Well, here is my anecdotal data. Though we own our home we're far from rich, live very modestly and everyone in our village knows this.

We've used local artisans/workers every time we needed things done, and their young trainees are usually named Mohamed, Salah, etc. We talk to them, we give them comic books, we joke, we get along great.

Mohamed is a case in point, a good kid, wants to work, a muslim like I'm clarinet player, but he can't afford a car (used cars are more expensive to own AND operate (legally) in France), he can't get a job easily if he doesn't have a car, he can barely afford his rent and certainly can't imagine buying a house, so there's no way out for him really, unless he wins the loto.

So he and his buddies go drinking on Saturday Night, throw insults at the local gypsy gang, whatever. Compared to American gang behavior it's actually fairly mild. A knife or a bottle fight seems to be the worst you can expect. Gun murders are rare.

The US is a mobile society, legally or otherwise (sports, music, educattion) someone there could make headways, but here, honestly, I'm not quite sure what options, other than torching cars, Mohamed has.

Mohamed both loves America and hates the regime; he loves us because we come from Ca-li-fooor-nia, la-la-land, paradise. Leaving money issues asides, I told him he better like lemon chicken if plans to visit. (Had to explain about Gitmo.) Even a blind profiler would jump on poor Mohamed as soon as he set foot on the tarmac. He looks like Michelle Malkin's dream terrorist.

In our village, there's a couple of old farts who still hate the Spaniards who came here to escape Franco in the 30s, so mindsets aren't going to evolve very quickly, I gather.

Katrina has sort of exposed the Potemkin Village nature of America's affirmative action but at least there is a village, even if it's cardboard thin. In France, there's no "gens bronzés" on TV, in the Parliament, behind the counter at the bank, at the Mairie, anyway not like in America. It's like the 60ies here. It really is.

No matter how unrealistic it is, you do need to dangle some hope. Mohamed has none, and he is a good, reflective, serious kid. So it's a bummer. Torching cars doesn't look so bad from where he stands. At least I think so. I think if he lived in the Paris suburbs, he might be one of the kids on TV. I don't know.

He cares about his family, his friends, his girl-friend... He'd like to do better, but the French tax and credit system makes it virtually impossible for someone like him to run a business, except an illicit one "au black" as they say here.

I've seen lots of posts on Kos, Gilliard's, Atrios', everywhere (and forget the Hitler Youth as redstate.org) and, excuse my French, but no one seems to have any real understanding (and to understand is to gain compassion and forgive a little) of the life those kids have.  I saw a good quote attributed to Mitterand, but that's it.

I look at these riots, as extreme as they seem, and I think there may be hope that it will change things for the better.

I look at the African-Americans left to rot in a dying city, then carted in buses and herded together in a stadium, taking it all passively, like that's all they expect, and that's all they'll get, and I don't see any promise for change.

So I don't know, maybe the riots are better.