Quote:
Originally Posted by eschaton
There's not a huge difference in shade between the average Algerian and average Turk, is there?
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In fact many Algerians (and Tunisians) look European, because of centuries of capturing slaves on European coasts.
Some North Africans look very distinct from the Europeans, but others look very similar to Spaniards or Italians. Some Kabyles even could pass as Northern Frenchmen or Northern Europeans with their blue eyes and fair hair.
Oftentimes, I cannot guess if someone is North African. What gives them away is gonna be either the way they dress, or their accent, or their attitude. But if the guy dresses like a Westerner, has no particular accent and no special attitude, it's impossible to tell. A few years ago I traveled with a guy who was an engineer, born of Algerian parents, he dressed in a sleek way like upper-class engineers, had no accent, and was pretty intelligent/articulate. You would never have guessed his ancestry wasn't French, because he looked totally European. Guys like him have 0 problem integrating in French society, because the French don't care about ethnicity, what they care about is external appearances (no accent, behaving middle-class, dressing appropriately, etc). I asked him, and he told me he had never encountered racism in his entire life in France (like no landlord ever refused to rent an apartment to him), and I wasn't surprised, because people here judge the book by its cover, and he had an immaculate book cover.
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