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Comment by lykahb | Hacker News Reader

Most Russians hold racist views. It doesn't change if they are expats. As a result of the colonial conquests, Russia is a multiethnic state. But the minorities have never been fully accepted. The govt balances between suppressing the far right and managing it for its own purposes.

This wiki article has plenty of references, with many pointing to the racist actions by the senior officials https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Racism_in_Russia

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> Most Russians hold racist views

I understand that people are unhappy with Russia right now, but what a truly gross thing to say (and absolutely not true).

Very true when it comes to antisemitic views: only 1 in 10 Russians would be ok having a Jewish friend.

"In a Levada Center poll, for instance, 45 percent of Russians said they had a positive attitude toward Jews in 2021, up from 22 percent in 2010. Russians said Jews were the minority group they were most comfortable having close to them — but only 11 percent said they’re ready to have a Jewish friend, up from 3 percent in 2010."

https://www.politico.eu/article/vladimir-putin-ukraine-war-f...

That simply doesn't pass the smell test. I think you would be very surprised if you actually talked to any real Russians.

Oh please, Levada? lol. I understand there's a big psyops push to dehumanize Russians right now, but they are people like the rest of us. Crazy, right?

No, russians are incredibly racists and openly hostile to central asia migrant laborers. Experienced it myself

Wait, are you agreeing that Russians aren't humans?

Hitler and Pol Pot were also humans, yet they did very bad things to other fellow humans.

Nobody is denying that ru are humans, we are simply acknowledging that someone did very bad things against principles of humanity, did it deliberately, at scale, and over a very long time period.

Consider yourself lucky for being from a country that never bombed anyone. Mine killed about 4 million (mostly women and children) in the ME over the last 30 years, and are still at it by helping their friends pound Palestine into smithereens :(

https://watson.brown.edu/costsofwar/costs/human/civilians

its not only bombing, it is casual everyday racism towards others that is a problem.

same like zionist jews think of themselves as superior to palestinians, same russians think of themselves as superior to Ukrainians and other ex-soviet nations. BTW a lot of Israeli jews immigrated from Soviet Union and some could argue they could pick up this superiority complex from russians

Yes, you're a vanguard for moral authority while actively also making what-about-x excuses for Russia.

Which has openly broken any established rules of war along with raping & genital mutilation being an actively encouraged tactic.

> we are simply acknowledging

We?

Please, for your racist views speak for yourself, without 'royal we'.

Also people like you always conveniently omit anything what would show your people not as those saints as you try to portrait it.

I am aware that this is a bold claim and that it may be hard to believe. I also wish this weren't true. That's why I put a reference to support it. Check out the section on Public sentiments and politics. In particular, that 60% of population support the statement "Russia is for Russians" and what that phrase implies. If you are curious to learn more, check out studies and polls by any organization that you support - Amnesty International, Russian NGO's, universities, etc.

I am pretty sure in most european countries people would vote for the same answer

I'm from the US South and am well traveled in Europe and Russia, including minority Russian republics like Adygea. In my experience, Russians are way less racist than Americans and Western Europeans - I almost never heard a racist word from them (I understand the Russian language).

Please watch these:

- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E_xq7WcM_J0

- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fdtCCi249xE

Also, feel free to hit that translate button on videos like these, especially the top voted ones. The comment from Russians are generally very positive (even heartwarming) towards foreigners who are adequate, learn the language and follow the local laws.

It's really not gross if you can accept that the author of such a statement would likely also believe racist is not a term that is used not as a binary (as in - you are either racist or not racist) but that racism is something we are almost all guilty of to some degree or another and not something that means you're going to hell or are a horrible person. In the same way that we are all at times capable of being selfish, or at times capable of being ignorant, or weak to temptation.

Saying they are racist in that light is more like saying that relative to the average, they are a bit more racist than the best of us.

This blanked statement is false. I’m speechless somebody can make claims like this tbh.

Definitely not false. Actually quite well covered by journalists and scholars.

As an example: https://academic.oup.com/edinburgh-scholarship-online/book/2...

The article studies properties of a nationalist group, which is in extreme minority, especially after 2010s, and doesn’t make claims that ‘most Russians are nationalists’.

You have to lurk really hard to find a nationalist there unless you count people love Dostoyevsky into this group. There are also a lot of glass ceilings in place for ethnical Russians, and distribution in elite universities, politics, and business don’t represent the country average, which suggests there’s an intentional ’reverse racism’ in place towards majority. Moreover, the word ‘Russian’ is banned in media and is replaced by ‘citizen of Russia’.

Yeah yeah, it's also well covered by journalists how all Americans are racist.

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