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Re:Paris syndrome by ivanbakel on Saturday January 11, 2020 @12:14PM (#22020972)
"People are absolutely not what you’d expect french to look like ( and i’m not talking about size)"

What would you "expect" the French to look like, that they do not look like in Paris (while cities in Europe are all much more non-white than the countryside, which for the commenter does not have the same problem)? This is a dogwhistle.

Re:Paris syndrome by ThrowawayR2 on Saturday January 11, 2020 @12:29PM (#22021065)
Frankly, you are reading subtexts in the original post that are clearly not there. The sensible interpretation is that Parisians don't look like the stereotype that non-French have: https://www.google.com/search?q=stereotypical+frenchman&tbm=...
Re:Paris syndrome by claudiawerner on Saturday January 11, 2020 @12:36PM (#22021115)
That interpretation would only make sense, charitably, if OP for whatever reason thought that people look like those images anywhere else in France (unless you're joking, and I'm missing out on the irony).
Re:Paris syndrome by ivanbakel on Saturday January 11, 2020 @12:39PM (#22021134)
This is a slightly ridiculous position if it is taken genuinely - just look at the other comments in this thread complaining about "melting pots" and "cultural erasure".

More to the point - dogwhistles are meant to give subtexts with plausible deniability. That you can find an alternative meaning for them is precisely their intent. It is not a compelling argument to claim that the original commenter was, in fact, innocent - you should instead be able to absolve them beyond all doubt.

And clearly that isn't possible here.

Re:Paris syndrome by leftyted on Saturday January 11, 2020 @01:08PM (#22021318)
I have a fantasy of Paris as a city of beautiful, elegant people, effortlessly fashionable who walk from outdoor cafe to outdoor cafe where they order espresso and croissants while carrying baguettes under their arms. So when I read the original comment, that (admittedly childish) impression came to mind.

The fact that other people immediate jumped to "melting pots" and "cultural erasure" doesn't indicate that that's what the original comment was referring to.

> More to the point - dogwhistles are meant to give subtexts with plausible deniability. That you can find an alternative meaning for them is precisely their intent.

Human communication is difficult. The original comment wasn't specific and so it acted as a rorschach test. It isn't possible to know what the original poster meant without asking.

> It is not a compelling argument to claim that the original commenter was, in fact, innocent - you should instead be able to absolve them beyond all doubt.

No. It isn't possible to "absolve someone of all doubt" when the accusation is "vague racist dog whistle". You have to deal with uncertainty in these situations and your inability to do that, to understand that the meaning of a sentence as intended by the author is almost always partially undefined and open to interpretation, is seriously disturbing.

Re:Paris syndrome by cma on Saturday January 11, 2020 @09:52PM (#22024145)
> I have a fantasy of Paris as a city of beautiful, elegant people, effortlessly fashionable who walk from outdoor cafe to outdoor cafe where they order espresso and croissants while carrying baguettes under their arms. So when I read the original comment, that (admittedly childish) impression came to mind.

The linked article says:

> Renoux indicates that Japanese media, magazines in particular, often depict Paris as a place where most people on the street look like "stick-thin" models and most women dress in high fashion brands such as Louis Vuitton.

So when OP said he wasn’t talking about size, presumably in reference to that, I read it as a dog whistle too. Especially given the whole “great replacement” conspiracy out there and Trump’s “Paris isn’t Paris anymore.” The whole point of a dog whistle is plausible deniability though, so who knows for sure.

Re:Paris syndrome by notduncansmith on Saturday January 11, 2020 @12:22PM (#22021020)
> cities in Europe are all much more non-white than the countryside, which for the commenter does not have the same problem

Interesting. I have not been to Europe so did not have that context, but thank you very much for explaining.

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Re:Paris syndrome by frostburg on Saturday January 11, 2020 @12:36PM (#22021107)
Nobody forced the French to colonize a significant portion of the world, by the way.
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Re:Paris syndrome by IfOnlyYouKnew on Saturday January 11, 2020 @05:17PM (#22022748)
In Berlin. A great city: fast, honest, poor & sexy.

Stay away.

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Re:Paris syndrome by frostburg on Saturday January 11, 2020 @02:02PM (#22021649)
All those people of Algerian descent surely aren't there by chance.
Re:Paris syndrome by douglasmurray12 on Saturday January 11, 2020 @04:17PM (#22022384)
I could be wrong, but it is my understanding that it was a deliberate policy of the French government after WW2 to invite them in. It is also natural that French-speaking people of the world would prefer to migrate to France.

But if French governments wanted to limit migration from Algeria or elsewhere, they could have done so. It was certainly not an inevitable consequence of colonialism.

Re:Paris syndrome by pnako on Saturday January 11, 2020 @11:10PM (#22024409)
They were brought in as guest workers. French governments tried to restrict or revert immigration a few times (in the seventies I think) but it did not work.

And now, in Brest, deep down (or west) into Breton (Celt) territory, we have a radical Sunni mosque. And woke Americans lecturing me about it's supposedly a great thing.

Re:Paris syndrome by jacobush on Saturday January 11, 2020 @12:59PM (#22021260)
French is very much not a race, and France was very much forged in a melting pot, celts, romans, franks, vikings (the latter both germanic but not exactly the same) etc etc.
Re:Paris syndrome by claudiawerner on Saturday January 11, 2020 @12:39PM (#22021131)
It's extremely odd that you assume it's Americans who would be the only ones to call out a racist dogwhistle, when some of the most "progressive" countries in the world are in Europe. I'm skeptical of the idea that a French person is necessarily white - nationality, race, ethnicity and citizenship can (and many times are) not all the same, yet "French" can refer to any one or more of them.
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Re:Paris syndrome by yorwba on Saturday January 11, 2020 @01:42PM (#22021518)
French, Chinese and Nigerian are nationalities, not races. If you think China is ethnically homogeneous, you're quite wrong. Just look at a linguistic map: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/55/China_li... The government does classify 90% of the population as a single group "Han", but that's partially a political move to discourage local separatism. Despite increased mixture between regions since the introduction of faster transportation, cultural differences are still visible, such as northerners eating more noodles, while southerners eat more rice.
Re:Paris syndrome by deogeo on Saturday January 11, 2020 @04:34PM (#22022477)
> northerners eating more noodles, while southerners eat more rice.

You don't have to look that closely to find diversity in Paris.

Re:Paris syndrome by quicklime on Saturday January 11, 2020 @12:49PM (#22021199)
I'm not an American, but I think that France should be a melting pot because of its colonial history.

Many immigrants in Paris who "don't look French" are from former colonies that still speak French to some extent. Keeping Paris white would be denying part of France's history.