[Linganth] Research on anti-Black discourses/language in Eastern Europe

[Loralee Donath]

All,


Just to provide some context--


I don't claim deep or ethnographic understanding of the Ukraine or the 
surrounding region. Rather, I had discovered the news reports I shared 
following a class discussion related to ethnicity (and race) in which 
one student introduced the war in terms of physical similarities between 
Ukrainians and Russians (with the unmarked assumption that neither of 
these groups of people could physically produce very much melanin); and 
another student highlighted the delay, mistreatment, and verbal and 
physical assault--by Ukrainian guards--of people of African descent 
(and, it turns out, other people of color) trying to board trains and 
flee Ukraine during the initial exodus early in the conflict.


<https://time.com/6153276/ukraine-refugees-racism/>


(The latter student also astutely compared news coverage and discourse 
about the war--on a global stage--to the likewise sorrowful but uneven 
coverage of the disappearance and murder of Gabby Petito last year).


Incidentally, in a different class, an international student commented 
on the activity and organization of white supremacists in both the 
Ukraine and Russia; this was after the class viewed a short clip of a 
Nazi rally in the U.S.: 20,000 people at Madison Square Garden, 1939. 
<https://anightatthegarden.com/>


I don't recommend a handful of news sources as a lit review about 
discourses in the Ukraine, but, alongside Elizabeth Peacock's 
references, it would seem foolish to ignore them. Indeed, this dimension 
of the conflict deserves our close attention as humans and as Americans, 
especially given our home-grown terrorist problem and the prospect of 
another Trump presidency in the U.S.


Here is a larger set, in chronological order:


https://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/sep/10/azov-far-right-fighters-ukraine-neo-nazis

https://www.thenation.com/article/politics/neo-nazis-far-right-ukraine/

https://theintercept.com/2022/02/24/ukraine-facebook-azov-battalion-russia/

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/3/1/who-are-the-azov-regiment

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/02/opinion/ukraine-putin-stalin-history.html

https://www.democracynow.org/2022/3/4/far_right_ukraine_holocaust_memorial_neo

https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2022/03/14/neo-nazi-ukraine-war/


Best,
Lori

On 3/17/2022 10:15 AM, Elizabeth Peacock wrote:
> Here are some sources your student might be interested in. (As a 
> cultural and linguistic anthropologist of Ukraine since 2003, I would 
> take Lori Donath's suggestions with a heavy handful of salt...)
>
> _On race:_
> Adriana Helbig.
>
>     /Hip Hop Ukraine: Music, Race, and African Migration/.
>
>
>           “On stage, everyone loves a Black”: Afro-Ukrainian Folk
>           Fusion, Migration, and Racial Identity in*Ukraine*
>           <https://journals.library.columbia.edu/index.php/currentmusicology/article/view/5197>"
>
>
> Alaina Lemon
>
>     "Without a concept? Race as discursive practice."
>     "What are they writing about us blacks?' Roma and Race in Russia"
>     "African presence in former Soviet spaces"
>
>
>
> _On language:_
> Laada Bilaniuk
>
>     /Contested Tongues: Language Politics and Cultural Correction in
>     Ukraine/
>     /
>
>
>           "Race, Media, and Postcoloniality:ukrainebetween nationalism
>           and cosmopolitanism
>           <https://anthrosource.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/ciso.12096>"
>
>
>     /
>
> Jennifer Dickinson
>
>     /Languages for the market, the nation, or the margins/
>
> /
> /
> /
> /
> Best,
> Liz
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> *From:* Linganth <linganth-bounces at listserv.linguistlist.org> on 
> behalf of Jennifer Delfino <jdelfino at bmcc.cuny.edu>
> *Sent:* Wednesday, March 16, 2022 9:37 AM
> *To:* linganth at listserv.linguistlist.org 
> <linganth at listserv.linguistlist.org>
> *Subject:* [Linganth] Research on anti-Black discourses/language in 
> Eastern Europe
>
> Hello linganth folks,
>
>
> I have an undergraduate student who wants to do a (short) research 
> paper on anti-Black discourses/language in Eastern Europe. She is 
> specifically interested in analyzing these discourses in Ukraine, 
> given recent events. Does anyone have suggestions for articles or 
> books that would help her frame what is going on in Ukraine, or is 
> anyone currently working on this very recent issue?
>
>
> Thanks!
>
>
> Jen
>
>
> Jennifer B. Delfino, Ph.D. (she/her)
> Associate Editor, /Journal of Linguistic Anthropology/
> Distinguished CUNY Scholar, Advanced Research Collaborative, The 
> CUNY Graduate Center
> Author, /Speaking of Race: Language, Identity, and Schooling Among 
> African American Children 
> <https://rowman.com/ISBN/9781793606488/Speaking-of-Race-Language-Identity-and-Schooling-Among-African-American-Children> 
> /(2020, Lexington Books)
> Assistant Professor, Academic Literacy and Linguistics
> Borough of Manhattan Community College
> The City University of New York
> JDelfino at bmcc.cuny.edu
>
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-- 
“I believe firmly that to practice love is to disrupt the status quo, which is masquerading as peace.” --Austin Channing Brown
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