A minority success story from France

Barack ObamaBarack Obama's historic election as President of the United States has electrified the world by re-defining what can be considered possible in politics. According to the Economist of December 11, Europeans are eager to show that they too have their minority success stories. For example, Cem Ozdemir, a politician of Turkish origin, has recently been elected a co-leader of Germany’s Green Party. France has three government ministers of Muslim origin, including a woman Rachida Dati, who is minister for justice.

Yet the French parliament has just one non-white deputy from the mainland compared to 42 African-Americans and 30 Hispanic or Latino members in the House and Senate in the USA. Non-whites are also grossly under-represented in the higher rungs of industry, commerce and banking.

A perfect counter-example of the relative poverty and helplessness of most black immigrants in France is Malamine Koné, a black French entrepreneur, and his company Airness. Business Week of May 2, 2006 reported that the company’s vibrant designs and striking red and black panther logo has helped to make the brand quite popular in France as well as other EU countries.
Koné came to France from Mali at the age of ten. The family of 11 lived in a rough Parisian neighborhood on the earnings of Koné's father, a mechanic, according to the Economist. A serious car accident made it impossible for the young man to become a professional boxer. Instead, he launched his own sportswear brand, calling it Airness after Michael Jordan’s nickname (“His Airness”). In 1999 he began selling his sweatshirts around stores in the banlieues.

Airness now has an annual turnover of some $155m and an office off Avenue Montaigne. It sponsors soccer clubs and sportsmen and has made licensing deals with different companies. For example, Airness perfume and deodorants for men, made by L’Oréal, has been selling well. While Koné’s sales cannot compare to those of the giants Adidas and Nike, for a banlieusard, set to fail, or end in jail, as one French rapper put it, it is a commendable achievement.

“If you come from the banlieues and say you want to rival Nike you have no credibility,” he says. “You have to work twice as hard.”

In certain respects Koné’s success story is similar to the grander saga of Barack Obama who also had to work twice as hard as his competition. Obama’s election to the presidency of the most powerful country in the world is an event of historic proportions, one that could change people’s perceptions and prejudices for all time to come. Garlands and flowers, not shoes, await Barack Obama. An African-American in the White House after January 20 could set in motion a large number of success stories similar to that of Malamine Koné.

In short, one hopes that the remarkable achievements of Obama and Koné will inspire millions of underprivileged and marginalized individuals across to globe to rise above their difficulties, "To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield."