EVERYONE MATTERS
or a foreigner’s view of an American problem.
One of my black friends from the States once argued that I was ‘not white’ i was ‘Russian’ apparently drawing a distinctive line between common white behavior and mentality and my Russian habbits. Of course, such statement along with a frequent ‘where’s Russia?’ and ‘do you drink vodka?’ only brought me to tears of laughter.
So, possesing such a carte blanche (that sounds a bit ironic) from an African American in my ethnical resume I’d like to touch on a fragilly burning topic for all of my American friends.
Before I begin, I’d like to make a few things clear in order to exclude any speculation, mistrust or a possibility of misjudging my thoughts.
I’m Russian. And for those who are not familiar with all things Russian, I’d like to state that bearing a Russian passport doesn’t mean being ethnically Russian. We are a country of multiple nationalities, Tatars, Chechens, Ossetians, Bashkirs, Slavics, Aleuts, Jews, Yakuts and so so on who occasionally get angry with each others behavior. We also differ in origin, there are people from Siberia, the South, Volga region, Central Russia, Moscow, Saint-Petersburg, meaning that our place of origin also adds to a difference in our views and styles.
I come from a country which for centures has enslaved it’s own citizens. This means peasants were the property of the rich. A question of skin color was not a determinant factor in our culture of servedom mainly because historically there were not much of a skin color choice to begin with in Russia due to weather conditions (if you let me put it simply).
Thus said I’ve uttered an ’N’ word quite a few times. And it’s not something offensive in Russia, because whenever we say ‘it’ we mean ‘race’ as a geographical and genetical factor, for example kids learn at school that having a darker skin color protects people living in hot climates, just like a narrow eye cut lets people survive in deserts and prairies. So, for the majority of Russians an ’N’ word means just that. When I was a toddler I even once exclaimed ‘Look, n…!’ in a broad daylight. Even though my granny almost beat me up, I didn’t mean anything bad, that was a pure exclamation of excitement and joy of seeing someone different to the point of majical, like meeting Santa or seeing snow in Florida. Everytime a Russian stares at a person with a black skin its an uncultured but still sincerely curious act of admiration. We just don’t get to meet black people in Russia that often, so it’s an event of wonder to some. Just like the Chinese get crazy over white people and touch them for a good luck.
If we say ‘a black person’ in Russian that’s gonna sound weird, because commonly that means ‘a bad person’ ‘shallow’ or ‘someone without a heart’. An ‘African American’ is too general for an amazing diversity of people with a darker skin color. ‘A person with a black skin’ is too long to pronounce in Russian, so that’s why sometimes the ’N’ word slips in a Russian conversation, but it’s a statement of one’s identity, definitely not a mentality difference or humiliation. We just do not have any historically negative experience with this word, that’s why you encounter it in our dialogue, but we’re in a process of figuring a more politically correct way to respect anyone’s hard feelings.
In fact, I don’t recall any history of any intolerence towards the Blacks in Russia. My farther told me stories of how USSR school kids (him included) marched the streets of rural towns chanting ‘Freedom to Angela Davis!’.
We studied black culture during English extracurriculum classes. It was exciting! It made me love English even more. And when I was fifteen and preparing for my exchange year in America I was writing down lyrics of all the rap songs I could find in 2005 in Russia and trying to translate them and learn them by heart. I even talked like a rapper during that period (or I thought so), not because I was ‘appropriating’ a culture, but because those lyrics were harder to understand, decode and the amount of slang and words in rap songs fed my hunger for English vocabulary just fine. The authentic rappers were a challange, plus I totally didn’t understand the R-rated stuff.
When I came to the US to study I found it easier to befriend a black person and it took me a bit longer to find some friends among the white American population. I can’t really understand why, maybe because black culture is a more easy-going one, while the white one is a bit more skeptical. Such was the case with most of the exchange students from multiple countries I had the privilege to know.
The only time I was mortified in front of the black person was when a very polite tram driver in Macon, GA asked me something and I couldn’t understand a word he was saying and did not know what to reply in order not to be judged stupid.
Summing up, black and white division of this world is something foreign to my heart, mind and soul and something so non-American (where everyone smiles and strives for freedom, as my teachers told me), that I can never understand the necessity of having black music, white music, black movies, white movies, black fashion, white fashion and whatever you people from the US talk about, because to me or in my mind, as in a mind of a foreigner, it makes no difference, because it all finds its roots in one country which is called THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, which has a stars and stripes banner and where both, the blacks and the whites posses same blue passports most of us from the outter part of the planet would not mind to have.
