The first thing I thought of reading this was how you could write the exact same about the rural midwest US. I was the only kid in my class who had ever seen a black person face to face, and that was because I lived in Florida first. My grandma still calls to warn us to stay inside if a non-white person is spotted near town (usually a utilities guy fixing power lines). They just have no experience with the wider world and know only the stereotypes they echo back and forth to each other.

The peace corp warning does a good job framing it as it is, but it's important to remember that "innocent" ignorance can still carry real violence and hatred.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 months ago (1 children)

For me it brought back memories of volunteering for a development agency as a white European in rural Cambodia.

Most people from the villages who came to the hospital I worked at had never seen a white person. Many were scared of me and my colleague because they were convinced we were ghosts. Every day people were pointing at me and shouting over the whole street or the market "Look! A white person!!" (Not in so polite words, though). And often small street stalls and businesses refused to talk to us, because they didn't stop/listen long enough to realise I try to speak Cambodian (Khmai) with them.

I'm not saying this is racism towards me, a white person. But I feel the reaction towards the "unknown" might be similar.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 5 months ago

how is it not racist?

[–] [email protected] 0 points 9 months ago (1 children)

For just about all former soviet states, the N word is the term used to describe black people, because the word imported from Europe to describe Africans. It doesn't have the connotations or baggage that westerners attach to it. Diddo for blackface and sambo imagery, it's usually used more out of ignorance than malice.

Anyone volunteering to beak barriers in that part of the world has their work cut out for them.

[–] [email protected] -2 points 9 months ago (4 children)

You can not say these things do not have "the connotations or baggage" (how dismissive) that "westerners attach to it." The N word is an English word with one use, dehumanizing people of African ancestry. Blackface and Sambo imagery are also borne of white supremacist ideals and dehumanizing Africans. That is specifically where this stuff comes from. There is no alternative interpretation. You could maybe say someone is ignorant of the history of the N word, but if you are not racist garbage, the intent of blackface and Sambo imagery is very clear without needing a history lesson. Acting as an apologist for racists is functionally the same as being racist. I'm sure you've heard the expression about having dinner with 9 Nazis. 10 Nazis are having dinner.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 9 months ago

Yes they can in fact say this. You do realize english is not the only language that exists or ever existed right ? Or that northern american culture is not hegemonic (yet) ?

Niger/nigra/nigrum is a latin word that simply means black or dark without all the prejudice attached to it in english, and believe it or not, variations of that root word still exist in a shitload of european languages and dialects to signify the exact same thing : a color.

To claim as you do that the denigrative usage of the word is the only understanding some farmer from the depths of the Urals should have is frankly preposterous.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 9 months ago (1 children)

American culture is interwoven with the black slavery history, most of the rest of the world is not. So no, they don't have that baggage when it comes to black face or the like. Like you don't understand the Indian caste system, for example.

Making them out as racists is stupid if you stop to think about it and not just give kneejerk reactions. Not everyone is as obsessed with race like Americans.

[–] [email protected] -1 points 9 months ago

How do you know what I understand about the Indian caste system? Racist caricatures are racist caricatures, even if that culture finds racism to be acceptable. You clowns really love to act like embracing racism is somehow enlightened, goddamn.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 9 months ago (1 children)

I am only going to be expanding on your discussion of the N-word specifically, and not the larger discussion. While the N-word is abominable in English, because the word for black in a lot of languages came from the Latin word "nigreos", a lot of languages have words that sound like the N-word but are not. The word just means the color black. That's just the etymology of the Latin word. If you have personal experience living in those areas then I'll definitely add more weight to your comment, because I haven't.

[–] [email protected] -1 points 9 months ago

While I understand the similarity with the latin languages, as it shares that origin, it is its own word. The actual word is being used, not words that sound alike, as it was exported by colonial powers. I don't have to have lived there to be aware of its use. Hell, anyone that read the post is now aware, there wasn't any confusion as to what was stated in the peace corps document.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 9 months ago (1 children)

I'm very much reading someone with a very narrow world view lecturing me without making any real effort to understand what im saying.

You're imposing your morals and values as well as any colonizer or ethnocentrist I've ever known!

[–] [email protected] -1 points 9 months ago

What a load of shit. One of the ways that we can communicate across languages and cultures is via imagery. Blackface and Sambo imagery isn't limited by USA hegemony. It's pretty clear the meaning. You didn't address that at all.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Damn... welcome to the Slavic region, I guess.

If there's a consolation price, at least you're not Roma - or as they're so "warmly" called, "the gypsies". They have snow 0% rights, especially in Romania, the country that has fucked the Roma people a thousand times over.

European racism is so fucking old world that it's not even nazi. Nazism is relatively fresh and young. This is old European imperialism.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 5 months ago

you're fundamentally wrong in two points, comrade.

Romania isn't slavic. quiet obviously by its name alone.
European racism really got traction in the 19th century with the popularisation of science and biologist pseudolegitmization of it. that isn't much older than nationalsocialist ideology.