Discussing racial attacks with students

[Josh Wilson]

In a rather odd extra note - an acquaintance of mine, an American female of
Swedish origin (who is very, very white) was attacked on public bus in
Moscow over the weekend.  The police were on hand when the bus stopped and
the attacker, an older Russian woman said that she had feared the girl
speaking a foreign language (English!) might be a "terroristka." The girl
suffered abrasions and a bloodied ear from where her earring was taken out. 

I myself, who am also very white, now bear a scar from where I was punched
by young, drunk Russian in Ulan Ude after refusing to go drink vodka with
him.  He was already quite drunk and exceedingly vulgar.  

I still believe that, over all, the country is still safe for foreigners.
However, the problems that do exist are not relegated to only foreigners of
color.  

JW



-----Original Message-----
From: Slavic & East European Languages and Literature list
[mailto:SEELANGS at listserv.cuny.edu] On Behalf Of sunnie rucker
Sent: Thursday, July 27, 2006 6:04 PM
To: SEELANGS at listserv.cuny.edu
Subject: Re: [SEELANGS] Discussing racial attacks with students

Hello everyone, 

I appreciate everyone's stories--good and bad--about their experiences in
Russia, but it must be stressed that the world becomes a bit different if
you are a person of color travelling, not just in Russia, but in other parts
of Eastern Europe as well. The issues of safety become more than worrying
about being robbed or being ripped off; you wonder what lies beyond dark
corners and which bald headed person  is actually a skin head who might
attack you.  Perhaps feeling unsafe in any big city is not particular to
race, but having someone look at you with hatred and attack you for no other
reason is.  With this being said, though our students of color are few, they
need to be aware of the racial climate in the countries to which they are
travelling. That is the only way that they can make an informed decision
about studying abroad in Russia or anywhere else. 

I have already shared my ideas with Amanda off list, but I would like to
offer some suggestions to other SEELANGers on how to handle the problem of
discussing the racial climate in Russia, or other Eastern European
countries, with our students, and especially those of color: 

 a) Inform them of the problems, and suggest that they get on to the BBC
news website and see what stories there are about the African students in
Russia. They have done a pretty good job of explaining the problems that
they have. 

b) Propose the possibility of studying abroad in or, at least visiting, a
Central Asian republic. My husband believes Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan, at
least, to be relatively more racially tolerant and in the capitals, at least
three years ago, Russian was widely spoken. In the same vein, you can
suggest that they travel to a smaller city. Here at Ohio State we have a
program in Tomsk, for example.

c)Educate them about what skinheads are and what they look like so that they
can try to avoid them once they are in Russia. This may sound silly, but
many of our students know nothing about skinheads, and some of us found out
about them the hard way. 

d) Though extreme, if you know that your students may be unable to handle
constant stares, seemingly incessant passport checks, and possible verbal
and/or physical attacks, suggest that they not go (to Russia). I have an
Asian-American friend who was told not to travel to Russia by her sponsoring
study abroad group, and yet continued to take Russian. If they need or love
the language our students will not drop it because they cannot travel there.


I apologize for the length of this response, but it is important that we
understand that  in the same way that some students learn differently than
others, our students of color, who are travelling abroad, may have different
needs than our students who are not of color.  Thank you for your time. 

Best, 
 Sunnie Rucker-Chang,
 PhD Candidate, Russian literature
 Member, Slavic department Diversity Committee
 The Ohio State University,
 Slavic and East European Languages and Literatures
  1775 College Rd
 400 Hagerty Hall
 Columbus, OH 43201
 (614) 292-6733 
 



 		
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