More than two weeks of rioting in Paris and other French cities have made an impact on ASU and its study-abroad students.
One professor considered devoting a day of French class to talking about the riots, the International Programs Office has checked and double-checked on students in France, and an international student from France said he hates the way the American news is portraying the riots.
The riots erupted after two teenagers were electrocuted on a power plant fence while trying to escape a police pursuit. Some believe the violence is a result of racial tension.
"They are afraid of discourses that emphasize difference," said Mark Cruse, an assistant professor for the French department.
These issues have been disregarded for a long time and now are causing a Pandora's box effect, he said.
Unlike Americans, who welcome hyphenated cultures such as Mexican-American, in France, everyone is identified as French, not as a specific cultural heritage, Cruse said. In France, there aren't as many efforts to promote diversity as there are in America, he added.
"We are so sensitive to issues of race here," Cruse said.
Despite the riots, the number of ASU students hoping to study abroad has not decreased, said Dan Hart, the coordinator for students studying abroad in France.
All students abroad at French universities have been confirmed safe, he said.
"If we determine it is too unsafe, we will suspend activity there," Hart said.
The beginning of the riots came after the application deadline to study abroad next semester and will not affect the spring study-abroad program.
Philippe Puetch, a finance senior from France, said he was happy to be in America when the riots began because he would have been frustrated that he could not do anything to fix the situation.
Puetch has lived in the French suburbs and said the riots are a way the neighborhoods prove which is "badder."
"People in the suburbs want to find an excuse to do shit," Puetch said.
But Puetch said he doesn't think the American media is accurately portraying the situation.
"We are not a country like that," he said, about how CNN depicts the riots. "People that don't know the situation in the suburbs try to find an explanation."
Reach the reporter at amanda.m.gonser@asu.edu.
