National Geographic Music (National Geographic)

Voices from Aubervilliers: a Parisian suburb typical of the hundreds of ghetto-like enclaves of Muslims of Arab and African origin that exploded in angry rioting across France.

"We are just poor people, people whose dark skins and names make us despised by the French,"

-- Mamadou Konate, 19, whose parents came from Mali.

"You can't blame these boys; they are so filled with misery. France wanted people like me who would do the hard jobs and keep our eyes low. But it does not want these young people, born in this country, who demand to be treated as full French citizens."

-- Ahmed Mohammed, 67, from Morocco.

"We are invisible people in invisible places. I don't know the words to show my situation. I have only anger and I know how to show that."

-- Rafik Ramadani, 20, a high school dropout.

"My identity card says I am French, but these are just words on paper. My relatives tell me I'm Algerian. But this means nothing. I feel too much a part of France to belong to Africa, but not such a part of France that I belong here. My feet are in two cultures; my heart belongs to none."

-- Ramadani, whose parents come from Algeria.

"The French want to suppress anything that doesn't seem purely French, I think fires may burn until they accept that we, also, are French culture."

"French Like Me" is mashed up with the song "Je Suis" by Malian artist Amkoullel, (also know as "L'enfant Peulh" or "The little Fulani"), -- one of the up and coming hip hop stars in West Africa.

-- All quotes from the Boston Globe

'Behind French Unrest, Cries of Racism, Neglect' Colin Nickerson, 11/13/05.

— CalabashMusic.com