France is back (sort of) on the cover of The Economist

You develop a thick skin when you’re an expat, regardless of where you’re from and where you end up living. I learned that early. 15 year olds aren’t kind to one-another and they can be downright cruel, sometimes without meaning to be, to a foreign exchange student who barely understand their southern accents and is dealing with culture shock. But guess what, pundits and american politicians are even worse. You should have heard some of the atrocious stuff I heard when I moved to Washington, D.C. It was 2003, the heydays of the Freedom Fries, and NOT a good time to be French in the United States. Things are better now, though making fun of the French is never going to go away, especially in politics. John Kerry was ridiculed for speaking French back when he was running for president in 2004, as was  Mitt Romney more recently. G-d forbids a candidate for the presidency would speak a foreign language, that’s just the worse thing ever right? Well, now it’s Obama’s turn to be mocked as “French”, appearing on the cover of the Economist in a béret and marinière, clutching a baguette (is there a new French bakery in D.C. I don’t know about? lol)…