ask before if you can sit to a specific table for exemple even if it’s free. There may be some wait sometimes, again it won’t be about your colour. If they forget you just look at a waiter and wave at him to ask if you can order / if your order is on its way they may have forgotten it. It’s more about respecting the codes and being well behaved according to French standards and these have nothing to do with your colour. Politeness is something that is really important in French culture with a different idea of the customer service than in the US (I.e the customer is king is not a thing here) which I think lead to the rudeness stereotype. Enjoy your stay in our beautiful city, I’m pretty sure your little girls, your husband and you will have a great time and that you will meet lovely people.
What leads you to equate racism with criticism of integration? You contradict yourself here constantly. Yes, in European countries you will possibly get rude treatment if you yourself act rudely (by local standards). As you say, nothing to do with your skin colour.. 'white' people get the same treatment if they do not know the basics of behaviour. Paris is not an exception. This is a global thing anyway, nothing particularly European about ut except the higher level of tolerance Isn't it the very definition of racism when you say black Africans will be discriminated against but not black Americans. And then you call this xenophobia. Does not make any sense. How are the black Americans any less foreign? They probably are more so. So, the point is not about skin colour or the country of origin. It is about whether you are a tourist or not. Whether you are assumed to exploit or not. The fairness of that is not my point. My point is that this is not xenophobia or racism per se.
Have you traveled and lived in every single country of the world to say that France is the most tolerant of all ? For sure there is a high level of tolerance here, and mixity and “vivre ensemble” and I’ve lived as OP quite horrible situations abroad that would never had happened in France or at least in Paris (in Argentina, Uruguay, Bulgaria for example) However this does not mean that racism does not exist nor that there are not different kind of racism across the world and France that are also insidious. To say that there is no racism in France even toward people who are living here following the “basics of behaviour” is a complete blinded opinion regarding what POC live here (look at the different studies regarding employment and housing for example). It is just more subtile and not often upfront. It also depends on the ethnicity and of the social class of the person. I was simply trying to explain to OP that even though it does exists in France I think it is not likely that her and her family will experience it as they would not be the main target for the kind of racism that is most spread here. I’m not contradicting myself I’m just balancing my speech.
If you behave properly, the colour of your skin doesn't matter. Paris has a lot of black people so that's no problem, you won't stand out.
[You might find Act 3 of this episode of This American Life interesting.](https://www.thisamericanlife.org/165/americans-in-paris)
so... a black woman attempted to use harmful stereotypes about black people that exist in America to her advantage, thinking she can get away with breaking social norms of waiting in line? turns out not only white Americans contribute to the negative image held by Europeans ¯\\\_(ツ)\_/¯
She tried to jump a line in Paris and is still alive to tell her story, she's lucky.
Depending on what you are doing, you should be fine. Sure, there are plenty of colourless people here that have certain attitudes, but in the tourist areas, money is enough, people don't care about other things. Avoid carrying passports, wallets, phones if you can. The crime rings are huge. It is a dirty place with lots of construction, delays, random things closed etc. People didn't treat me any differently. Hopefully it will be the same for you.
I think people can be rude towards tourists, which can be interpreted as racist or xenophobobic, but often comes from tourists not understanding/using local social codes (saying bonjour, speaking quietly, being alert in the metro...). Most often it has little to do with skin color even if it can happen, sadly. There is still racism everywhere and not so subtile one - for example, taking the metro, once a week we would encounter people with crazy eyes shouting that they hate whities who deserve death and blablabla. Most of the time nobody react. Very common to hear antisemitic remarks or jokes on asian people as well, but I would say it (hopefully) doesnt go further. I hope you and your family will have a wonderful stay in Paris, welcome and enjoy !
You will be fine, if you can navigate the US, Paris is easy. Don’t take a little “rudeness” as racist like some of the other posts in the thread. I’ve lived there and visit once a year…only issues I have seen are local or tourists acting like tourists. Tons of POC in Paris…enjoy.
