So, I am the only one thinking things are going downhill in Europe?

[Meneldil]

I'm opening this topic not because I've read some article, or seen something on TV, but as a result of some thoughts I've had lately, related to personal experiences. If you can't be bothered learning more about my life, just skip to the end part I guess. And sorry for the racist tone to my topic, if it does not respect the rules of the org, feel free to delete it.

I just had a talk with my little bro, about what he does in high school, his friends and what not. At first, we were simply discussing how his high-school has changed since I've been there, how are some profs doing, etc.. But quickly, the topic moved onto racial (or ethnical, as us french don't like the idea of race) tensions in said high-school. And it kind of shocked me to learn that most of my bro's friends are slowly becoming racists. They consider most arabs to be scums, thieves and generally, big vulgarisms. And so does my bro.

Now, I don't know how things were when you were 14-18 (my bro is 18), but back when I was young, racism was a big taboo among me and my friends. An oftenly-used insult was "facho" (a slang word for fascist). Sure, we all had our occasional problems/fights with some arab scum, but that was about it. We considered it was part of life and mostly got over it. When Le Pen (far right leader) made it to the second turn of the Presidential election, we all took the street, and shown our support to the black and brown population. My family encouraged me to do so. And proud we were, manifesting in support of freedom, tolerance and whatever. I remember some old arab shopkeeper who offered us free drinks during the protest. Poor guy was almost crying, and I was moved by him.

Nowadays, (almost ten years later) when I meet the same old friends, (some of them are still leftist hippies by all standards) racist jokes fly around, and even though we generally avoid the topic, we know we don't really hold arabs in our hearths.
Nowadays, my mum (socialist) who back then praised me when I protested against Le Pen call arabs with bad names and hate them with a passion.
Nowadays, my dad, who'd like to be a respectable, politically correct UMP-voter (right) often makes racist jokes too, and keep repeating "things are going to end badly".

We are all ashamed about it, but we all are racist of some sort. Whenever I get called names, whenever some guy tries to piss me off or to fight with me, sad to say, it's an arab. Whenever I see some macho-man scumbag calling girls 'sluts' in the street, it's an arab. Whenever I see a mean scum, it's an arab. And whenever I see an arab who doesn't look like and behave like a scum of earth or a religious nutjob, saddly, my first thought is "Wow, an arab who looks like you can have a civilized talk with him, crazy!".
I keep telling to myself "those are a minority, you can't blame all of them for the behavior of these ***holes". But I know it's pretty much useless. I don't have faith anymore.

I still get mad with some openly racist people I know (grandparents or what not), telling them the very same argument, but I don't believe it anymore. If I'd see that old arab shopkeeper again, I'd probably think "Meh, too bad for him, but he should have taught his kids to behave". I don't think I have an irrational hatred for colored people, as my two best girl-friends are respectively from Tahiti and Tunisia, but still.

It's quite telling that my Canadian girlfriend, who has lived in France for almost three months, thinks most arab youth in France are horrid scums (note that during these three months she had her share of issues with them). When she makes a comment about it, I don't know whether I should agree with her or stay politically correct and temper her thoughts with the same old "they're not all like this" argument. And you can't really accuse her of being a white racist imperialist scumbag either, as she's 3/4 native and kind of brown too.

And this feeling is pretty widely shared as far as I can tell. I still know some people who go on ranting about how France is a fascist country, about how immigrants are oppressed and victims of racism daily, about how the cops are responsible for every outburst of violence, but they're a tiny minority. The rest of the people balance between a politely (or cowardly) hidden angerness and open hatred.

My fear is that this rise of racism, which seems to not be restricted to France (one just has to see what's going on in Italy, Belgium, Spain, Switzerland or Germany) is the result of a mix of state propaganda and societal trend caused by economic and political uncertainties. What if things weren't really worse now than they used to be in the past? What if my shameful feelings aren't caused by rational thinking, but by some insidious brainwashing? What if I'm only not reminding the cases where a white scum pissed me or someone else off? I genuinely can't think of such an event happening in the last five years, but heh.

As I type this, I don't really know what the purpose of this thread is. Maybe it's some kind of cry for help: "Help me, I'm becoming racist". Or maybe I just wanted to express my feelings regarding a scary and disturbing evolution of our society and of myself.