International Blog Against Racism Week: Central European perspective

[winter]

ibarw is on again, and after the recent kerfuffle (or does anyone remember it in the wake of the Boldthrough?), I've been thinking along the same lines.

One issue I often see in racism discussions is the Europe/America divide. Racism in America is something special, yes, but I think it's mostly because of how much it's been fought against and for, there. I wonder if it wasn't for the better: if Americans aren't perfect, at least they have the instinct to respond to an accusation of racism with "No, I'm not." Too often in Poland, the response is "So what?"

And I'm not talking about the usual angle, the black/white divide, though that one makes the news on the football field. Not even about Asians, though there was a recent stellar example of a big bazaar being shut down, then given an extension - "But only for the white merchants, because the Asians are all illegal immigrants". And no, the guy didn't lose his - ministerial - post over it.

The thing is, in Europe it's hard to say "white", and our racism problems aren't the ones that make big fandom debates. When did you last read a post railing against discimination of the Roma? Or Romanians even - in Poland, those two are often lumped together and passed off as thieves and beggars. Or the Ukrainian affair, which goes back centuries before there were either blacks or whites in what is now the US of A. And that's not even touching on the big bogeyman.

To apply standard American measures of political correctness to Poland would be to have a heart attack over every fridge magnet of a Jew counting money. It's a financial good-luck thing, on the lines of the Irish leprechauns with their beer and pots of gold (and somehow, the Irish sell them themselves), but put it next to the tele-evangelist who promises not sulphur, but the Jews coming to take everything away if people don't pray hard and give him money, and it starts being frightening. This is the country where accusations of Jewish blood are thrown in political debate as the highest insult.

This is the country that used to have three million Jewish citizens, once. Once.

So forgive me if I don't overlook these issues, if I don't close off my creativity in a garden where I pretend race doesn't matter at all, just because "it's an American issue". I'm too hot-blooded for that, too prone to overthinking to ignore the fact that if something conforms to the usual tropes because it's easier, it reinforces them in the reader, the watcher.

Mixing Russian, Ukrainian and Jewish blood probably wasn't one of my ancestors' brightest ideas.


(As an aside, I've also been thinking about the issue of writing about race or other discrimination from the point of view of a character with a cultural background and ideas different from my own. Would anybody be interested in reading something like that?)

Comments

Re: International Blog Against Racism Week: Central European perspective

[a-blue-moon-cat.livejournal.com]

My father did not learn Czech or any of the other languages that he grew up hearing. There is regret there, to be sure, and also he and his brothers did not learn much of the culture of the land that their father and his family came from. I find that quite sad. I know so little of Czech culture and customs, and would like to know more. But my mother's family, who came mostly from Ireland, also forgot their Gaelic and learned American English when they came to the US, and also lost much of their culture. American white culture is mostly English-based, but as I have researched over the years, a lot of it is also strongly Germanic-based. Much of the culture of the Midwest is more Germanic-and-Scandinavian-based than English, for example. We lived out West for a while, and my parents observed this; my mother started cooking in that style, and pretty much gave up on the Southern style of cooking, which is mostly frying meat to death and boiling veggies to death. :) But both types of cooking are still bland and use little spices or seasonings.

A loss of culture is always something to regret, but the new culture should not supercede the old. Nor should the old be held onto, in total defiance of the new. There must be moderation and a gradual merging. Or at the very least, one ought to be able to cherry-pick what one wants out of any and all cultures. :)

As for human rights, that is a whole 'nother kettle of fish.

Re: International Blog Against Racism Week: Central European perspective

[etrangere.livejournal.com]

Please note that the original comment was not necessarily my thoughts and feelings on any of these matters, but kind of a general observance of what I read and hear and see in my little part of the world.
Err, I don't understand what that means. You didn't believe what you wrote, you just wrote what you've heard?

I too have read recently (and don't remember where) about the problem with finding English classes in the US.
Thanks for confirming that.

And English is one of the hardest languages to learn, as the rules are broken at every turn, due to the huge assimilation of other words and language rules from other languages!
English is one of the hardest langugaes to learn, really? I'm a bit surprised by that. I'd heard it was hard to master completly, but it seems pretty easy to get fluently at least. I mean, no declination, no complicated conjugasons... pronounciation can be tricky and you've got to learn those irregular verbs and be careful for the meanings of particles but otherwise...
And every languages borrow from other languages, that's what languages do.

English is not very pure, and we don't have an Academy of Language to keep it pure. :)
My opinion of the French Academy would hold no compliments. The whole idea of keeping languages pure is retarded, snobbish, xenophobic ridiculous, and makes languages poorer not richer. There's reason all great writers made up neologism.

Racism, especially between whites and blacks in this country, goes both ways. But no one ever mentions that!
Actually in the last 2 weeks I've heard it said so often it makes me a bit sick to see it again. There's not much I can say more there without being offensive which I don't want to be in bwinter's journal. I do believe you, that you have had genuine experiences of feeling prejudiced against, and I do feel sorry for you for that, but there's a reason why this 'argument' is on this comic white lies. Racism is also a question of uneven power, of an experience that is so systematic it's institutionnalized. You could walk away from these restaurants and found the ones that were better. You can walk away from these areas with mainly Chinese signs. Black people can't walk away from their Black skin, and the prejudiced they suffer will in the US likely follow them everywhere.
That doesn't mean I think it's fair for those Black people to treat you badly because you're White, I don't. But I think it's very fair to talk about racism that minorities suffer much more than the racism that White people suffer.

The vast majority of white people in this country did not have ancestors who owned slaves (which is a horrible thing for anyone to endure, and alas, it is still going on in third-world countries) yet we are all treated as though our ancestors did.
If I cared why some people's ancestors did, I would never have dated a German guy, ande that's living memory History. I think you're mistaken if you think this is about the past. At least I don't think people should be made guilty for something that happened in the past. I think they should be made aware and take responsability (something which i must do as much as anyone else and which I often struggle with as well btw) for what happens in the present. Racism is current reality. Black and White people in the US don't have the same life expectency. They don't suffer the same level of penalties when they're found guilty of a crime. These are statistical realities. You're not personnally responsible for this. But being White you do enjoy priviledges that others don't. I do too. No, I don't know either how you can fix something like this, nor do I think feeling guilty is a very productive way to start either. But aknowledging you have priviledge is, I guess, a start.

My father did not learn Czech or any of the other languages that he grew up hearing.
My grandma came from Slovakia :)

What you say about American culture and your family history is interesting. Thank you for sharing that.

Or at the very least, one ought to be able to cherry-pick what one wants out of any and all cultures. :)
That I totally agree with.

Re: International Blog Against Racism Week: Central European perspective

[maygra.livejournal.com]

Thank you for responding to deidrecorwyn her so well, becaseu yes, my first reaction the the comments was, "Yes, another fine example of white privilege showing it's underskirts."