Having to deal with police four times a day on average on the part of the journey through Croatia is insane. I’d have given up and flown to the next country.
I have to say I don’t find myself too surprised that anybody non-local doing extreme-long-distance running through insular Croatian towns might arouse the interest of the local constabularies—and I imagine the runner being a Ugandan guy would be an especially surprising sight to people in Croatia (91% Croat, 3.2% Serb, officially recognize 22 other ethnic minorities, none of them from Africa) [1]. Which I suppose is the point he was trying to raise.
What an astonishing extreme of human endeavor.
[0] https://archive.is/4T13g [1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_Croatia#:~:t...
I don't live in Europe, but just help me out, why call the cops on a guy running down the road, in running gear, even if he's an ethnicity you rarely ever see?
The primary reason why he got so much police harassment is because Croatia is a EU Schengen border country, the patrols here are much stricter than everywhere else, and the associated problems are much worse as well.
I don't think it's entirely due to racism - if you were a border policeman, and you are tasked with bringing in people illegaly entering the country, what would you do seeing a person of color running on back roads near the border of an otherwise extremely ethnically homogenous country?
For every case of someone who entered legally and got harassed, they probably bring in thousands of people which they are supposed to bring in (ie. entered ilegally).
https://www.ndtv.com/offbeat/indy-nelson-man-who-visited-eve...
https://www.pap.pl/en/news/pole-wrongly-sentenced-life-congo...
Then the hypothetical, what if it were true that the people attempting to harm your society singularly visually differed? Would that be racism, some strange "justified racism" or simply not racism? If you say, we are not prosecuting on race, but on propensity to crime. Well that starts to sound like some things I've heard in my country, which we believe is racist. Interesting questions.
Also turning it around: Is it right for somebody, like the runner, who legally entered to repeatedly be treated bad just because others who share skin color do bad?
part of the problem is not only that he is checked, but how he is being treated during those checks.
i mean that's my experience in china. every interaction with authorities was extremely polite and friendly. even when it was an issue where i broke the law because i didn't register my new address in time. of course africans experience racism in china as well, so i can't say for sure that they would get the same treatment as me, but certainly not what this guy experienced in croatia.
after reading the article i found the links to other articles on the guardian site linked to this: https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2024/oct/10/p... "Croatian police accused of burning asylum seekers’ phones and passports". the problem seems to be more than just never having seen a black person.
To add relevant context Croatia is at the edge of the Schengen zone. On the other side of the border are Serbia and Bosnia with less strict border controls and visa rules, so this is one of the roads for illegal immigrants to reach rich western countries. This and Hungarian borders are what's between them and their goals. Connect that with the fact that Croatia doesn't have non-white minorities, there were probably zero cases before this of black person wondering down the roads who was not an illegal migrant.
Destroying passports is a normal practice for illegal immigrants. It extends their stay in EU by several years. Most countries are considered safe, and it is hard to claim you are from Syria with Egyptian passport.
>ethnicity you rarely ever see?
Rarely... I was 20 years old when I first saw a black person in real life. This was in a center of a big city, and it surprised me so much that I remember exactly where and when it was.
Nowadays times have changed and it's not that rare in my country - at least in big cities. But I imagine a Croatian farmer seeing a black person - running! - and calling the police to investigate what the hell is going on.
So is this common? I would not call the police immediately among seeing something odd or unusual that isn't threatening...
Power failures, parked cars, loose animals, strange kids, balloons, weather, etc.
I've done this when a horse had escaped from a field at the edge of a village.
First thing to many occur to especially older folks watching news is illegal immigrant running ie from busted police operation, not some epic runner. They definitely dont recognize running sportswear.
Your question is a trick. If only statistics make something reasonable, then the only "reasonable" assumption is that he is a criminal. And all racist assumptions will be "reasonable". But the very idea that a person should be assumed about based on his ethnicity is not reasonable or morally right.
I'm from that part of the world and had the same thing happen when I went camping.
The police officer asked if I lived in the west, then left me alone with a warning about bears and gypsies.
People see he’s a different race so they treat him badly because of it. No one is worried about being called racist.
He was arrested several times a day for being black. No one in the whole chain of events viewed this as a problem.
Number 1: New Zealand.
Number 73: USA
Methodology:
> The WVS survey asks respondents from more than 80 countries dozens of questions, including one that asked respondents to identify types of people they would not want as neighbors. The more people of a particular country responded that they would be happy to have a neighbor of a different race, the more racially tolerant the respondents' country would be considered
The US is very racist by self reported observation of racism. However citizens of different countries have different definitions of racism.
If you use a constant definition of racism like “Would you live next to people of another race, yes/no?” Then you find that almost all Americans say yes (low racism) . In some other countries over 70% of people would not live next to a person of another race.
I am not saying that the UK is necessarily ‘less racist’ overall than the US. I think racism manifests itself quite differently in the two countries, so it’s hard to compare.
Jamaica is a good pick. A non western country that has very low levels of racism.
Maybe the assertion should be that the US is amongst the least racist countries in the world. The US is clearly in a different league compared to Russia, China and India.
Why do you think Russia, China, and India are "more" (moar?) racist than the US? All three of those countries are continent-sized and (internally) wildly diverse. Interestingly, all three of them have significant minority groups that practice Islam, Buddhism, and Christianity, yet they are peaceful places to live. This whole Internet trope that the US is more or less racist than country X is weird. I see it so many times. Any country that had institution racism well into the 20th century (many!) is going to be working through a continent-sized garbage dump of cultural baggage. I don't care so much about any country's absolute state; I care more about their direction and progress.
Two interesting examples:
30 years ago Germany treated Turkish people, who had peacefully and legally settled thanks to the post-war guest worker programme, as second citizens. Today is completely different. There are ethnic Turks who are national ministers!
Less extreme: Both Italy and Romania have large populations of Roma people (outdated term: gypsy), but today they are more integrated into mainstream society than ever. 30 years ago they were absolutely second class citizens.
"On other occasions, however, he almost packed it in. In Uganda, his one-man support crew resigned, leaving him without a support vehicle or help at a time when his funding for the run was almost exhausted. To compound matters, all routes ahead involved either conflict or extreme risk."
Others comments mention a route map, but I can't find it.
I delt with up to five extortion attempts a day for three years when I drove around Africa. Tons in Honduras too. I NEVER pay, because it makes it worse for those behind me, and now everyone has a cellphone worse for me too - if I pay $20 for them to leave me alone they’ll call the next checkpoint and let them know I’m an easy target.
You get used to it, and believe it or not I started looking forward to the game.