May 06, 2006

Racism in Russia: My Experience

I had was always very sympathetic to charges of racism in my youth. But after I lived in Moscow for a year, I realized that minorities in the U.S. have no idea what the hell they are talking about when they talk about America being a racist country--as if it was somehow unique or worse here than in other parts of the world.

In Moscow, for instance, people who were from Africa or the Caucuses were always stopped by the police. Yes, I used the word always on purpose, because every time I got on the subway the police would be shaking down a person of color.

You never heard the word Chechen without a scowl--but Chechen was used to describe anybody who looked like they were from the Caucuses. Chechens, every one would tell you, ran the mafia.

Africans? Drug dealers. Not all of them, you know because every one had at least one African friend they could vouch for, just most of them.

Lowest on the racial totem pole were the Romani---they gypsies. No one could just say gypsy without using the modifier filthy.

Karol at Alarming News notes that racial tensions seem to be mounting in Russia, but according to this AP report everything was much better under Communism. Of course, what the article fails to mention is that under the Soviet System citizens were required to carry identity cards listing their race.

And "Jew" was a "race" according to the Communists.

By Rusty Shackleford, Ph.D. at 10:25 AM | |