"Here, Grain de riz, give Patrick my phone and then bring it to me." Grain of rice, bring it to him at the same time, hurry up. " Grain of rice? This is the nickname given without complex by Isabelle Balkany to a Vietnamese employee of the town hall of Levallois-Perret (Hauts-de-Seine), who is massaging his arm. This sequence dates from 2002 and was rebroadcast this Thursday on LCP in the program "Ça vous regard", partly devoted to anti-Asian racism that has spread in France since the coronavirus epidemic.
“Grain de riz, it's a little boat people we installed, who came to Levallois twenty years ago. […] And he has a name not possible, his name is uh… Well, well, first we baptized him Maurice, and then we didn't find it funny and, one day, I baptized him Grain de riz and all the town hall, he is in the mail at the town hall, call it Grain de riz. That's it, ”laughs the elected official. "And Grain de riz, we love it, it's extra", she concludes.
I thought it was a parody of Groland. It's a real report on Isabelle Balkany 😑 pic.twitter.com/XUUkzrKeWZ
- Lady Oscar (@Milady_Oscar) February 7, 2020On the set of "It's Looking At You", the guests are dismayed. In this film at the time produced by the investigative program "90 minutes" for Canal +, Isabelle Balkany was then in the middle of the campaign for the election of her husband to the town hall of Levallois. The words of the one who now holds the office of mayor in place of her husband, imprisoned for tax fraud and money laundering, aroused indignation.
"Her first name is not unpronounceable," wrote Chinese writer Grace Ly on Twitter. A boat people is not acceptable. Rice grain is unbearable. It is adorable is to throw up in your mouth. The factotum massager factor is a human being like you. "This is not a relationship between a bourgeois woman and her employee . This is racism, ”says journalist Linh-Lan Dao.
Isabelle, "Semolina seed"
Faced with the controversy, the city councilor wanted to explain himself in a message posted on Facebook this Friday. "On the pretext that keyboards are in need of buzz and above all, in need of talent, here we are, my friend and I, banished from racism for the nicknames of friendship that we have given ourselves for 35 years," she writes. "I, at the town hall, everyone calls me Semine de semoule or Makrout (Editor's note: Maghreb pastry) because I come from North Africa, so we must stop," she replied to AFP. . Before allowing himself a joke with his collaborator: "We even kissed, we don't fear the coronavirus us!" "
😂😂😂😂Big laughter of "Grain de riz" and "Makrout, semolina de semolina" ... How good it is to relax!
Gepostet von Isabelle Balkany am Freitag, 7. Februar 2020Contacted by Franceinfo, the man Isabelle Balkany calls Grain de riz says he is "not shocked" by this nickname. "At the beginning, I didn't understand, but we know each other well, it's humor, friendship between us," he says.
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After the broadcast of the program in 2002, the sequence had already been noted, notably by Humanity. “It comes back to Isabelle Balkany explaining that she nicknamed a boat people Grain de riz because her name is too difficult to pronounce. So think: Dan. Hard to remember, anyway! Then wrote the daily.