FRANCE'S CROWN FRAMING * : MASTER GLOBAL ESSAY

THE GREAT students of France and this great nation of France confronts racism after the election of the first black mayor.

PARIS : Several thousand people marched thro ugh the streets of Paris' largest suburb last Saturday to denounce racism after the town's newly elected black mayor was subject to  disparaging comments on social media and national television shows.

Bally Bagayoko, 52, of the hard left France Unbowed [ LFT ] party was elected  mayor of Saint-Denis in the first round of municipal elections on March 15.

The Frenchman born to Malian parents and brought up in the neighbourhood was almost immediately targeted by racist disinformation and remarks, some aired on one of the country's watched news channel.

Demonstrators gathered on the steps of Saint Denis's town hall, a town of 150,000 is one of France's most diverse, with large immigrant population. Music bands, trade unions and associations joined the demonstration.

'' We came to state firmly and definitively our visceral attachment to the values of the Republic embodied by those who are heirs of immigration,'' said Bagayoko.

He attacked what he said were '' failing, sometimes even complicit institutions''.

A TALE OF TWO CITIES : Switchboard operators at Saint Denis hall have reported receiving multiple racist calls daily, including inquiries about whether the town is for '' Blacks and Arabs '' or if headscarves are required for school.

The mayor has filed a legal complaint against the news channel CNews after a guest allegedly made racist comments about him.

Some commentators used derogatory terms such as '' great apes '', '' Homo Sapiens '' and '' Primitive tribe '' when discussing his election.

Paris prosecutors opened an investigation into. '' public insults of a racist nature '' regarding the CNews broadcast as well as a separate investigation into abuse directed at the mayor on the X platform.

The World Students Society thanks The Agencies.