Since my last post at the end of August, I have been going through an incredibly tiring journey, even though it had just begun.
I found it exceedingly difficult to find short-term housing while staying in Paris. It was cozy with a fantastic location in the city's heart, only an 8-minute walk from the shopping district Les Halles. I was completely unaware of how fortunate I had been to secure this prime location from Facebook halfway across the world in Chicago, IL.
All grocery stores, great food spots, art galleries, and clubs were within walking distance. Additionally, I stumbled across a substantial Nigerian and West African community right next to me in Strasbourg-Saint Denis that handled all my hair-related needs, from braiding to hair care products. Specific members of this group started to look out for me and advise me while I got my hair done. And ultimately, this connection led to me conducting my first interview with a hairdresser who migrated from Nigeria to work in France, and she described her negative experiences with white, entitled Parisiennes.
They want African hairstyles but threaten not to pay or are problematic when they don't like the resulting outcome. My location was convenient and foundational for all the lasting connections and relationships I would develop in the coming months since they all formed within a mile 1. It made conducting my interviews and getting my equipment easier since they were never too far due to public transport. However, this ideal situation quickly faded as the month closed, and I had the near-impossible task of finding an apartment in Paris for September and October without student benefits.
It's a competition to find housing in this city, like many major cities, but racial and in-group bias must be accounted for when dealing with French landlords. The SOS Racism organization focuses on abolishing and combatting racial discrimination in France and found that one in four agencies agree to select future tenants based on a prejudicial criterion, which shows racism is unsurprisingly present in the colorblind society.
