In this case, the black/white racism exhibiting itself does speak absolutely to the larger problem. The war exists because in the last decade brown shirts spouting hate talk about Untermenschen (inferior people) became increasingly influential in Ukraine. The Untermenschen, inferiors they are by far mainly despising are people resistin…
In this case, the black/white racism exhibiting itself does speak absolutely to the larger problem. The war exists because in the last decade brown shirts spouting hate talk about Untermenschen (inferior people) became increasingly influential in Ukraine. The Untermenschen, inferiors they are by far mainly despising are people resisting becoming Western European, who identify as Eastern European, in other words, the majority of Ukrainians. The Schism between Western and Eastern Europe is 1,000 years old and as virulent, violent and bloody as you can get.
There is a documentary on Netflix about the Maidan eight years ago. The documentary is being presented as proof of how righteous the current claims of the country are to join EU and NATO. I saw a clip of young Ukrainians in a huge demonstration chanting that they must be allowed to become Europeans. They ARE Europeans. They are indigenous to the heart of Europe. Who has programmed them to think they aren't European unless they become Western European? They are biologically, culturally far more attached to Eastern Europe than the West.
The US supports the Neo-Fascist brown shirts (think banana republics). Nasty right-wing thugs were terrorizing, including murdering, Ukrainian pacifists who opposed them, who had anti-right-wing demonstrations just as huge as the one mentioned above. I'm not sure how complicit the current president is with the brown shirts, but it was some inferior-Untermenschen-hating petty officials who denied foreigners-of-color passage on the refugee trains. (We do need more reporting to know if this was the action of a few, or a widespread governmental policy ordered by the President.) Ukraine is also chock full of people who still remember BEING inferiors exterminated by western fascists. They and Russians are certainly still very much traumatized by that experience.
The situation is a powder keg of complex/conflicting racism that will fly right over American heads, because they need color coding to recognize it. They're unused to how readily the players can switch places when it isn't about color coding. (How convenient this is for US State Department types who want to keep the American public docile about the issues.) But those ARE the players involved here. So, is Putin a champion of anti-racists (he's against the western Ubermenschen out to rid themselves of the inferior Eastern Untermenschen)? That's what he claims to be. Or is he a supremacist abusing his power? Or is he both? And how snarled up will that make things?
In this case, the black/white racism exhibiting itself does speak absolutely to the larger problem. The war exists because in the last decade brown shirts spouting hate talk about Untermenschen (inferior people) became increasingly influential in Ukraine. The Untermenschen, inferiors they are by far mainly despising are people resisting becoming Western European, who identify as Eastern European, in other words, the majority of Ukrainians. The Schism between Western and Eastern Europe is 1,000 years old and as virulent, violent and bloody as you can get.
There is a documentary on Netflix about the Maidan eight years ago. The documentary is being presented as proof of how righteous the current claims of the country are to join EU and NATO. I saw a clip of young Ukrainians in a huge demonstration chanting that they must be allowed to become Europeans. They ARE Europeans. They are indigenous to the heart of Europe. Who has programmed them to think they aren't European unless they become Western European? They are biologically, culturally far more attached to Eastern Europe than the West.
The US supports the Neo-Fascist brown shirts (think banana republics). Nasty right-wing thugs were terrorizing, including murdering, Ukrainian pacifists who opposed them, who had anti-right-wing demonstrations just as huge as the one mentioned above. I'm not sure how complicit the current president is with the brown shirts, but it was some inferior-Untermenschen-hating petty officials who denied foreigners-of-color passage on the refugee trains. (We do need more reporting to know if this was the action of a few, or a widespread governmental policy ordered by the President.) Ukraine is also chock full of people who still remember BEING inferiors exterminated by western fascists. They and Russians are certainly still very much traumatized by that experience.
The situation is a powder keg of complex/conflicting racism that will fly right over American heads, because they need color coding to recognize it. They're unused to how readily the players can switch places when it isn't about color coding. (How convenient this is for US State Department types who want to keep the American public docile about the issues.) But those ARE the players involved here. So, is Putin a champion of anti-racists (he's against the western Ubermenschen out to rid themselves of the inferior Eastern Untermenschen)? That's what he claims to be. Or is he a supremacist abusing his power? Or is he both? And how snarled up will that make things?