#anti-slavic sentiment

[sophiemariepl]

Am I the only one here who is so damn angry about the fact that a large portion of the Slavic representation on the Western media is either Russian, Russian-coded (e.g. the Grisha Universe by Leigh Bardugo) or copies the narratives about other Slavic nations that exist in the Russian discourse about them?

#russian colonialism #russian imperialism #russia #ukraine #slavic nations #Slavic people #eastern european #anti eastern european sentiments #slavic representation on the western media #western media #Russia centrism #poland #czech republic #slovakia #Belarus #croatia #bosnia #bosnia and herzegovina #serbia #Macedonia #Bulgaria #slavic countries #pop culture #eastern europeans of tumblr

[queerbauten]

I love how half this website felt it necessary to cancel Kyle Gordon—a Jewish comedian—for a character (based on Gordon and his brother themselves) they considered ableist, which then escalated to a ridiculous rap sheet that culminated in accusations of antisemitism...

... but when this site's multimillionaire faves actively throw their weight behind an apartheid state (in addition to a long list of things like broader racism, transmisogyny, biphobia, and abuse apologia), suddenly, it's complicated. it's nuanced. it's... whatever you need to sleep at night.

#Kyle Gordon #a Top 25 Tumblr moment is people only caring about anti-Slavic sentiment because they could use it as callout fodder #antisemitism #(because what else is it when you accuse a Jewish person of being *antisemitic* just because you were offended by him?) #and as I've said before (I think): I love that no one making the callouts even considered that Kyle might be ND himself #I don't know if he is—and quite frankly neither do you probably #so to recap: Jewish comedian makes what at best could be considered accidentally ableist content? bad. deserving of hate. #multimillionaire creator (of any religion or ethnicity) supports a state enacting genocide? they're just innocent guys 🥺 #Israel #Palestine #genocide tw #murder tw #death tw #violence tw #war tw #racism tw #transmisogyny tw #transphobia tw #biphobia tw #abuse tw #text heavy #long tags

[autistic-and-radical]

I hate when people - mostly Americans - feel like they have the right to shit on Slavs just because we're white. (Which is not true btw, I know a lot of POC Slavs).

Like, yeah our countries are a bit behind, you know why?! BECAUSE WEST NEVER BOTHERED TO HELP US, THEY ONLY EXPLOITED US.

Yeah, some of us live in horrible conditions without running water and bathroom in the house. Why? Because even now no one bothers to help them.

Yeah, many Slavs don't like foreigners. Why? Because of generational trauma that happened less than 80 years ago.

Yeah, many Slavs are uneducated because they didn't have the opportunity to get proper education.

But we're not primitive subhumans as many treat us. We're not inferior.

And when we speak up about our issues, when we want to educate others so they stop harming us with stupid stereotypes, WHEN WE DEMAND BASIC RESPECT FOR A HUMAN BEING

What happens then?

We're called delusional. We're being said that "we just want to steal attention from actual problems because we're all racist pigs", we're being told that our issues aren't that big, right? We're white, so we have sooo many privileges, we definitely weren't oppressed throughout the centuries

Rant over

#tw: rant #rant #slavic #slav #Eastern European #eastern Europe #slav issues #slavophobia #poland #slavs #anti slavic sentiments #anti slavic

[letterful]

this is from an article about cities and landscapes as means for conveying information (of all things!)

#getting hit with a reminder of historical antisemitic AND anti-slavic sentiments while doing my light reading is sure something

[katherinakaina]

You can't say to an average Russian person that Russia is a fascist state. They will not even comprehend what it means. We fought fascism, haven't you learned it in school? Nazis came here to eradicate us because they hated slavic people, everyone knows that.

In Russia fascism is kind of synonymous with russophobia. And any anti Russian sentiment is russophobia. Hence if you criticize Russia in any way - you are a fascist.

It sounds ridiculous but it is really how they think. Not always so formalized, because when said out loud it becomes so obviously wrong that even the most far gone tankie can recognize it. No, this is almost entirely in the vibes. And also it becomes very important to really prove that hated russophobes are indeed nazis, even though them being nazis is always the initial assumption even before any evidence.

