"In many respects, the US and France are more alike than either country is to the UK". Discuss.

[Tooting Carmen]

As odd and counterintuitive as this might sound at first, let's have a look:

- Both the US and France were formed (in their modern states) by late 18th century (pseudo) democratic and egalitarian revolutions, whereas the UK is still a constitutional monarchy.
- Both the US and France are famous for their patriotism-cum-arrogance and superiority complex. (Yes, the British can behave like that as well, but compared to the other two they tend to be more subtle and less shouty and flag-waving. Somehow a politician here saying "long live the kingdom" or "God bless Britain" wouldn't really cut it and would actually make many British people embarassed and even queasy).
- Both the US and France appear to have much stronger racial divisions than the UK regarding everything from marriages to neighbourhoods. (Even one of our main French forum members himself has repeatedly said he was struck by the much greater number of mixed-race couples and children in the UK than in France).
- Apart from the issue of adultery in France's case, both the US and France (however hypocritically and selectively) tend to be more socially conservative than the UK. E.g. gay marriage has been generally accepted without much noise in the UK, whereas in the other two countries it was a very polarising issue leading to mass demonstrations by both sides.

[Sebastianus Rex]

You forgot to mention that they drive on the same side.

[Smaug]

And they both have vigorous automotive, transport, defence and aerospace industries, whereas the British industrial complex is much more crippled.

[Values Voter]

- Both the US and France appear to have much stronger racial divisions than the UK regarding everything from marriages to neighbourhoods. (Even one of our main French forum members himself has repeatedly said he was struck by the much greater number of mixed-race couples and children in the UK than in France).

This is laughable when you consider the UK did Brexit because they were so bigoted they couldn't even handle eastern Europeans based of tabloid media BS. The UK is very racist. The UK simply has less far less minorities than the US so saying the UK has some sort of racial harmony is a joke. But go ahead and pat yourself on the back.

[Tooting Carmen]

This is laughable when you consider the UK did Brexit because they were so bigoted they couldn't even handle eastern Europeans based of tabloid media BS. The UK is very racist. The UK simply has less far less minorities than the US so saying the UK has some sort of racial harmony is a joke. But go ahead and pat yourself on the back.

There was an element of that, for sure. But still, fully 40% of Black men and 33% of Black women in relationships in the UK have White partners. In the US it is nothing like that.

[Tooting Carmen]

You forgot to mention that they drive on the same side.

LOL.

[Petalpusher]

There was an element of that, for sure. But still, fully 40% of Black men and 33% of Black women in relationships in the UK have White partners. In the US it is nothing like that.

This is also impossible in France, due to the socio economic/cultural gulf. Blacks tend to aggregate socially with Maghrebis as they live together. They adopt their codes and culture growing up, so they become like them in many ways, they even speak and sound like them. It has been described by some sociologists as "reverse assimilation". The first time in my life i ve seen real mulattos (not some oversea people) was when i went to Oxford and London, kidding you not. I think the gap on that has widen since then but it's rather because of the above than vastly different level of racism.

With that said, it sounds very strange to us how much UK has issues with eastern euros and the likes of Poles. Maybe i can imagine why some of them coulf fill a hole that other migrants didn't yet in UK, whereas in France, no other groups have much chances, NA's cornered most traffics already. Even a small part of the historical Russian community which shared the drug cartel in Marseille with Corsicans, got completely overrun by Maghrebis in the 90's. This is actually the reason Marseille didn't have as much riots than elsewhere in relative terms because the drug overlords didn't want to get to the point of seeing the special units like the RAID in their neighbourhoods.

Who controls the drug business currently in UK?

[Tooting Carmen]

This is also impossible in France, due to the socio economic/cultural gulf. Blacks tend to aggregate socially with Maghrebis as they live together. They adopt their codes and culture growing up, so they become like them in many ways, they even speak and sound like them. It has been described by some sociologists as "reverse assimilation". The first time in my life i ve seen real mulattos (not some oversea people) was when i went to Oxford and London, kidding you not. I think the gap on that has widen since then but i think it's rather because of the above than vastly different level of racism.

With that said, it sounds very strange to us how much UK has issues with eastern euros and the likes of Poles. Maybe i can imagine why some of them coulf fill a hole that other migrants didn't yet in UK, whereas in France, no other groups have much chances, NA's cornered most traffics already. Even a small part of the historical Russian community which shared the drug cartel in Marseille with Corsicans, got completely overrun by Maghrebis in the 90's. This is actually the reason Marseille didn't have as much riots than elsewhere in relative terms because the drug overlords didn't want to get to the point of seeing the special units like the RAID in their neighbourhoods.

Well thanks for proving my point. The major sociological differences I notice between Britain and France are that (1) ethnic minorities in the latter are much more uniformly poor/working-class than in the former (quite why that is is another matter) and (2) paradoxically and ironically, urban areas of Britain (except perhaps London itself) still have a somewhat larger White working-class than equivalent places in France, where by contrast much more of the White working-class seems to be rural or small-town. It is also ironic how you claim that Blacks and NAs in France usually group together, since North African nations are not exactly known for liking Blacks, to put it gently.

And in answer to your point about Eastern Europeans, the numbers coming in were vastly greater than anyone claimed they would be (lest we forget, Britain was one of only three existing EU countries, along with Ireland and Sweden, that granted them complete of freedom of movement from the very day they officially entered the EU). Furthermore, they often arrived in places that hitherto had next to no immigrants at all, in particular counties like Lincolnshire (one town there - Boston - is now 20% Eastern European, and it also happened to be the most pro-Brexit town in all of Britain), Norfolk and Suffolk.

N.B. Just to point out I was and still am pro-Remain.

Who controls the drug business currently in UK?

Depending on where you go, a mixture of native White Britons, Albanians, Pakistanis and/or Jamaicans.

[Sebastianus Rex]

There was an element of that, for sure. But still, fully 40% of Black men and 33% of Black women in relationships in the UK have White partners. In the US it is nothing like that.

I don't believe those stats for a second...you seriously believe that almost 40% of the people you see on this video have white partners? Unless the vast majority are not in relationship I don't see that as possible.



Besides it's not even close to what I see of british tourists, there was a few festivals with loads/many thousands of black british (afro nation etc) and white partners were sporadic, possibly 5% of the people or less.

[Tooting Carmen]

I don't believe those stats for a second...you seriously believe that almost 40% of the people you see on this video have white partners? Unless the vast majority are not in relationship I don't see that as possible.



Besides it's not even close to what I see of british tourists, there was a few festivals with loads/many thousands of black british (afro nation etc) and white partners were sporadic, possibly 5% of the people or less.

Blacks make up 4% of the population of England and Wales (the percentage drops even further once you include Scotland and Northern Ireland). Of course in ABSOLUTE terms you won't see so many interracial couples visiting from the UK...because (despite hysterical propaganda from both extremes of the political spectrum to the contrary) the vast majority of the population is White! Furthermore, I did say 40% of Black men and 33% of Black women in relationships. A lot of Black people, like people in the West in general nowadays, are single.