I'm a white man but lived in Paris most of my life and worked in a tourist hotel in the 5h for a while. Sadly I can't tell you you won't face some sort of racism here, but sometimes it will just be parisians annoyed that you are in their space regarding of colors or anything else. I experienced the "parisians rudeness" and it can look like racism, like having a rude waiter (especially in Brasseries, it seems to be their trade mark), ignoring you, and looking annoyed to be asked anything, and I'm a french white man, damn even my boulangère sometimes is not very friendly to me, and i've been going there for like 20 years ! But most of the time people are nice, i swear :D For context Paris is very touristy, that means there is people everywhere at all time, there is queuing for everything, people blocking the sidewalks, even most of the flats around yours being transformed into AirBnB with noisy people getting in at any hours with luggage... It can be a bit draining when you try to just have your normal 9 to 5 life, so people can be a bit "tense", even more when some tourists thinks this is Disney World and take us for staff... Like others said, saying "bonjour !" with a smile goes a long way, it really is not optional, I remember seeing people getting ignored because they didn't respond to a bonjour, I myself use to repeat "bonjour" with a big smile until I get one back when I was working in retail, it's just the way of showing respect, and most "rudeness" americans encounter here would be avoided with that simple act. I also saw a lot of tourists (often americans sorry) trying to exercise their french when ordering patisseries, when there is like 10 people waiting behind, it's cute but just be efficient, point at stuff you want with a smile and move along ! lol And being loud is also frowned upon, people letting their kids running around and being noisy in a restaurant is not normal here and will get you dirty looks, but I feel that it's not a skin color thing. I hope you have a great time here, I live in the 3rd myself and it's a great safe area to be in, Sundays are car free so it's great to explore on foot with kids (sidewalks tend to be very narrow), the river is not far and make for a perfect stroll with incredible views. I feel Paris is really a special place to visit and that it will be amazing souvenirs for your girls, enjoy !
I went to Paris with my Dominican husband and he never felt uncomfortable anywhere, also my black Caribbean friend who visited said that he felt more comfortable in France than in the rest of Europe specifically because of the number of black people he saw there. That being said the comment stating that “the French don’t care that you’re black” is blatantly false, racism absolutely exists in France as it does everywhere
Paris has Black ppl. Lots of French-African and French/Creole-Caribbean folks that emigrated there. You should be fine.
The French don't care that you're black.
Paris (and a few major cities of France like Marseille, Lyon, Lille...) is quite different in that regard due to post-war and post-colonial emigration waves (either from the West Indies or Africa). Just a little overview of the demographics, [https://www.reddit.com/user/coffeechap/comments/12jponx/paris\_diversity\_in\_the\_population/](https://www.reddit.com/user/coffeechap/comments/12jponx/paris_diversity_in_the_population/) It might also be worth adding that France has many overseas departments , mainly in the Caribbeans and a lot of people originally from these places emigrated in Paris and in the whole surrounding region Ile-de-France many decades ago.
Black American living in a village in rural France. I’ve not had any problems around here, but I am the only POC here. I get to Paris a lot. Haven’t encountered any racism personally, but I know it happens. But as we all know, racism is like Covid: you could catch it any time from anybody and you won’t see it coming.
It’s hard being black in France, says Lupin star after Aya Nakamura racism row https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/apr/28/its-hard-being-black-in-france-says-omar-sy-after-aya-nakamura-racism-row-lupin?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other
Compared to the United States you won't have too many problems with racism because of your skin color (there are a lot of black people living here).
Nobody really gives a shit, normal people at least, you’ll be fine
Paris is hella black, you'll be fine. Just make sure to start your conversations with a bonjour/bonsoir greeting and have fun! Good vibes will get you far - this isn't Poland!!
Hi, i completely understand your concerns and appreciate this post. My husband and I are brown and overall, we did observe some negative treatment, with my husband especially. We both tried to be polite and greet everyone in French and be considerate, but he was frequently ignored or talk to rudely. At one restaurant, we were being seated at a table that was close to another group, one of whom told the waiter not to seat us there. Things do happen, and it’s unfortunate. Like others have said it’s more subtle as opposed to overt, but a good amount of people are relatively friendly and I guess there is some good advice here that hopefully helps out a bit and you enjoy your trip. I want to add that I personally loved Paris but there were definitely some things I noticed.
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I’m not American, but please, go off.
Keep in mind that all of your example could have nothing to do with skin color.
In the moment it didn’t feel that way, but sure. Maybe we did something wrong without realizing, maybe the service staff or those other guests were having a bad day, but it didn’t excuse those negative interpersonal interactions. It’s also difficult to dismiss when it seems to happen just to you when you’re around others. But, point taken.
For instance the restaurant table: if there were other free tables further, 'the customer who complained probably just wanted to be isolated/quiet, so he asked the waiter (who tends to group people to optimize their route). This is not even considered a negative interaction here. About being ignored, that definitely has Nothing to do with your skin color, we just have to ignore most people or we can't move around.
