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Ocean can't be racist
Sep. 30th, 2025 06:32 pmI feel like I finally need to say something about all this threatening tendencies in European communities - developing and reincarnating racism and 'anti-emigrant' fear.
I was born to a mixed-root family that traveled multiple times from Baltic sea to Pacific ocean and back within the lifetime of one or two generations. My father is a retired shipbuilder (who wanted to be a sailor) and from him I inherited love to the seas and far-distance travel. For such people as our family racism or extreme nationalism was impossible simply because we already belonged to several nations, but by traveling around the world we belong to many more.
Minimum one of which (if to exclude Jewish roots in my Ukrainian branch living in Odessa, which they deny but..) is not so-called 'white'.
That's why I was so infuriated by the US questionnaires I had to fill in during my stay in Virginia - how I was supposed to write my 'colour' if some of my ancestors were Slavic but some were Asian???
The whole concept of 'colour' is very alien to Ukrainians, we are used to the multi-cultural approach and to real things as 'peoples' and 'nations' that are identifiable and unique indeed. And yes, Ukraine is a multi-national, multi-cultural, multi-language country. Along with Eastern Slavic citizens, we've got Greeks, Jews, Crimean Tatars and many, many more.
But what disturbs me a lot, is a huge recent inflow of people whose culture seem not to support basic European values - such as human rights, gender equality, secular law, and systematic secular education in general.
Probably my generation won't face the dilemma 'should women wear hijab or not', but the generation of my niece or her future daughter(s) might.
So instead of creating witch-hunts for people of different skin colour (which has no direct connection to neither morality nor intelligence), ruling leaders should think about the more effective methods of cultural assimilation of people who might not support European idea of equality.
(actually, I would culturally assimilate a lot of Europeans sensu stricto into the group of 'normal sane people')
But it would require time that populists don't have. Much easier to document anti-immigrant raids than to spend money, effort and most importantly - brain resources to enlighten people who do not support equality and democracy.
Equally, it's much easier to wave rainbow flags and shout slogans instead of real education and developing knowledge system (my stone to the garden of the far leftists). It's hard to show people what's just and right not only at the moment, but for the future generations.
I was born to a mixed-root family that traveled multiple times from Baltic sea to Pacific ocean and back within the lifetime of one or two generations. My father is a retired shipbuilder (who wanted to be a sailor) and from him I inherited love to the seas and far-distance travel. For such people as our family racism or extreme nationalism was impossible simply because we already belonged to several nations, but by traveling around the world we belong to many more.
Minimum one of which (if to exclude Jewish roots in my Ukrainian branch living in Odessa, which they deny but..) is not so-called 'white'.
That's why I was so infuriated by the US questionnaires I had to fill in during my stay in Virginia - how I was supposed to write my 'colour' if some of my ancestors were Slavic but some were Asian???
The whole concept of 'colour' is very alien to Ukrainians, we are used to the multi-cultural approach and to real things as 'peoples' and 'nations' that are identifiable and unique indeed. And yes, Ukraine is a multi-national, multi-cultural, multi-language country. Along with Eastern Slavic citizens, we've got Greeks, Jews, Crimean Tatars and many, many more.
But what disturbs me a lot, is a huge recent inflow of people whose culture seem not to support basic European values - such as human rights, gender equality, secular law, and systematic secular education in general.
Probably my generation won't face the dilemma 'should women wear hijab or not', but the generation of my niece or her future daughter(s) might.
So instead of creating witch-hunts for people of different skin colour (which has no direct connection to neither morality nor intelligence), ruling leaders should think about the more effective methods of cultural assimilation of people who might not support European idea of equality.
(actually, I would culturally assimilate a lot of Europeans sensu stricto into the group of 'normal sane people')
But it would require time that populists don't have. Much easier to document anti-immigrant raids than to spend money, effort and most importantly - brain resources to enlighten people who do not support equality and democracy.
Equally, it's much easier to wave rainbow flags and shout slogans instead of real education and developing knowledge system (my stone to the garden of the far leftists). It's hard to show people what's just and right not only at the moment, but for the future generations.
