I think the European attitude towards racism is very different because we are so involved with racism (or maybe something like ethnophobia would describe it better?) with our next door neighbours that we can barely wrap our head around basic white/black racism. Which doesn't mean that it doesn't exist, but it's not as much in our faces and in our news because they are just a lower percentage points that whatever minority we currently have an axe to grind with.
At the same time the European ethnophobic issues ARE to me fundamentally different on a bunch of levels for example:
- To a large part they cover immigrants. Immigrants who at least at one point chose to come in a country from their homecountry. Vastly different from slaves being removed from their homecountries against their will or Native Americans who never had a different home country.
- A lot of European ethnic struggle goes against people who actually don't look that different and who are different only in potentially culture and/or language and/or religion. So melting into the main culture is at least possible. If you want to, you can reasonably assume that three generations in nobody is even going to notice your foreign name anymore. But the American situation shows people that have been there over 200 years and who still have problems being integrated because they are visibly recognizable, even if they have completely adapted in name, culture, language and religion.
- Usually there is a lot of history involved. Some countries are former colonial powers, others aren't. Some of the people we have issues with we used to go to war against or to war with together.
no subject
At the same time the European ethnophobic issues ARE to me fundamentally different on a bunch of levels for example:
- To a large part they cover immigrants. Immigrants who at least at one point chose to come in a country from their homecountry. Vastly different from slaves being removed from their homecountries against their will or Native Americans who never had a different home country.
- A lot of European ethnic struggle goes against people who actually don't look that different and who are different only in potentially culture and/or language and/or religion. So melting into the main culture is at least possible. If you want to, you can reasonably assume that three generations in nobody is even going to notice your foreign name anymore. But the American situation shows people that have been there over 200 years and who still have problems being integrated because they are visibly recognizable, even if they have completely adapted in name, culture, language and religion.
- Usually there is a lot of history involved. Some countries are former colonial powers, others aren't. Some of the people we have issues with we used to go to war against or to war with together.