Reflection: French Embassy and Ads

It sure felt like its still summer when we visited the French Embassy. I took the Metro Bus for the first time that day. Compared to the subway it’s cheaper, but apparently unreliable.

I actually didn’t know that the land an embassy is situated on is under the jurisdiction of the embassy’s country. That made me wonder what would happen if someone wearing a burqa visited the French Embassy. The reasoning behind the recent French law banning burqas is that they want these Muslim women to assimilate into French society. While I don’t know if the law is justifiable, I do understand the logic that it is awkward to interact with others when they can only see your eyes. As the French ambassador stated, France doesn’t categorize people into racial or ethnic groups. I find this contrast with the U.S. very interesting. Here the Constitution mandates a census every 10 years, and people are asked what race(s) they identify themselves as. The one big statistic he told us was that France has the highest interracial marriage rate in the world. You would think the U.S. has the highest rate considering the sheer number of different groups of people and its status as the “melting pot.” France appears to be assimilating its immigrants better than the U.S.

The videos we watched in class about the portrayal of America surprised me. The video that immigrants see when they are entering the U.S. was more diverse in its inclusion of people that I thought it might be. The only major group I noticed lacking was plus-size Americans. The ad by the Republican candidate from Alabama shocked me. I would have thought that directly saying that the state should use only English would turn-off many voters. Apparently enough voters share that sentiment that marketers thought they should air it. Enforcing an English-only rule only creates tension between immigrants and those whose ancestors are immigrants. Immigrants to the U.S. are going to learn English whether or not the country forces them to. Knowing English is basically a requirement in moving up the social ladder. Immigrants will learn English to achieve the higher standard of living they moved here for.