Racism in Russia

Just read this article about the plight of asylum seekers from Ivory Coast in Russia. What struck me the most was the bit at the end - the quote from the main spokesman of Russia's Federal Migration Service:

'He told me that the African residents were probably complaining because they did not want to stay in Russia anyway, and were looking for another country to take them. He said that, in any case, Russia preferred immigrants of Ukrainian and Belarusian origin.

'Then he said: "What is now at stake is the survival of the white race. We feel this in Russia. We want to make sure the mixing of blood happens in the right way here, and not the way it has happened in Western Europe where the results have not been good."'

Earlier on in the article are mentions of Russian youths shouting Nazi slogans at the asylum seekers.

How bad is this problem in Russia? I'm hoping our Russian tropers can shed some light on this issue. I'm continually bewildered by the epidemic of neo-Nazism there considering, well, you know.

edited 20th Apr '11 8:42:41 AM by pagad

With cannon shot and gun blast smash the alien. With laser beam and searing plasma scatter the alien to the stars.

Nah, the best case of misplaced neo-Nazism was when it happened in Israel. Notably, that was a Russian émigré.

"Atheism is the religion whose followers are easiest to troll"

How many blacks are there in Russia anyways? Some hundreds? Maybe low thousands? And only immigrants at that, not citizens. The attitudes are not exactly healthy, but from what I've heard the problem is not racism against them. Rather, Russia does seem to very much have a problem with racism against non-slavic minorities in the country, like Caucasian or Tartar ethnicities, as of course in the large cities they all come together.

Heh, true. From what I've heard, many young Russian emigrees to Israel don't consider themselves Israeli or Jewish, but, well, Russian, and even look down on Israeli society to a degree. Still, the original is the best - the Russian Nat Bols (National Bolshevists)

edited 20th Apr '11 8:51:39 AM by Octo

Unbent, Unbowed, Unbroken. Unrelated ME1 Fanfic

I always found it a bit funny, considering one of Russia's greatest writers was half black. Alas, their anti-semitism is infamous, so maybe I shouldn't be surprised about their attitude toward blacks.

Final Fantasy, Foreign Policy, and Bollywood. Helluva combo, that...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ezXm9jkukBo

Here an Israelian ex-Neo-Nazi says that in Russia he was called a dirty Jew and in Israel he was called a stinking Russian. He doesn't say how he identifies himself, but it's clear that he was identified as a Russian by other Jews.

al-Jazeera did a piece on this once.

Was Jack Mackerel. | i rite gud

What thehell is wrong this guy? Couldn't even be subtle about? Just out and say "Sorry, your people and my people are incompatible due to skin color Sorry, go away, try another country, I hear France is lovely this time of year! I mean You're monkeys, they're surrender monkeys, you'll get long just fine."? Really?

Okay, I took that a mite too far

The Blog The Art

To put this in context, I believe the quote was referencing immigration in Western Europe that has in some cases failed to result in integration, instead creating an ethnic minority slum. That's not to excuse being so blatant about the 'white race' stuff, but having the mechanisms in place for serious cultural integration while you let people in is important.

Furthermore, I think Guantanamo must be destroyed.

Well, we have ethnic minority slums too, except that in France they're at least semi-official, AFAIK. Here, it's just that whole blocks get settled by immigrants, of both legal and illegal varieties. I didn't even laugh the first time I read this comic. Granted, I have a skewed view, knowing the depths only as far as Moscow (a.k.a. Default City - it's an irrelevant, but not overly long story, so I can indulge if there is interest) goes. Various estimations say that illegal migrants (that includes Russians too, though), when fully counted, might add an extra 60 to 120 PERCENT to the stats of Moscow's multi-million population.

The racism here is... weird, and also exceptionally mutual. As far as public opinions go... The whites assume anyone who even slightly looks funny (or Jewish) isn't white and therefore are third-class unpersons, the Caucasians N.B.

assume that all whites are haughty bastards and people of mixed ethnicities either sit precariously on the fence of barbed wire or side with whichever side will take them (usually by religious segregation).

That said, as I've already said in the thread about whiteness, I'm part Jewish (Yiddish, whatever) and an atheist, so I tend to suffer from both sides in various ways. I've had my share of death threats from ethnic minorities for "putting their people down" >_<

, I've had my share of people looking at me weird for saying I find guys attractive and I've had it with people trying to get me to convince others that being a Muslim means being an extremist. Being a native Muscovite *

^{Resident of Moscow, dudes and dudettes}

of five or six generations (it's muddy, one of my paternal ancestors had troubles with the Soviet law and... eliminated parts of his documented past), I also tend to fall on the wrong side of "natives vs. limita" *

^{old, but pervasive, Soviet semi-derogatory term for people who moved from provincial parts corewards on government work and stayed to live there afterwards; now used to refer to any provincial that has recently moved to Moscow or St. Petersburg, though I head they have it softer over there}

arguments, which follows the ideas of Gangs Of New York surprisingly close - those whose parents were immigrants claim they're somehow better than those who are immigrants themselves because they got here first.

The combat *

is violent, with an increase in recent times of incidents of groups of young non-whites killing whites for various ridiculous reasons. The most famous recent event crossed over with football fanaticism when a fan of a Moscow team got offed by fans of the visitor team after a football match. It spiraled out of control into a media disaster, complete with retaliation strikes against minorities, retaliations against retaliations and other wonderful examples of mob mentality. Mob mentality goes hand in hand with racism here, as always. Our national football team loses a match to the Koreans? Expect anyone even remotely Asian the fans meet in the streets to get mobbed, Asian-made cars to be trashed and sushi bars to be vandalised.

Granted, it's not ALWAYS extreme, but the media only focuses on that, so...

To clarify, the neo-nazis, being assholes like any other forms of nazis (like it's a prerequisite for being one, huh), are a problem for anyone. Didn't help them beat up an elderly Tartar man? Well, you might get some kicking too. There are acts of vigilantism occurring occasionally, but few and far between.

Again, judging from the media, France has it almost as bad as we do, so it's not like I'm living in a helltown. We're still one of The Most Expensive Cities To Live In Ever for a REASON.

edited 20th Apr '11 1:29:03 PM by Noelemahc

Videogames do not make you a worse person... Than you already are.

Pretty much this.

If we disagree, that much, at least, we have in common

It looks like about forty thousand.

I'm a half-Jew from Ekaterinburg. Racism can be an issue all right here, with the usual anti-immigrant blahblahblah against Caucasians and Central Asians (they are taking our jobs, y'know) plus some good ol' antisemitism - the socialism of the fools. Jews supposedly oppress the True Russian people from above, Caucasians do it from beyond. As usual, bad socio-economic conditions + hurt imperial pride is a dangerous mix.

As to the question of Russian extreme nationalism's relationship with the past, there are various types of extreme nationalist here. Classic Neo-Nazism, Stalinism of various types, Christian Orthodox fundamentalism. Often they overlap, creating results like "Saint Stalin, the Holy Man of Russia". Amusingly enough, a Russian Nationalist can be either against or for the Soviet Union - you can regard it either as a Jewish-controlled state in which the True Russian people were brutally oppressed, or as a Holy Russian Empire that was destroyed in 1991 by Zionist We$tern lobby.

Somewhat off-topic, but yes, these types exist, they seem to be numerous (or at least loud enough to be noticeable) and this one hates them.

Getting back to the topic, the guy who said it had just, ahem, resigned. Or been resigned

But as I can see now on local forums, there are quite a lot of people who insist that he suffered for speaking the truth.

Damn it all, it makes me ashamed of my country

If we disagree, that much, at least, we have in common