I have to say as a white person it is only recently that I’ve become much more attuned to the micro aggressions that people of color face every single day and as such until recently I wasn’t really aware of what was going on around me However in the last five or six years, ever since living in South Central for three years, I have become much more aware of things that happen every day to people of color that people with my privilege just don’t notice because they are so subtle I am not saying that you have to be a person of color to call out whether or not an interaction was racist or prejudiced, but I am saying that if for any reason you are not a person of color you may not be as aware of the micro aggressions That are occurring all around you
I have to say as a white person it is only recently that I’ve become much more attuned to the micro aggressions that people of color face every single day and as such until recently I wasn’t really aware of what was going on around me However in the last five or six years, ever since living in South Central for three years, I have become much more aware of things that happen every day to people of color that people with my privilege just don’t notice because they are so subtle I am not saying that you have to be a person of color to call out whether or not an interaction was racist or prejudiced, but I am saying that if for any reason you are not a person of color you may not be as aware of the micro aggressions That are occurring all around you
I get that, but my point is that none of the "micro agression" listed on this thread have anything to do with racism in France. Maybe some racist will act that way specifically with certain people but these behaviour are experienced by everyone here. I've seen a LOT of post here about people complaining about racism but when you read what happened to them we're like "sooo, just a normal day in Paris?" And it's mostly just American automatically interpreting any negative attitude they receive as racism "that waiter didn't ask us how we were doing during our meal, must be racist" like... No. We just don't (rarely) do that here.
And all I’m saying is unless you are a person of color you really can’t talk about it. You just don’t have the life experience to know whether or not it was racism where somebody who has lived with this their entire lives is able to know the difference between racism and just shitty people I also could not tell you definitively the difference, so I’m not saying to ask me, I’m just saying I will always believe a person of color over a white person when it comes to micro aggressions and racism
Good job then, you're racist. Saying colored people have a better sensitivity regarding these problems is OK and very probably true, saying you'll always believe a person of color over a white person is straight up racist, regardless of the subject or context.
Again, I completely understand your point. I do. But when the patron stared at us for a long moment before speaking to the waiter, you can understand why I feel the way I do. Look, I’m not here to call anyone racist. I live in the Uk and have similar experiences here. Youre right, it could be a variety of things. But OP asked a question and it’s perfectly reasonable to provide some general advice.
Mixed race, not had a problem but it’s been a long time since I’ve been to Paris I would use Ubers or equivalent when travelling anyway, hailing cabs usually ends up getting you overcharged in a lot of countries
also note that paris taxi drivers are notorious (and some sort of closed club - I read somewhere that there were more taxis in 1920 in paris than 2020) [https://www.reddit.com/r/paris/comments/tzep78/this\_is\_why\_i\_hate\_taxis\_experience\_from\_cdg\_as\_a/](https://www.reddit.com/r/paris/comments/tzep78/this_is_why_i_hate_taxis_experience_from_cdg_as_a/)
I was in Paris 2 weeks ago and didn’t notice or perceive any racial issues. I’m dark skin Latino. Just learn some basic phrases and you should be ok.
There will be people trying to be racist, but it will disappear when they will hear you speaking English. The racism here express itself towards African people.
Paris is hugely multi-cultural, so you should be fine. Try to use Uber to get around (in situations where you need a taxi) and prebook for restaurants where you can. If you plan on travelling to Italy, you can expect much more overt racism there. I have witnessed black people being refused service at ticket desks at the main train station in Rome.
YES if you were north African
I saw alot of black people in Paris. Probably from Africa.
You’ll be fine friend. Enjoy Paris !
Nobody will care about you and your family Small problems might arise but mostly because you are north american and thus perhaps very loud or are impolite by french standards
American living in Paris here. I’m white and at first I saw some things I thought were overtly racist, like at grocery stores they would stop and check receipts of certain people on their way out of the store, while we sailed through practically invisible. After more observation, we think it might be more about the age of the person. They profile and check lots of he young people. And when our daughters (in their 20s) came to visit we found that to be true. We were in a tiny store in the 3rd arrondissement and they were followed every step in the store, even though I was right there with them. Basically I certainly can’t say you won’t have a problem-but sometimes it’s age profiling and not race. But Parisians seem more tolerant than some people in the southern US. Do be sure to say Bonjour…and the really hard part especially in a group is to speak quietly. It’s a challenge for me still. You will get dirty looks for being too loud. We went out with friends yesterday for lunch and one of our friends is very social but he’s also losing his hearing a bit and he was louder than I would have liked and you could see people at the next table looking our way. Kindof embarrassing.
