Though conflicting positions over the war in Iraq have made relations between America and France anything but amiable, the boycotting of French products has not progressed to a boycott of friendship between French and American students at Ohio State.
Business students from the Audencia Ecole de Management in Nantes, France have been taking classes at OSU during spring quarter for roughly the past twenty years. International students share many of the same apprehensions; but this year, world events have caused the French to endure distinct caution.
“I was a little bit afraid before coming to the United States, because I worried about the welcoming of the American students.” French student Sylvan Treilles said.
But Treilles’ concerns have been unwarranted, he said.
“Americans are very welcoming and more than open,” Treilles said. “Actually, this tension between France and America is a good way to open a discussion and know each other.”
“It’s not easy for us because of the war to be here.” said Treilles’ classmate Alexander Girault, “But we are here for two months, and since the beginning, no problem.”
The receptiveness from OSU students has led some French students to believe the decisions of American leaders and what is shown in the media doesn’t necessarily reflect the convictions of the American people.
“Being here and meeting people and discussing with them gave me a sense of the gap that exists between many Americans and their leaders, which we are not always aware of overseas,” said Mamandou Karim Ba, a student from Nantes, but originally from Mauritania.
“It is very important to me to have the opinion of American students because the media, both in the United States or Europe, are really one-sided,” classmate Antoine Laurent said.
Television sets in both American and European homes have shown Americans dumping their French wine and refusing to purchase French cheese. However, what is seen on TV may not exactly be what exists on the streets.
“I don’t think this boycott is carried by the whole American public,” Ba said. “I guess it’s only supported by some West Coast zealous editors and some politicians eager to be noticed for some reason. And even though, yeah, I think it’s silly to initiate such a boycott, I view it as a form of intolerance and inability to cope with people who have another view, which is contrary to the spirit and the letter of the U.S. Constitution and laws.”
Ted Hopf, professor in political science, said the reason some Americans reject other points of view is because of an unrelenting assumption of our government’s virtue.
“The public has the understanding of America as infallible,” Hopf said. “So when something bad happens, somebody doesn’t agree with the United States, it can’t be because the U.S. policy is wrong. It’s because the rest of the world is wrong.”
He said this sureness represents a minority of the American population, but it is vocalized enough to make some French students wary.
“This was the proof that anti-French feeling was real and strong,” said French student Thomas Kriegel, on changing the name of french fries to freedom fries.
The House of Representatives’ cafeteria changed the fries’ name in March, although the government has mandated no official boycott. Still, boycotters have sporadically made real effects all over the country.
Channel 21 WFMJ of Youngstown, Ohio reported a hit to French wine sales by customers refusing to order it and by businesses – like Cornerstone Beverage and Sorrento’s – refusing to serve it.
Nonetheless, many students at OSU on both French and American sides agree the boycotting and change to freedom foods have been ridiculous and isolated.
“We’ve seen on French TV that fries were not french fries any longer but freedom fries, but we go to Wendy’s and McDonald’s here and it’s french fries everywhere. It’s a war of media,” said Clement Rey, a French student.
“I don’t care if Americans start calling brie ‘freedom brie.’ I’m still calling it brie,” said Ramya Ravisankar, an American and senior in art.
Stan Wielezynsky, the owner of La Chatelaine, a French restaurant on West Lane Avenue, said he saw the boycotting in New York and Texas on television, but his business hasn’t been affected by the boycotting at all.
“With the war being over and our (military) boys coming home, everything seems to be on track,” Wielezynsky said.
He said the fight isn’t between him and his customers; it is essentially between President Bush and French President Jacques Chirac.
“The Americans and the French people will stay big brother and sister for the next hundred years, as they’ve always been,” he said.
Professor Austin Kerr, who teaches American and business history, said America and France have had a long history of defending each other and Americans won’t “stop going to museums that are displaying Matisse paintings because of what France has done.”
History shows a facilitating relationship has always existed between the two nations.
“The French navy allowed us to have the victory at Yorktown that ended the American Revolutionary War,” Kerr said. “In the Second World War, we were, more than anyone else, responsible for liberating France from the Germans.”
But much like brothers and sisters, America and France have had their squabbles. In 1986, Americans also boycotted French products because France denied the United States permission to fly over its territory in Libya, and in 1995 when nuclear testing was discovered in the Pacific.
France has been the prime target of American criticism because the two countries are very much alike, Hopf said. France, too, has great power and largely influences the world.
“It’s actually a tribute to French power that we actually feel the need to slander them,” he said.
Even though Germany and Mexico didn’t support the war in Iraq either, Hopf said America didn’t boycott their products as passionately because they are not viewed as competition.
“Germany has been given a pass because Germany has no pretensions of being a great power; whereas France does, and that irritates Americans that France would have the temerity to actually pretend to be equal to the United States in any way,” he said.
Kerr said it’s hard to tell what America and France’s dispute will mean for their relations in the future. A lot depends on the policies of both governments.
“It would be certainly possible that, say, 25 years from now, there will be more rivalry between Europe and the United States than there is today. This might be looked back upon as the start of that,” Kerr said.
As for the near future, America could be draining more resources in Iraq.
“If the Bush administration shows every sign of continuing with his unilateralism, it could mean there would be less international cooperation than there might have been with the reconstruction of Iraq,” Kerr said. “And that would mean it potentially could be more costly to Americans – in terms of both their treasure and their blood.”
Though Hopf said the war is over and boycotting doesn’t affect French government or policy, it is important to understand boycotting as a symbolic punishment of France’s contention indicates a domestic obstruction to Americans.
“It’s kind of symptomatic of the American public and American foreign policy,” Hopf said, “mainly unquestioning acceptance of American policy of being right by definition; and any dissent of that policy is unpatriotic at home and disloyal abroad.”
Nevertheless, from at least what they’ve noticed in the classroom, the French students said they appreciate the casual, diverse and unguarded nature of America.
Girault said he wishes he could bring that openness back home because it is more difficult to speak up in France.
Based on their time in America, the French students said the media have been misleading, because they have not witnessed or personally experienced any backlash from the war in Iraq.
Equally important is for Americans to know the French don’t hate Americans, they said.
“You may know that the position of the average French person is absolutely not against American people, but against Bush and his mates,” Kriegel said.
