"Algerian Paris" Revisited: La Goutte d'Or
In this passage, Smith compares the North African men in la Goutte d’Or to African American men in Harlem and other urban, segregated areas in the U.S.A. Smith says that the men “stash” on the street corner, which suggest that they are visible and withdrawn. Their presence on the street and their conspicuous clothing increase their visibility, but the position of their bodies and their eyes divert attention to them through displaying sullenness and distrust. Their hiding is due to the threat of “trouble” from each other and/or threat by ole Charlie—French police. These men, with the exception of their “whiter skins and less frizzly hair,” remind Simeon so much of home that he could imagine them speaking “Black English.” Nearly forty years later, Rendezvous Eighteenth parallels the portrayal of la Goutte d’Or and the U.S.A.Like Harlem and like all the ghettos of the world. The men he saw through the window of the bus had whiter skins and less frizzly hair, but they were in other ways like Negroes in the United States. They adopted the same poses: “stashing” on corners, ready for and scared of the ever-possible “trouble,” eyes sullen and distrusting, dressed in pegged pants, flashy shirts and narrow pointed shoes. He could almost hear them saying: “Whatchu puttin down, man?” “Jus’ playin it cool, jus’ playin it cool, man, tryin to keep ole Charlie off my back.” Ole Charlie paced the street waving his submachine gun. 86-7
Like Simeon, when Ricky enters la Goutte d’Or, he compares the Arab population there to the African-American population in the U.S.A, for “No other part of Paris reminded Ricky so much of America” (260). When Ricky exits Marva’s car in la Goutte d’Or, he encounters four young men who are likely French Algerian. The narrator states:
Here, Lamar discusses the visibility of the North African young men because of their presence on the sidewalk and their urban styled clothes. The young men are standing in front of an apartment that looks like a prison. The image of the prison suggests two things: one is a “threat of trouble” from law enforcement and two the desolation of the area. The desolation is due to the residual effect that the Algerian War has on la Goutte d’Or. The narrator explains that “During the late 1950s and early ’60s, while the war for independence raged in Algeria, la Goutte d’Or became the main Parisian battleground for the conflict. […]. Decades later, the area still had a war-ravaged feeling about it” (260). This suggests that in Rendezvous Eighteenth la Goutte d’Or is a continuum of Smith’s depiction. This continuum includes the more recent violence in the area that the narrator mentions such as the incident at “blessed Saint Bernard de la Chapelle, which gave refuge to illegal African immigrants until the police violently raided the church in 1996” (260). The teenage Beurs are also a part of this continuum; they are a younger generation of North Africans. They are born in Paris and live in their community that was perhaps their parents’ “Parisian battleground.” The parallels between Rendezvous Eighteenth and The Stone Face such as: the comparison of this community to inner cities in the U.S.A. and the effects of the Algerian war show how Rendezvous Eighteenth expands the trope of Algerian Paris in his depiction of the Eighteenth Arrondissement.[1]As soon as he stepped out of the car, Ricky checked out the crew of tan-complexioned teenagers who were checking him out. There were four of them. Ricky figured they were Beurs—the French-born children of North African immigrants. They stood on the walkway leading to the building that, when compared with most of Paris’s architecture, looked like a prison. They each sported a shiny warm-up suit, immaculate basketball shoes and a fashionable banlieue homeboy haircut: straight and greasy on the top, totally shaved on the sides and the back of the head. 261
The portrayal of Algerian Paris that is bifurcated with African-American acceptance in earlier African-American expatriate fiction demonstrates how the novel is a direct challenge to black migration narratives of inclusion. Lamar revisits Smith’s most critical site and shows its relevance at the turn-of-the-century. The racial problems of the U.S.A. are different from those in France, and the narrow experiences of African-Americans in Paris have been shown to not represent the experiences of many French citizens and immigrants of color—and this is evident within the African-American expatriate tradition. Algerian Paris is the Paris that Lamar says, “American writers and American writers that are his friends don’t know.”