With so many things happening around the world like terrorism, disease outbreaks, earthquakes, floods, “transracial” women, and racist bills being signed into law, it gives the impression that maybe the world is truly coming to an end.

It beats me that although killing or detaining of Blacks in predominantly caucasian countries is racism of the highest degree and has been going on for a while, nothing can be done about it.  Now, some cultures or language are perceived as inappropriate in some countries. Can this just stop?

The most recent one is that France is uncomfortable with a certain facet of African culture and has banned the ‘tchip’, which we call hissing in these parts, from schools.  The ‘tchip’, or ‘kissing of teeth’, is rooted firmly in African culture, expresses disapproval, contempt, disagreement, anger or as French minister of Justice, Christiane Taubira explained it: a concentration of disdain.

It has been said that the sound has caused enough of a furor in the French schooling system, so much so that some schools have banned its use on school premises.

“I explained to my school that I was strictly forbidden from tchipping others!” says Eric Bongo, deputy headmaster of Charles Baudelaire, a school in Evry, Paris.

According to Quartz Africa, it states that whether it is the intended effect or not, rejecting certain cultural codes racializes them and stigmatizes certain pupils for whom the tchip is part of language and culture an opinion I totally supports. Banning of Tchip in schools for children from African descent feels racists and begs one to wonder if such move will be taken on other cultural habit, language with less cultural affiliation.

Although it is considered as a form of disrespect, it is a cultural thing for a group of people and shouldn’t be banned, maybe cautioned but banned, I don’t think so.

Gradually they might from school to banning every black descent in France from tchiping publicly.

Janeth J