THE FRENCH ARE OUR WHITE FAMILY

I spent a couple of days with majority French people. Over the years I come to an understanding that French people are the most accepting European country of Black people. Dating back to the 1800s Black Americans left racist America to live in France.

African Americans, who are largely descended from Africans of the American colonial era, have lived and worked in France since the 1800s. Unofficial figures indicate that up to 50,000 free blacks emigrated to Paris from Louisiana in the decades after Napoleon sold the territory to the United States in 1803. Paris saw the beginnings of an African-American community in the aftermath of World War I when about 200,000 were brought over to fight. Ninety per cent of these soldiers were from the American South. Many black GIs decided to stay in France after having been well received by the French, and others followed them. France was viewed by many African Americans as a welcome change from the widespread racism in the United States. Blacks in France (3-7.5% of the French population; it is illegal for the French States to collect data on ethnicity and race.) French Black people or Black people in France (French: Noirs de France) are people who are of Black African, Afro-Caribbean, or Melanesian ancestry.

"In many ways, African Americans came to France as a sort of privileged minority, a kind of model minority, if you will—a group that benefited not only from French fascination with blackness, but a French fascination about Americans."

Many European countries became accepting of Black Amercans not only for human reasons but out of gratitude for Black American soldiers liberating European countries from Hitler in particular France. French people see Black Americans as people and not adversaries as many American whites.