Having said the above, I’d like to continue to the touchy topic of the latest events which left me totally devastated. Since this topic is a difficult one and my knowledge of your country and history and language might not provide enough political correctness, I’d like you to keep in mind that I do not posses any cultural ethnical or racial thought in my heart due to the aforementioned reasons.
As much as I understand from a far, I think the unfortunate events are the results of not a single matter, but a combination of the following three.
- The need for a police reform.
I don’t come from a country with an ideal police system, but I think there are some good things you can borrow:
- our policemen and parol officers are required to wear body cameras when on a field.
I know some on NYTimes pages argued that it helps that much, because a phone camera did not stop anybody last time. But I tell you what, it’s one thing when you assume someone might film and quite another one when you know you are being constantly filmed. The camera helps officers themselves, i.e. when there are complaints on their misconduct they know they have the proof.
- i have no idea why do policemen in the States enjoy so much freedom with the gun use.
Last time I studied it, Russian criminal law had a very narrow and precise guideline on the gun usage by the police to be considered adequate and within the border line of self protection. If I’m not mistaken, there should be at least one warning shot and only a shot in a particular part of a leg is allowed in order to prevent an offender from running and not killing him (of course with an exeption of terror atacks and the like). If by any chance a bullet hits another part of the body a policemen can loose his job due to multiple checks from the offices of prosecutors (who oversee the work of police in Russia). Loosing a job in Russia is everything. Obviously, the rules and tactics of arresting a person are too liberal in the US, meaning too broad. I have talked with some of my pals who work in police and they just don’t get why a mere handcuffing and kneeling a person on the floor isn’t enough.
- I think there needs to be a stronger program of pscycological stability check when recruiting people to work for the police.
As much as I can judge, all the sad cases are the results of misjugdment and fear of the officers. I don’t think you can qualify to work in the field if a possesion of a gun by a criminal makes you panic and act impulsively to the point where you can kill a person.
- Bearing that in mind there is an obvious lack of professional training which needs to be eliminated in order to prevent casualties in a peaceful time.
- Finally. The biggest issue for me is the stereotypical misunderstandment between the police who guard the neighborhood and the members of its community.
It’s not a secret that a person with a classical ghetto look is a vivid suspision for a person who’s never lived in a ghetto or a less fornute place and has never had friends who grew up in such places, etc. He just does not and most likely will never understand the mentality of the community, the habits, the traditions, the slang, meaning he will never be able to draw a distinctive line between an ordinary behavior and a suspicious one in that particular place. Just like that NATO guy will never understand that the majority of Russian people is quite peaceful and is not planning on starting a war with any NATO member.
It’s an unfortunate question of origin for all of us. So, an obvious solution is to employ people with (excuse me if that does not sound quite right) a ‘hood’ background to be on a watch after a place which he or she understands and knows by heart.
There can even be a post incarceration program designed for former criminals (depending on the seriousness of their misconduct) to volunteer for the police in order to return back into a society. People should enjoy the chance to start over and put their mistakes behind (except terrorists).
2. gun control.
There’s been a lot written about it. So, I would not like to repeat anything, I just think that in the light of the latest tragic events having a gun means a higher risk of being shot down by another person with a gun. Having a gun never guarantees safity, it not only endangers the society, but the beholder, as well.
Why or why do you ordinary American citizens think that you need a gun desperately? Who are you going to shoot? Each other? What’s the thought behind the desire to buy it? You’d like to fire it or just play with it? Do you assume that you need it because everyone has it? Do you really think that in this global world which sets rovers to Mars and studies Jupiter, you need a gun, just in a case? In a case of what? Having a gun means wordlessly saying that humanity is cruel and deserves to die whenever it threatens your existence. And even so, by buying it you don’t make it any less cruel.
To a certain extend, I believe that if a policemen knows that there is no way a person in the US can possess a gun legally he feels safer and calmer, thus your encounter with a policemen becomes less dangerous for both parties envolved.
3. the black community.
Sure, no one can blame such misfortunes on you. And no one with a brain in a head ever would. However, I doubt that there are people who pass their police exams and think ‘now, it’s time to abuse the black’. I do not believe that there is any certain plan to destroy your culture through the hands of police by some white people. Things like that are so inhuman that they can’t exist.
