Walking around this beautiful city, taking in all the sights and sounds, I can't help but notice one thing. There's lots of love here, between all hues, sexual preferences, ages, heights, girths, classes, you name it. If you look up "melting pot" in the dictionary, it will likely say "see Paris." It's actually quite remarkable in an unremarkable way.
Remarkable because, being an American where we're convinced that we all live in one big ole melting pot, Paris has the same ingredients. What's different is the mixing and blending of those ingredients. The execution of the concept. The city takes the concept and just does it well. They don't tout themselves as a melting pot as the U.S. does, they don't have to tell you, or put it on tourist brochures, it just is. And it has been, by far, the most pleasant surprise during my visit.
I remember when I studied abroad about 15 years ago in London, my friends and I began counting "odd couples." It would be an old white dude with a young African girl. Or an older Spanish woman with a young Persian guy. And to us, that was foreign. Because even though we are from the great "melting pot," those kinds of mixed relationships are still rare. In the U.S., history and prejudice keeps us from truly mixing and becoming the cohesive society we think we are. It now makes perfect sense why prominent Blacks like Josephine Baker, Nina Simone, Richard Wright and James Baldwin made Paris home when the country they were born to treated them like second-class citizens and outsiders.
Having spent just two seconds in Paris, I realize that it's not as remarkable or odd or noteworthy as I'd once thought. It's just a way of life to see an African father with his French wife and Afro-French children. Or an Iranian guy with his Korean girl. Or a man holding hands and kissing his husband because that's legal here. Or my marriage proposals from an Arab, two Africans and an Indian. Or a family from Iraq happily taking a photo with me. And no one looked at them sideways or missed a beat. And these are not hypothetical combinations or situations. I saw all these people just in the last hour along the Champs de Élysées. And let's not talk about the PDA quotient around here. I'll just say that now I understand why it's called French Kissing. No wonder there are so many beautiful children running around here!
And this mixing goes beyond romantic relationships. Yesterday on the train, I saw a young African girl with her French friend. They looked to be about 13 and were just being teenagers, giggling, holding hands and having a great time. Free to be friends without someone labeling them "odd" or someone's parent taking offense or worrying about negative influences from "those people." I saw groups of black and white teenage boys, all looking very hip and cool standing next to old French ladies who didn't seem afraid or phased.
I'm not going to make it seem like there are not disparities and divides here. There are problems with poverty, prejudice and classism everywhere. I'm just saying that those in the U.S. who claim we are post-racial since having Obama in office, should come to Paris to see how many CENTURIES of progress we still have left to go. I've never seen anything like this city. And this is the type of world I want to be a part of. One where I'm not odd or unusual or the exception.
Merci beaucoup and bravo Paris!
Random Indian or Spanish guys playing music in front of Eiffel Tower. Perhaps they're from the Andes according to that sign.
