But Vuaki's search for start-up capital was typical of the black experience. "They said right off, no loan, no money," said Vuaki, 52. He and his wife managed to gather some family savings and self-financed their shop.
"The French like to say, 'Blacks are a social problem, not racial,"' said Gaston Kelman, 52, a native of Cameroon who has written widely on France's black population. "So our institutions have no means to overcome it."
Until recently, virtually all blacks were on the lowest rung of the social ladder. Gradually, however, a younger generation is, like Cheickh, gaining education, starting businesses and gradually giving birth to a black middle class. They feel the discrimination they say is rampant in French society and are beginning to resist.
"It could be a coincidence," said Sissouo Cheickh, bitterly, "but one question the French have to answer is: Of 48 people who died, why were 48 black?"