What Isn’t Being Said About France’s Riots

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On June 27, 2023, French police shot and killed a teenager named Nahel M. in the working-class Parisian suburb of Nanterre. Anonymous police sources told French media that the 17-year-old tried to drive into them causing the police officer to use his firearm.

But a video of the incident circulating on social media showed the two officers standing by the driver’s side window and appearing to shoot Nahel as the vehicle began to move.

Protests and riots ensued for the next week, with local news outlets reporting that the average protester was only 17 years old — the same age as Nahel. The anger spread quickly around the country. There were riots in the suburbs of Paris, but also those near Lyon, Toulouse, Bordeaux, and Lille. Protests also took place in France’s overseas territories. Rioters burned cars, buses, police stations, town halls, schools, and libraries and aimed fireworks at riot police. Many involved in riots said they didn’t know Nahel but they could have just as easily been in his place.

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European Compassion and its White Limitations

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Originally published in Fanack. This article was a finalist for the 2022 Samir Kassir Award for Press Freedom in the op-ed category.

Seven years ago, around 1.3 million people sought refuge in Europe in what was described by pundits, journalists, and politicians as a ‘migration crisis.’ This purported crisis was credited with triggering a wave in support for the far-right or far-right policies in Europe.

Today, Ukrainian refugees are pouring into neighboring countries to escape Russia’s invasion. Europe has already absorbed more than two million refugees in just over a week, yet the word “crisis” is conspicuously absent from its language.

The double standards are crystal clear. Indeed, many people have asked why the reaction from Europe in 2015 was panic compared to 2022, but the question remains largely rhetorical for those from the global south or who simply aren’t white. Just in case there were any doubts, a number of western media outlets offered racist explanations for why Europe was now welcoming so many refugees. Many commentators on Twitter rightly pointed out that western reporters were “saying the quiet part out loud.”

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Dystopian Defenses Reflect Europe’s Hypocrisy on Human Rights

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This article originally appeared in Fanack.

Around two thousand Africans attempting to enter Spain in late June were deterred through brutal violence by Moroccan border guards. Official reports say at least 23 of the Africans were killed, though rights groups claim the figure is higher. Videos that circulated from the aftermath purported to show Moroccan security forces standing over bloodied and beaten young African men or throwing rocks at others trying to climb over a security fence.

Demands from the UN secretary general and human rights groups have led Moroccan and Spanish authorities to launch an investigation. Meanwhile, demonstrations were held in cities across Morocco and Spain by citizens shocked at the brutal tactics used at borders. Crossings inside the European zone are becoming more permeable. However, Fortress Europe’s exterior border is making movement for the world’s poorest people more difficult and perilous than ever.

Human rights organizations have asked Morocco, Spain and other EU states to implement safe pathways for regular migration, reduce human rights violations, and to respect human rights at borders. Instead, Europe has shrunk resettlement quotas and outsourced the crackdown on migrants to authoritarian states with horrendous human rights records like Morocco, Turkey and Libya who on occasion will use these people seeking dignity as leverage to enhance their own rule.

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The rape allegation against Cristiano Ronaldo is a big story, but you might not know it from the Italian media

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Originally published on the Athletic


Kathryn Mayorga has accused Cristiano Ronaldo of raping her. Der Spiegel published her interview on Saturday along with copious corroborating documentary details. But you would hardly know it from the Italian media’s coverage.

Mayorga’s allegation, that Ronaldo attacked her at a party in Las Vegas in June of 2009, has spread far and wide on social media. There were vows of support for Mayorga and, as is all too common in these cases, reflexive and insistent defenses of the famous accused man. But, in Italy, the national media largely limited its coverage to Ronaldo’s absence from the match against Young Boys (for which he was serving a red card suspension). As has often been the case since his 100 million Euro transfer to Juventus, Ronaldo continues to dominate headlines in Italy. Which headlines, however, depend entirely on where you look.

This shouldn’t necessarily come as a shock. The Juventus media machine is notorious in its efforts to control the narrative about the team and its players, and it is, unsurprisingly, eager to protect its asset. Similarly, Ronaldo’s reportedly aggressive team of lawyers has already threatened legal action over the story.

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The response to Mesut Özil’s national team departure demonstrates why he stepped away

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Originally published in the Athletic

Mesut Özil sent an aftershock to the earthquake that was Germany’s disastrous World Cup campaign when he announced that he would be stepping away from the national team last month. The five-time German footballer of the year cited racism and scapegoating from the German media, fans, and the German Soccer Federation (DFB) officials as the reason he would stop representing his country of birth.

But Özil’s claims seem to have fallen on deaf ears.

“I think Mesut himself knows that racism within the national team and the DFB does not exist,” Toni Kroos, Özil’s international teammate, recently told German paper Bild.

This comes after another teammate in Thomas Müller said that “racism inside the national team never was an issue.”

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