stand by: this is being made all official like.

Being told this is fairly reliable for info on the situation in Ukraine. let me know if it isn't. https://liveuamap.com/

  • Utter_Karate [he/him, comrade/them]
    ·
    3 years ago

    I have seen anti-Russian racism all day at work against my closest coworker who is Russian. This is at a school and is because kids (even or especially teenager kids) do not really understand what is happening and just kind of go with "Russians are evil". She and her family left specifically because they did not like Yeltsin or Putin, and hate this invasion. She is tough as nails, and would usually just laugh off those remarks by dumb kids who don't know anything, but she has been in tears all day, because this is so prevalent among kids that she knows that her own child is facing the same in school from the kids there. I have seen (and sometimes helped) her confiscate knives - and on one occasion a fucking axe - that dumb kids have brought to school to show off or threaten people with. Her facial expression barely changed from a slightly annoyed smile while doing so. An absolute fortress of a human being, and she has been crying all day because her son will have to face this, and the part of her family that remains in Russia will be hit first by the sanctions. I fucking hate this.

      • Utter_Karate [he/him, comrade/them]
        ·
        3 years ago

        Yeah, that's true. But this is the kind of crisis situation where some kids will kind of "invent" their own racism. This does not necessarily come from kids overhearing parents actually being racist. A lot of these parents are very opposed to racism and would be horrified if they heard what their kids said. Most of them are libs with a general attitude of trying to stay woke, but some of these parents are actual socialists. Like, not social democrats - which this country is full of - but really opposed to capitalism as a system. The kids have just heard a lot of bad stuff about Russia recently, because Russia has done bad stuff. And because they know exactly one Russian person, she is Russia to them. That would not bother her in the least if it wasn't for the fact that her son's classmates have also heard a lot of bad stuff about Russia, and also know exactly one Russian.

        There is of course also the kind of veiled racism in adults you're talking about rubbing off on children who don't know how to veil it, but that was already a thing and any school staff with any kind of minority roots has a long established system for dealing with it already. This is not just that getting worse, though that is for sure getting worse too.

          • Utter_Karate [he/him, comrade/them]
            ·
            3 years ago

            Good point about it coming more from the culture at large than from parents specifically. Since we are a "task force" working with neuropsychological disorders regardless of age group, the ages of the kids range from 6-16. Of course the older kids have a much better understanding in general and do not blame her. She is worried about the ones who are (regardless of actual age) operating on the level of a 6-7-year-old, and unfortunately I think she is very right to be worried about that.

    • OperationOgre [he/him, they/them]
      ·
      3 years ago

      It ties my stomach in knots to think of people going through this. It's going to be so fucking bad if the US ever gets into a conflict with China. I mean, tons of Asian people still get shit for the Korean and Vietnam wars, and Muslims have been targets at least since 2001 in this country. Makes me sick.

      • Kanna [she/her]
        ·
        3 years ago

        Sinophobia is already pretty normalized in online spaces already and in a bunch of irl spaces it's creeping in too

        • eXAt [he/him]
          ·
          3 years ago

          I brought this up a while ago but I am in a friend group with a few ethnically Chinese people (I think all at least 2nd generation as far as immigration goes) and others of course. Here is a conversation that once happened, the insane reactionary of the group (was 'apolitical' originally but became more unhinged as COVID ragged on if you are wondering why I was friends with them) suggests that we nuke all of China. I respond saying this is ridiculous, I ultimately receive more pushback from everyone in the conversation.

      • ultraviolet [she/her]
        ·
        3 years ago

        Not to mention cus of American brainworms, they'll be racist to anyone who "looks" Russian which definitely includes Ukrainians.