In Wake of Hate Murder, Students Speak Out About Racism
St Petersburg Times, Russia,
Aug 1, 2006
By Ben Judah
Special to St. Petersburg Times
Jacques, is a 19-year old medical student from Senagal who studies
at St. Petersburg State University. He is not somebody who makes
enemies easily. Friendly and easy talk to, Jacques, who like other
foreign students interviewed in the wake of the acquital last week
of suspects in the race-hate murder of a Congolese student, asked
for his full name to not to be published.
Jacques will never forget his first few days in St. Petersburg.
Traveling home late on the metro, a group of skinheads began shouting
racial slurs as he mounted the escalator. Then they physically
assaulted him. Jacques ran for his life. He says this is not the only
time this has happened to him.
Amnesty International has described racism in Russia "as out of
control." Nineteen people have been killed in racially motivated
attacks this year, according to the Sova Center, a group that
monitors extremist activity, and another 166 people have suffered
serious injuries.
The news that a St. Petersburg jury last week cleared four suspects
of the murder of Congolese student Roland Epassak, the second time in
four months that a court has acquitted suspects of hate crimes, came as
no surprise to Jacques or many other foreign students from Africa and
Asia contacted to this article. For him, "the verdict just shows what
we experience every day. That this is an inherently racist country."
"Back in [the Senegalese capital] Dakar," he recalls, "I was thrilled
when I knew I was coming to St. Petersburg. Russia had been a great
friend to Africa in the past and the chance to study in a European
university seemed fantastic. I had no idea that racist feeling was
so strong here."
Now he wishes he’d never come.
"No black man should come to this country," he said. "They’d have
to be crazy. I am scared to walk the streets alone, especially after
the recent murders."
African students at the university dormitory on Korableistratelny
Ulitsa said that they had experienced violent aggression in St.
Petersburg more than once.
Samba, 20, who studies environmental management and is from also from
Senegal puts it bluntly: "Russians look at me like dirt. They talk
to me like a child. The police treat me as if I’m a drug dealer. And
everyone will stab you in the back if you’re black."
Chatting to Samba in the dormitory lift, it immediately became clear
that discrimination is a a daily occurance for balck people in St.
Petersburg. As the doors opened on the fourth floor, and a group of
young Russian women refused to get in, with one saying loudly "I’m
not getting in a lift with a nigger!"
On the sixth floor two, visibly drunk young men, got in. Turning to
Samba, they spat on the floor before walking straight out again. "You
see? Racism is a fact of life for us," Samba said.
It is not only black Africans who relate such experiences of life
in St. Petersburg. Jee Rao, 21, a South Korean exchange student and
fluent Russian speaker, has had similar experiences.
"They treat people who look like us differently," he said. "I have
found it very hard to make Russian friends, though many are very
kind. Still even some young people, look at me with disdain as
an Asian."
According to Hu Lee from Beijing racist feelings lurk only just below
the surface here.
"Russians do not like people from China. They may be polite, but they
do not treat us with the respect and friendliness they would give us
if we were white," he said.
Even some Jewish and Armenian students here for a semester from North
America have reported difficulties. Yitzhak, 20, from San Francisco
feels nervous.
"I don’t tell people I’m Jewish. I just don’t feel comfortable. The
atmosphere here is one of intolerance and open xenophobia," Yitzhak
said.
Pointing at the anti-Semitic graffiti that abounds around
Petrogradskaya metro station, Yitzhak just shrugs.
Talking about the issue with Russian students, reveals a great deal
of antipathy to the issues raised by xenophobia – and denial. Katya,
18, said "racism does not exist here."
As attacks have becoming increasingly vicious in character according
to the Sova Center, foreign students from Asia and Africa in St.
Petersburg are living on edge.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
