Today I’m writing this article for you to think about racism one more time.
Some people will say that this issue is too serious and uncomfortable even to just start talking about. However, I have been thinking about this for almost a week, and I cannot get these thoughts out of my head. And I need to say one important thing before I begin to expand the topic:
I have no idea what racism is.
Before you say that I’m not an intelligent woman, I will tell you a little bit of my background. I am a junior student at St. Petersburg State University in Russia. My major is History of Civilizations and my field of interest is American history. This is the first time I’ve lived in the United States, which means that this is the first time I can be a part of the discussion about racism.
Of course, these facts are not an excuse for not knowing what racism is. I know about it on a theoretical level. Considering my major is history, I read a lot about racism in the United States and, in more general terms, the world. And — speaking of not being an intelligent woman — that’s not the reason why I’m choosing to talk about this topic.
I have faced the trouble of speaking about racism in class. I have had to tell students in my classes how I feel about it, where I see this, how I react to this. I still don’t have an answer for any of these questions. Because, as I speak about myself, I can’t see racism in everyday life. I don’t know how to react to it because I haven’t been able to see it. Moreover, I don’t know how I feel about it.
I believe that historical and ethnical background plays a huge — possibly, the main — role in the issue of racism being so important for the United States. When comparing it to Russia, this background forms a strong relationship to situations of discrimination and this relation changes with time in the direction of tolerance.
People in Russia do not have this background. I can’t say that we don’t have problems of racism, but we don’t consider it to be such a big issue. It’s more about ethnicity in Russia. It’s still racism, but it’s less noticeable. If we speak about the American understanding of this social conflict, I can say that Russian people have no idea how to react to it.
All the reactions that you can expect, mostly, come from mass media. Russian people, especially the youth, are facing a big influence of American pop culture. They love it. It’s easier to find someone who loves Beyoncé than someone who has read War and Peace. It sounds rough, but it’s true. This strong influence means that people in Russia are aware of issues connected with LGBTQ+, feminism and a wide variety of different social topics to discuss. And racism, too. But it is easier to imagine LGBTQ+ issues and feminism in Russia because these things have no need for an extensive historical background on a specific level. However, racism stays a mystery in our reality, because we can’t experience it in the same way that Americans can.
Some radical social groups in Russia try to ensure people that we have these issues. Almost every month I hear about slogans like “Russia is for Russians.” But people do not usually take them seriously, because if you consider that everyone who lives in Russia is a Russian, the slogan becomes really obvious and pointless.
Basically, what I wanted to talk about here is the experience of a cultural shock that you get when you face something you’ve never seen before or have only heard about. In the subway in St. Petersburg you can meet many different people. Sometimes when I see, for example, a black person there, I notice that people around stare at them. They try hard to hide it but don't really succeed. And there is no hate, no contempt. There is only shock. Because people don’t know how to react at all.
After writing this article I still don’t know what racism is. And I’ll probably never know, and I’ll never be able to talk about it on the same level as people in the United States do. But that doesn’t mean that I don’t appreciate this discussion through which we can attempt to make people more tolerant of each other.