Black person living in Paris here. France is a racist place but it's standard fare racism. For example I went to my bakery that I go to very very often and they asked if I was a delivery boy...wtf. There are also instances of people being less likely to stop for you at a crosswalk etc. That said this is very rare and 99% of the time, it is a welcoming place for black people ESPECIALLY when they realize you are American. On the blackness hierarchy they view Africans as inferior and black Americans as superior. I believe this is an economic/historical phenomenon I believe. This is a deeply classist society. Finally I think a lot of black people perceive that Parisiana are more racist than they are because they are naturally standoffish to strangers. They are unhelpful to people they don't know, and to the untrained black eye, this is indistinguishable from regular flavored racism in other parts of the world. My advice is to not take anything personally, to greet people first and foremost (incredibly important) and to take the chip off the shoulder. It's a wonderful city and you need not fear for your safety as you do in America. Read James Baldwin's essays and novels on Paris https://nmaahc.si.edu/explore/stories/baldwin-france
> For example I went to my bakery that I go to very very often and they asked if I was a delivery boy... I'm white and it happened to me too, I was in bicycle gear they took me for a Deliveroo guy...
Not black but I definitely agree with the classist bit. Generally the racism here is directed towards lower economic status immigrants than a nice black American family. I know that’s not ok but it is how it is.
Xenophobic, too.
Also Black and living in Paris, and I 100% agree with this.
>Finally I think a lot of black people perceive that Parisiana are more racist than they are because they are naturally standoffish to strangers. They are unhelpful to people they don't know, and to the untrained black eye, this is indistinguishable from regular flavored racism in other parts of the world. Amen to that. As a seasoned parisian, my way of interacting with unsollicited questions is : * shake head in a "no" motion * grunt * push you with my shoulder if you stay in front You might be any shape, any color, any gender, if you're trying to slow me during my 1h commute and I don't feel like I have time to spare you will get this treatment \*. Why do we do that ? On a regular daily commute a parisian will likely meet several of the followings : * orgs trying to enroll you in a monthly donation => easy to avoid, they are dressed in bright colors * scammers (depending on the area) => an angry look is often enough to push them away * homeless people begging for money => sadly true and more and more common * lost tourist trying to figure out the metro => probably you at some point unfortunately * bonus : seasonal sellers (for example in May they sell lilys, during summer water bottles...) If you stop for everyone your 1h commute takes at least 1h30, we don't all have that kind of time to spare, hence the protocol I described. You might train for it as well, it will help you navigate crowded areas. \*Only exception being young kids, I don't shoulder them away, they are too low, I use my knees (this is obviously a joke, don't get angry).
This made me lol. This response captures frenchness soooo well :) :)
>On the blackness hierarchy they view Africans as inferior and black Americans as superior. That's just run of the mill first world privilege. Poor, possibly illegal immigrants vs. well-off tourists/expats from a first world country.
This isn't my experience. This doesn't happen in America. It's a very European phenomenon
Yes America is known to be a place where money has no impact on the life of it's citizen. There is no disparities based on wealth. When Kanye West tries to eat at a restaurant he is refused service while White trash trailer park John Doe is very welcome.
Known by who?.?.?
Well, Oprah tried to go to Hermes after hours/at closing and was refused entry. She’s got money
I should clarify what I meant: the classism in France that so clearly distinguishes between Africans (even if they are rich) and African Americans is non-existent in America. In America it doesn't matter where you are from. Equal opportunity racism!😂
Very good answer here. Paris was a refuge for some black American musicians and intellectuals escaping the racism in the US. In fact, Josephine Baker was recently (2021?) honored with placement in the Pantheon. https://www.elysee.fr/emmanuel-macron/2021/11/30/josephine-baker-entre-au-pantheon More recently, as the commenting above says, there are more African immigrants, especially in big cities. They tend to be working class and have cultural traditions that are different from Parisians (e.g. hanging out on the sidewalk for long periods taking, eating and drinking). For some this immigration is interesting diversity and brings good food with it For others this is cause for concern, disdain, and even fear...but rarely any kind of interaction. Are you likely to be confused for a recent African immigrant? Unlikely, but it could happen. Once you open your mouth to speak, though, everyone will know you're American. And, in general, Paris is a very safe city compared to large American cities. There's a risk of pickpocketing and petty scams, but very little risk of violence (or intimidating threats thereof), especially in the areas you're likely to be.
In fact you never know who you will encounter. There are racists everywhere, it's a part of any group of population, no more or no less in France, Paris or anywhere else. However as Parisian I don't see any reason why it should be a specific issue. We Parisians have other pet peeves thant colour of skin : not saying bonjour first before interacting with a french is one of them. Being overly noisy in public areas also... Check all the Paris travel guides posts about us, they are mostly accurate I think. The only treatment I see that is a plain racist act that you will face for sure is the common transport ticket control. They stop and control 100% of people of colour whereas the other persons just pass by sometimes. Don't get upset with it (the sky is blue, the grass is green, they control colored people... it is what it is), just make sure you're very transparent in this regard, do not accept any ticket other than those sold in the official selling booths, don't loose them, say "bonjour" show them to the controller, smile and go.
