Afropean: Notes from Black Europe extract - `it really was another world´
(The Guardian France)

In his new book, Sheffield-born writer Johny Pitts shows a side of Europe and its people that often goes unseen o Johny Pitts Q&A: `I´m working towards a multiculturalism 2.0´As the Eurostar pulled into the cavernous entrance of the Gare du Nord at dusk, I sat back for a moment and watched the same commuters I´d seen elegantly sipping their sauvignon blancs and café noirs just a moment ago lose their grace, awkwardly pushing, struggling with baggage and queueing up to dash out on to the platform. They had families to catch up with, friends to see, business to attend to and parties to schmooze at - the things I was about to opt out of for a few months.Having no obligations should have been a pleasant feeling, I suppose, and yet, sitting there alone on the Eurostar, rain droplets on the windows disfiguring the platform beyond them, and west African cleaners as shadow-like as Ralph Ellison´s Invisible Man taking the place of those well-heeled commuters I´d just seen alight, I experienced the kind of trepidation people often have before setting out on a long journey. It suddenly struck me that what lay before me was an empty, disquieting expanse of loneliness and uncertainty. That I´d just entered a geographic landmass in which I would be a foreigner in every capacity. Was there really a cohesive idea of a black Europe I might find some sort of solidarity with? Everything suddenly struck me as an abstraction: who was `black`? What was `Europe`?`This idea African Americans have about racism not existing in France is ridiculous because it does, in abundance´ Related: How football is reframing the way we think about race | Johny Pitts Continue reading...