Sometimes a feel-good story is all you need to cut through racist biases and restore your faith in humanity. Which is why a young Malian migrant, who rescued a child dangling from a balcony, getting French citizenship and being offered a job by the Paris fire brigade, grabbed the headlines. Perhaps France, which has of late been a victim of terror attacks masterminded by migrants and which has seen racist positions harden as a collateral impact, needed this Spiderman moment to proclaim that it still valued democracy and good intentions.
The 22-year-old Mamoudou Gassama climbed up four floors of the apartment building in just seconds to rescue the child, who was precariously held by a neighbour from the adjacent flat, much before emergency services could react and respond. Gassama, who was in the neighbourhood to watch a football match, didn’t think twice when he noticed the commotion under a building and scaled the walls with bare hands. He also happens to love kids and President Macron warmed up to the Malian braveheart in a moment of much required healing in a deeply fractured society. Most French people say there are too many foreigners in France and that immigrants do not make an effort to assimilate with French culture. By seizing the initiative, Macron made sure that people like Gassama, who had chased the proverbial El Dorado to Paris, felt coopted at least.