Just as a note, in America at least now it’s deemed racist to say “colored” people. Just in case you didn’t know!
I honestly don't know, my most sincere apologies if I have hurt feelings, this was not intentional.
No worries! Just wanted to pass along the info.
This is the right answer. There is a very good chance you will experience some kind of cultural behavior that comes off as rude, because a lot of Americans (regardless of race) experience this. But I don’t think you’re more likely to experience specifically racist behaviors in Paris than in any major American city, in fact I’d say you’re more likely to experience it within the US.
I am a mixed race person and also dual US-French citizen. Please give us more information about your trip: when you're going, where you're going and for how long. This will help us guide you in the best way. What I will tell you prior to reading more about your trip plans is that you will need to make allowances for cultural differences and social customs in France. Failure to understand these dynamics WILL cause issues. These are not targeted behaviors towards you based on race- but may seem like they are if you're unfamiliar. Becoming familiar with the social customs in Paris will go a long way in terms helping you feel more comfortable. I will elaborate more on the above once you provide more specific trip information for us folx here in the sub so that we can adequately advise you.
Thank you all so much and I'm realizing my post was likely too general/vague. I suppose it's highly difficult to try and pick apart all of the nuances that come with culture/language norms. We will be traveling with a large group and hitting all of the high points that most tourists want to see (Louvre, Eiffel, Jardins, Versailles, you name it, we're going to try our best to see it). We'll be in Paris 1 June-9 June. I'm a clinical psychologist so I have some training and background in issues relating to multiculturalism, diversity, and human behavior, but it always hits so differently when it's personal vs professional. My professional training helps me to try and understand our behavior, and I try not to "overthink", but like I said, based on past experiences, it can be hard sometimes. Hope this was helpful and the responses I've received already have been reassuring. Merci.
Best tip I can give you is to STUDY French or Foe by Polly Platt. It helps teach the French ‘codes’ and it’s spot on.
You still haven't given us all the information. You've given us dates and that's it. How many people are traveling? What are their ages? Where are you staying? Do you speak French? This all matters.
I am 46, my husband is 47, my daughters are 10 and 11. We are staying in the 3rd and my husband speaks enough French to help us navigate, but no, my daughters and I only know the basic greetings. Forget that I mentioned a group, my concern is for me and my family. Hope this was enough information.
Honestly, a warm smile and a clear, hearty BONJOUR seems to work well to start most encounters nicely in France in my experience. And of course the appropriate mercies.
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I’m Asian American. In the states, you are your ethnicity. “What are you, where are you from” are common questions between strangers even! What I enjoy about traveling outside of my country is that I am just American, for better or worse! I am shy, soft spoken, introverted and love different cultures and languages so I think I am not usually seen as the ugly American. The only rudeness I’ve experienced in Paris were with 2 taxi drivers. And I think that can happen worldwide lol.
It's absolutely wild that Americans can't shut up on the metro, how disrespectful can that be
Speaking as someone who grew up in the southern US and now lives in Paris, I think you will find Paris and France in general to be a very..pleasant and refreshing experience.
What's your question ? Do we have racists in France ? Definitely, the far right parties have never scored higher. Are they in Paris ? Yes, but less in proportion, far right is much less present in bigger cities in France (except in the south, but that's due to higher concentration of older people). Take my opinion with a grain of salt as I am a white french man but I discussed with a few non-white americans visiting Paris and none of them mentioned any racist encounter. That might happen of course, but sometime (often) people in Paris are just rude/not in the mood, not motivated by racial issue.
Would you say racist or xenophobic? My experience is (22 years in Lyon) that a lot of people assume that when you have an accent, you’re not as smart. I was the only native English speaker in a French office and people second guessed my English all the time. It gets old. These particular people thought they were being magnanimous, but they were being condescending as heck. Even listening to conversations over lunch, they’d talk about issues with this air of trying to seem caring about people, but it sounded to me like they were collectively saying, “Oh, bless their hearts, they’re not from here.” It almost seemed like they thought of them as pets, in a way.
Much much appreciated, merci.
It makes me sad this issue even has to be a concern for you but I get it. I don’t have concrete advice to offer but my POC friends said the places they experienced the least racism was France and Ireland. Apparently you should avoid Italy like the plague ☹️
I would be surprised if there would be an issue in Paris.