Word: russian
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...more established, more Russian Moscow resident will tell you that there is good reason to be skeptical of these "black people" from the South. First, they were responsible for a good deal of terrorist activity in response to the Chechnya war waged by Boris Yeltsin's government a few years ago (Chechnya is an autonomous region in the Caucasus). Also, many of them are members of the New Russian mafia, bringing violence to the streets of Moscow. Finally, Georgia is a military society, violent and capricious--its citizens are very hospitable if you are on their side; otherwise, they...
...simply disturbing. How can an American respond to this sort of racism coming from the mouths of people whom I otherwise respect? Hardly anyone has heard of political correctness in Moscow, and if they have, they scoff at it. Those crazy Americans making things complicated for themselves, they say. Russian society is keenly aware of its uniqueness as a nation, and it looks for commonality among people of other societies as well. Consequently, stereotypes can go a long way towards what is considered truth in Russia...
...racialism, I mean a recognition of differences in race that are not necessarily mean-spirited. I laugh when my host mother tells me as we watch the news that she always remembers Kofi Annan's name because he is black like "coffee." But then a bright young Russian student asks me, "Why are there so many niggers on MTV?" And then I talk to a man from Africa who tells me that if he doesn't make it back to his apartment before dark, he waits until the morning so that the kids who sit outside his apartment will...
...descent from racialism to racism reveals the thin line between the two and begs the question of what to do in a society that is becoming more heterogeneous, yet still has the mindset of living in a multinational empire where differences in ethnicity were strongly pronounced and a Great Russian dictatorial hand kept everything in place...
Russia is wary of listening to America's views on tolerance and even when I am trying to explain the difference between "Afro-American" and "nigger," Russians sometimes make me feel as though I am a cultural imperialist. In this non-American society, it is incredibly difficult--and most of the time, futile--to explain why one must not use the "n-word." In Russian, the normal word for someone who is black is very similar, and the term "black person" is considered pejorative. To suggest that they use the term "Afro-American" elicits eye-rolling and cackles of laughter...