Sure, there are people who for some very strange and obnoxious reason feel uneasy when they encounter a member of your community. For these, I suggest they take biology and geography coarses in Russian elemantary schools. And if they don’t understand they might as well enjoy the commodity of living in a minus 53 degrees Celsius in the surroundings of Oimyakon, Russia — they just should not enjoy the privilege of a society.
Unfortunately, people hate each other everywhere. I’ve been looked down at a bar in Prague for a bloody fact of the USSR period I wasn’t even born to participate in, people from Germany always bow heads whenever there is a WW2 memorial in a European resort city and the tour guide says ‘look what the Germans have done!’ instead of politely remarking ‘the nazis’. Think of how many hate do the jews get, because some believe all the misfortunes happen to come from them. Or the Arabs living in Jerusalem. Or the migrants trying to find a place to sleep in peacefully. Or the native tribes in Australia. Or the Native Americans (people fed the dying settlers to be told to move over and hush). It’s disgusting and unnecessary, but it exists.
So, in part I think that it’s in your hands, too, to contribute to the change. You can march as long as your legs will carry you, but political figures are not the best members of our society and the most reliable people to make changes.
Start from the bottom.
When I came to the US aged fifteen I could not believe the amount of teenage pregnancies among high schoolers. In fact it was so unreal for my post communist Russia mentality that all the time from August to December I truly believed most of the ladies were just being a bit overweight.
I love children (I work with them part time). But there is an apparent need for education in that field regarding the consequencies. You need to explain to your kids that the result of one careless night leads to a life you need to be able to support (financially and morally). It effects the life of everyone around, including the mother of a child who instead of growing up, collecting knowledge on the way, setting up the enviroment and her own mind for a less risky existence of her family is thrust into a rather strange and complicated worLd by accident.
At the same time there should be schools for young mothers, free of charge in order to incorporate these women into society, give them a chance to learn and earn and not feel like they’ve missed something, for life is complicated and situations may vary.
In fact, I think that education is the key to a more prosperous, less criminal and left behind society. I do not promote higher education, because I get that partly it is a financial trap for a lot of adolecense and is synomous to a great disappointment, but if you have an opportunity to enroll your kids in a good University you should.
You as a community, have done a great deal to establish numerous scholarships for the black students, I believe you should continue funding those. I even wish we had something like that in a Russian system of higher education. But the Russians do not support the Russian for some reason.
However we have a nice system of ‘tekhnikums’ which is a system of an upper special education, a college you can leave for after ninth grade and learn some trade, that does not need a BA or whatever to graduate (like cooking, sewing, accounting, all the technical jobs, nursing, etc). You graduate with a diploma sooner, than your pals, so you can start supporting your family financially at the age of 18 or so, because you are a qualified professional. My granny has done so with accounting, because there was an urgent need to support her family after the war.
The less time the kids get to spend in the streets the bigger investment you make in their peaceful future. You do not need to eliminate the projects, ghettos or problematic neighborhoods, you do not need to skip them everytime you come home or close your eyes on them, you just need to educate them, show them the world and the benefits of it.
Finally, I know it’s hard, considering the fresh pain and anger you all experience right now, but try to find that strength wisdom and courage everyone in the world knows you posses in order to refrain from bringing your kids in the conversation of ‘they are going to shoot you because you are black’, because that distances your kids from the rest of the world, that plants a seed of mistrust and hate in a young mind. It can lead to the point where any failure at succeeding somewhere will be blamed on racial prejudice and will kill any desire to move forward, excell, evolve and fight for their dreams.
Try bringing up your kids so that they are proud of their heritage, that they are not afraid to express it and enjoy, that they use it in order to help the community grow, prosper and achieve something new. Try to explain them that the point of life should not be in being ‘the first black man/woman to do something’ because such definition leaves a bitter aftertaste of achieving something due to a skin color and a political decision, not a talent (i do not mean it in a Stacy Dash way). After all, in my mind, the first Black American president have not done much for the peace of his country.
Try telling your kids that the importance of life is being an individual in one big country which serves to feed the freedom of individuals of all color. If you say ‘black lives matter’ they should matter first of all to you, because all of our lives no matter how we die, tend to be the short ones.
I really hope that none of them will be lost in such painful and unreasonable way.
p.s. none of this is meant as a blame or an accusation of any class, race or particular group of American citizens, it’s a sincere third party view of a person who really cares and wants the world to be a better place.
