Paris shows how private security has become ethnicized
Private security in Paris has been ethnicized for 20 years, while in Spain a Romani guard at McDonald's became a meme: segregation or strategy?
English · Original discussion in Spanish · Published
Security goes ethnic: the Paris case that brings back the controversial McDonald's story
The best way to avoid looking racist is to put the very group that could accuse you of racism in charge of the checks. In France, that logic has been embedded in private security for two decades: in Paris shops, running into a security guard of sub-Saharan origin is the norm. It has worked this way for 20 years, so the story goes on the street, and nobody in the industry seems to see it as a problem.
Some explain it as pure pragmatism: if the guard shares the neighborhood and the looks of the customer, a discrimination complaint loses traction along the way. The opposite reading points to job segregation dressed up as diversity. And in between lies the irony that capital learned to use the shield that public discourse dares not touch.
In Spain, the same strategy arrived as an anecdote with the Romani guard at McDonald's; there it was a joke, here it is routine. The uncomfortable question hanging in the air: does fighting racism miccionan normalizing ethnic profiling in security, or does it reinforce it? For now, nobody answers with data.
The best way to avoid looking racist is to put the very group that could accuse you of racism in charge of the checks. In France, that logic has been embedded in private security for two decades: in Paris shops, running into a security guard of sub-Saharan origin is the norm. It has worked this way for 20 years, so the story goes on the street, and nobody in the industry seems to see it as a problem.
Some explain it as pure pragmatism: if the guard shares the neighborhood and the looks of the customer, a discrimination complaint loses traction along the way. The opposite reading points to job segregation dressed up as diversity. And in between lies the irony that capital learned to use the shield that public discourse dares not touch.
In Spain, the same strategy arrived as an anecdote with the Romani guard at McDonald's; there it was a joke, here it is routine. The uncomfortable question hanging in the air: does fighting racism miccionan normalizing ethnic profiling in security, or does it reinforce it? For now, nobody answers with data.
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Summary of a discussion on Burbuja.info - Foro de economía, actualidad y política., translated from Spanish and reviewed before publication. Read the full discussion (17 replies).
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