Racism/discrimination in the Eastern Bloc 'Socialist States'

[ridethejetski]

This doesn't get bought up enough

In Bulgaria the Pomak and Turkish Muslims populations faced great discrimination in the late 1980s. Their religious freedoms were severely restricted and treated as suspect by default. The authorities also forced their Turkish or Islamic names to be Bulgarianized for 'national unity'. Abortions were also encouraged more for this population than for Bulgarian women.

In the late 1960s anti-semitism drove much of Polands few remaining Jews out of the country.

Hungarians in Romania faced discrimination, resulting in an open media war between Hungary and Romania concerning this. Also in the border areas of Romania, Romanias were allowed to venture into Hungary for a few hours, yet German inhabitants of Romania were treated as too suspect to do so.

[tachosomoza]

Eastern Bloc states were notorious for xenophobia. They still are, they have the largest concentration of fascist boneheads in the world. If you're of darker skin color, it's advised to not go there if you don't want them to throw shit at you and even kill you.

[ridethejetski]

Yeah, some friends of mine went to Poland for a basketball game once and people were shouting 'N*gga' out the window, but also 'MTV! Rap!'.

I had a friend go to Romania though, and had no overt racism except for people staring and wanting to take pictures with him (i guess it is racism, but a more innocent variety)

But anyway, I want to try keep this about state racism/discrimination specifically please

[Zulu]

If anything, that guy Breivik got one thing wrong. Multiculturalism has nothing to do with socialism. Socialism must elevate all cultures to a new level on which they will all be basically one and the same international socialist secular monolingual culture. As such, socialism will always be perceived by the bourgeois/feudal elements, especially within the local ethnic/religious minorities, as discriminatory. To bad for the bourgeois/feudal elements.

That is not to excuse the actual discrimination in the Eastern bloc, which occurred after it got plagued by revisionism and nationalism.

[ridethejetski]

If anything, that guy Breivik got one thing wrong. Multiculturalism has nothing to do with socialism. Socialism must elevate all cultures to a new level on which they will all be basically one and the same international socialist secular monolingual culture. As such, socialism will always be perceived by the bourgeois/feudal elements, especially within the local ethnic/religious minorities, as discriminatory. To bad for the bourgeois/feudal elements.

That is not to excuse the actual discrimination in the Eastern bloc, which occurred after it got plagued by revisionism and nationalism.

I get your point. Ending patriarchal relations among some groups will be considered discrimination against 'their way of life' etc, but thats no excuse to not support womens liberation.

The practice of discriminating against someone or due to their 'national group', considering them suspect purely for their national origin, forcing them to change their names to a name originating from the dominant national group of state, and encouraging abortion more so in one national group in order to diminish their numbers (abortion is an important right, but the state using in this context is wholly reactionary) is very different

[Koba Junior]

That is not to excuse the actual discrimination in the Eastern bloc, which occurred after it got plagued by revisionism and nationalism.

Incidents of racial discrimination were not very common in Albania were Albanian national-liberation sentiment was rather intense.

[Sinister Cultural Marxist]

Nobody ever mentions the collective punishment of groups who were seen as siding with the Nazis during WWII, such as the Chechen people. Of course, many individuals from these groups did side with the Nazis, but it did not excuse collective punishment of them as a people.

zulu-anything like that has to happen organically, imposing one world culture or language on the world is worse than multiculturalism. Multiculturalism leaves it up to people to act autonomously regarding their cultural affiliations, which is a better alternative that any kind of state-imposed identity

[Collectorgeneral]

I don't know too much this sort of thing when it comes to the soviet times but here in Estonia, discrimination is still quite common and very much so.

[Nox]

Eastern Bloc states were notorious for xenophobia. They still are, they have the largest concentration of fascist boneheads in the world. If you're of darker skin color, it's advised to not go there if you don't want them to throw shit at you and even kill you.

Even if you are Mediterranean e.g. Spanish, Portuguese, Southern French, Italian, Greek, you can be mistaken for being a Caucasian and get killed. The ironic thing is that the majority of Caucasians are white and would be treated as a white person by society in almost all other countries.

[Omsk]

What are you people talking about?



Even if you are Mediterranean e.g. Spanish, Portuguese, Southern French, Italian, Greek, you can be mistaken for being a Caucasian and get killed.


Get killed if you are from Greece,Spain,Italy? Completely ludicrous.

[Nox]

Get killed if you are from Greece,Spain,Italy? Completely ludicrous.

I said that Mediterranean people can be mistaken for Caucasians and get attacked. It happens. Caucasians are white and look similar to Mediterraneans, in fact most Caucasians have lighter skin than Mediterraneans generally do.

[Omsk]

or you know little about the ethnic problems in Russia


Russia =/= Eastern Europe.

[Nox]

Russia =/= Eastern Europe.

European Russia = Eastern Europe

Non-European Russia =/= Eastern Europe

[Omsk]

You are missing the point - while the situation in Russia is bad,it's not like that in the other Eastern countries which are at least nominally,Eastern European.

[Nox]

You are missing the point - while the situation in Russia is bad,it's not like that in the other Eastern countries which are at least nominally,Eastern European.

Oh, ok. Note that in my first post I was talking specifically about Russia, sorry for not making that clear.

[homegrown terror]

Yeah, some friends of mine went to Poland for a basketball game once and people were shouting 'N*gga' out the window, but also 'MTV! Rap!'.

I had a friend go to Romania though, and had no overt racism except for people staring and wanting to take pictures with him (i guess it is racism, but a more innocent variety)

But anyway, I want to try keep this about state racism/discrimination specifically please

that's not racism, it's curiosity. i experience it all the time (large mohawk and punk style of dress), my grandfather did too because of his unusual height. if you live somewhere that's fairly homogeneous in one aspect or another, and someone "different" shows up, there's no problem with being curious. the problem occurs when that curiosity turns to actual discrimination/prejudice.