student safety in St Petersburg

[Michele A. Berdy]

No one is avoiding the question, but you don't seem to like the answer. 
People of color, Asians and dark-skinned people (who look like they might be 
from the Caucasus) are the targets of hate crimes in Russia. There is plenty 
of evidence of this, including the survey in which black people describe 
their experiences. Certainly not every single person of color, Asian, or 
dark-skinned person who comes to Russia experiences this, but it is a risk.

In addition to this, just about everyone may have problems with the cops, 
although the cops do not stop white people -- particularly well-dressed 
white people -- for "routine document checks" as frequently as they stop 
people of color, Asians and dark-skinned people.

What do you think -- that if you gave the same survey to white foreigners in 
Moscow you'd get the same results? Do you really think that 74.5% of white 
foreigners in Moscow have been verbally attacked in the way the Africans 
have?


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Dustin Hosseini" <dustin.hosseini at GMAIL.COM>
To: <SEELANGS at bama.ua.edu>
Sent: Thursday, November 26, 2009 1:21 PM
Subject: Re: [SEELANGS] student safety in St Petersburg


> Interesting how this survey only focuses on the African community in 
> Moscow,
> but no others.  The comment about fear of the police/officials can be
> applied to everyone that lives in Russia - you don't have to be of a
> particular group to fear the police.  Ask most any Russian, American,
> Filipino, etc. living in Moscow or St. Pete, and I'm sure that more than
> half will tell you to avoid the police at any rate.
>
> Drawing on what Paul described, and the way I interpret it is this - is 
> the
> problem a matter of race or of simply being a foreigner, or both?   Here's 
> a
> question people seem to avoid.
>
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