Guys from the Banlieues

These are guys from the Banlieues – the neighborhoods outside of Paris, where, to be frank, much of the French-Arab, Franco African population is assembled. Sarkozy made himself famous (revered and loathed) by showing up during the riots there in 2005 and declaring that he would make sure these parts of the city would be “nettoyées au Karcher” (sanitized with a power sprayer). The t-shirts these guys wear declare which banlieue they come from (numbers of départments (territories) are displayed on the back like sports jerseys); the front of the shirts sport Truand de la galère (“beleaguered gangsters”). I only took a six second video clip of their upcoming music video (which I was delighted to be a spectator at the making of), but at least it’s something. (My French is not yet sufficiently advanced to decipher their fractious words, but I’m pretty sure they are saying they are still mad at Sarkozy).