student safety in St Petersburg

[B. Amarilis Lugo de Fabritz]

I would like to share an anecdote from one of my students. I teach at 
Howard University, a historically Black University. My student got a 
Fulbright to teach English in Omsk. Yeah, Omsk. I had to go to the map 
to find out where it was. As probably the first African American to go 
to Omsk, people remembered her.

After numerous trips to the local theater, the coat check, a gray haired 
Russian man, looked at her and may: "mozhno zadavat' vam neskromnyi 
vopros?" Could I ask you a personal question? She said, sure. He then 
asked her if she had always been so black. As in, how could it possibly 
be that anyone's natural skin color could be so Black. She replied she 
got it from her parents. He was just absolutely curious as to this 
strange being he had never seen before.

She actually enjoyed her experience in Omsk. A lot. I myself am Puerto 
Rican, and my experience has mostly been in St. Petersburg. I found more 
problems in St. Petersburg from being a woman with that "darker 
complexion" than from being a "minority."


Yes, I do warn students that they will see kinds of racial treatment 
they have never seen before. Then again, sexual harassment is of a kind 
never experienced before, either. Either ways, it is a case an ounce of 
prevention being worth a pound of cure.

Regards
Amarilis Lugo de Fabritz, ph. d.
Howard University, Lecturer

-------------------------------------------------------------------------
 Use your web browser to search the archives, control your subscription
  options, and more.  Visit and bookmark the SEELANGS Web Interface at:
                    http://seelangs.home.comcast.net/
-------------------------------------------------------------------------