Are people in France really this racist? went to calais for 1 day, here's my story

France is pretty racist compared to a lot of other Western countries but it will obviously look worse if you go to Calais during the middle of a refugee crisis, you wouldn't have experienced this in most parts of the country.

I'm sorry this happened
I'm half French and have lived there 13 years and yes, a lot of French people are racist, especially against Arabs. I've had people tell me racist stuff while in school.
I'm glad I left there for the moment.

WARNING: long wall of text incoming (definitely worth the read though).

i have a (white) friend who lives there and he invited me to come for the day since france is only about 3 hours away from london in a car. now, my mum warned me saying that they really hate algerians (im algerian) but i (nicely) told her to shutup because its the 21st century and the **** that happened back in her day probably doesn't.

so i got there and noticed that everyone looked so angry, old and depressed for some reason - it was strange.

WARNING: long wall of text incoming (definitely worth the read though).

i have a (white) friend who lives there and he invited me to come for the day since france is only about 3 hours away from london in a car. now, my mum warned me saying that they really hate algerians (im algerian) but i (nicely) told her to shutup because its the 21st century and the **** that happened back in her day probably doesn't.

so i got there and noticed that everyone looked so angry, old and depressed for some reason - it was strange. we went for a drive around the center of calais and got pulled over by some mean looking french policemen with pistols and hand grenades attached to their belt. they stopped us and asked for our papers. we showed them our passports and they let us go. when i asked them why they pulled me over they just said "control".

after that, we see a group of homeless people (children, women, men ...) outside a supermarket and they started talking to us. we learnt that they were actually refugees (they were showing us pictures of babies on fire and loads of other messed up **** that was going on in their country) and they were asking us to buy them water. these guys were legit the nicest people i've ever met. we went in the supermarket and bought them water and food. some pakistani guys from england found us and there and told us about how they got stopped, searched, and interrogated for 4 hours by french police at the border. after those guys left me and my friend agreed that they were talking absolute smack there was no way that happened based off the fact that they were brown lol.

anyway they left and the supermarket security were giving me and my friend really dirty looks (i assumed it was normal in france to have a permanently angry face - based off the few hours i was there). they got on their phone and 3 police cars come to the scene. they didn't speak to us, they just chilled there and watched us chat to the refugees. we said goodbye and drove off - that's when the police started following us and eventually pulled us over (again). they asked for our passports (again), searched our car and kept asking me if i was a journalist. they found nothing in the car and when i asked them why i was pulled over, they said "control" (again).

it was pretty obvious that we were getting pulled because i was algerian when we thought about the fact that he was living there for 2 years and has never been stopped by police, but we agreed that the ultimate test would be to see if they stop me at the border when i drive back to england. there were 3 cars in front of me trying to get past the border and they went through w/o any problems. guess what happened to me? yep - "control". they searched every inch of my car and myself and gave me the same "control" nonsense and let me through. when i got to the english border i was cracking jokes with the old cockney bordermen about my experience in france and they set me on my way. as i was still going through the border i told one of the english ladies (she was stood with a sign telling people where to go) that she looked beautiful and she smiled, said thank you and i continued driving. i could not believe the massive contrast between english people and the french - the border patrol in france looked like they could put a bullet in your skull at any given second. what is going on lol either british people are the nicest people on earth or the french are just garbage.

i wrote this not to hate on france or the french people but to see if there was maybe an explanation for what happened. i refuse to believe that a country like france can be this openly racist. also what are they feeding their police officers? they're all like 6 foot and built like tanks (even the women). that experience gave me the urge to join ISIS and burn france to the ground lol

I'm sorry for your experience, but I believe there's going to be a big difference between attitudes in Calais and attitudes everywhere else in France. Calais is obviously the big point for refugees to try to flee to England, so obviously the police are tightening up.
I'd hope the rest of France isn't like this anyway.

Was that supermarket called Dia, perhaps?

not your fault

shouldn't it be the other way around tho? france raped algeria for 130 years we should be the ones who are pissed off lol. when did you leave france?

It's not hard to figure out. The Calais migrant crisis has turned that part of France into a ****hole. Imagine the place you live in suddenly turning into a crime-ridden slum filled with people with whom you have absolutely nothing in common. Bitterness is to be expected.

There is also an underlying anti-Algerian and anti-Arab feeling amongst a great number of French people. You need look no further than the popularity of Jean-Marie le Pen to see that. However, it's a subtle hatred and would not have manifested itself in such an obvious way in other parts of France.

I'm sorry this happened
I'm half French and have lived there 13 years and yes, a lot of French people are racist, especially against Arabs. I've had people tell me racist stuff while in school.
I'm glad I left there for the moment.

It is France afterall,never did like it. I can't imagine being an Arab living in France,life would be so tough

My cousins are half Arab like you and the oldest gets openly discriminated by her teacher

its the same in Britain tbh lol

and probably nothing was done about it

In my experience, France is worse in terms of acceptance and tolerance. But again, I wasn't brought up here so I don't know. I lived in a mixed area until I was 4/5 so it was fine.
Did you experience lots of racism here?

It is France afterall,never did like it. I can't imagine being an Arab living in France,life would be so tough

From my experiences, the north of England's fine.