Old slang of robbers and the lawless, verlan has become a very distinctive trait of the language spoken today by French youth. As mentioned in a previous article (« Le verlan, phénomène langagier et social: récapitulatif. » in The French Review, Vol. 82, 2: 308-324, 2008) this so called language seems to be prevalent in the Parisian suburbs, better known as the cités. This article will examine how members of ethnic minorities use it in order to rebel against their cultural isolation and to affirm their own identity. We will try to show the relationship between the encoding and the use of this language as an expression of a distinct culture in relation to traditional French culture.