And proving is always very easy. There are nazis everywhere, in almost all social groups. Want to discredit opposition? You know that some of them are nazis? Navalny is of course a nazi. And haven't you heard about Azov battalion?

It matters not that by the same logic all the Russians are nazis too. Russians can never be fascists.

By definition.

Because we are victims of fascism, haven't you learned it in school?

We have this all absolving badge of victimhood and heroism that trumps all criticism and all self reflection.

But Russia is also a colonialist empire that oppressed many people and waged countless wars. Of course it would be doing this classic song and dance of overstating harm and 'yeah we slaughter them but they were mean to us for oppressing them so it is basically self defense'.

...

The fact that it is the same shit with Israel sounds like a sick tasteless joke.

It is truly maddening that if there ever in human history was a group of people who SHOULD FUCKING KNOW BETTER, it would be jews.

Fascism is the disease of human selfishness and cruelty. It never dies out, it can only go dormant for a little while. It will always resurface if you stop taking medicine. And the idea that you can be immune to it is the most dangerous misconception there is.

You can never let your guard down. Never.

#palestine #israel #free palestine #russia #ukraine #fascisim

[aristotels]

do you like mayonnaise or do you hate slavic people. a mayonnaise hater? do you and goebbels drink tea together too? anti-mayo-sentiment = anti-slav-sentiment. one like one prayer. each reblog gives a young starving slav an egg to make mayo at home

[djuvlipen]

Difference between "Romani"/"Roma" and "Romanian"

I decided to make this post because a lot of people get Romanians and Roma mixed up. It's something that's pretty common, even among Europeans who are more familiar with Roma than Americans are.

"Romanian" comes from latin "romanus", meaning "Roman", inhabitant of the city of Rome (Italy). Romanians are a white people indigenous to (Eastern) Europe living in Romania.

"Roma" (noun) and "Romani" (adjective) mean "people" in Romani language. It probably comes from Sanskrit "ḍoma", which refers to a traveling caste of musicians. Roma are a South Asian diaspora that traveled through the MENA region for about two centuries before arriving in Europe in the Middle Ages.

Many people get Romanian and Romani confused because of the following reasons:

the names are similar: this is true but coincidental, as "Romanian" comes from Latin and "Romani" comes from Sanskrit, and both words have very different meanings

Romania has the largest Romani community in Europe: this is true. The reason is that, upon entering Europe in the Middle Ages, the Roma that arrived in Romania were enslaved and couldn't move out of the country. The slavery of Roma in Romania lasted 500 years. After it ended, in the mid. 19th century, the majority of those Roma remained in Romania, though a few of them migrated to America and to Western Europe.

TL;DR

The Romanians are indigenous to Europe. The Roma are indigenous to India.

Romanians are usually Orthodox Christians. Roma can be of any religion, typically converting to the dominant religion of the region we settled in.

Romanian culture (singular) is a unique culture that was influenced by its proximity to Slavic, Greek, Hungarian, German cultures. Romani cultures (plural) are of South Asian origin and were shaped over the centuries by our travelling through the Middle East and Europe.

Romanians live in Romania. Roma don't have a particular country.

The reason many Roma live in Romania is because Romania has a long history of anti-Romani racism and slavery.

Romanians often suffer from xenophobia when living abroad because they are (white) Eastern Europeans. Roma suffer from racism and xenophobia: we are a brown people whose cultures are very identifiable as non-European. As such, we have suffered and still suffer segregation, police brutality, ghettoization, slavery, pogroms, slaughters, discrimination in the workplace and in education. Anti-Romani racism is still the most widespread form of racism in all European countries to this day.

The majority of Roma, especially those living in Eastern Europe, ie around 2/3rds of Roma, are visibly brown, because of our mixed ancestry (South Asian + MENA), though some groups can be lighter due to interracial marriages with white people. It's the case of the British Roma, in particular.

Our traditions, culture and belief system evolved with us from India through the Middle East to Europe. It is thus pretty recognizable as "non-European" and has been used to identify us as "others/foreigners" over the centuries. FYI, there is not one single and unique Romani culture, because cultural beliefs and practices, as well as religion and Romani language dialect can vary a lot between each Romani group. To make it more intelligible, I invite you to think of the larger Romani diaspora as one race that is composed of a manifold of Romani ethnic groups.

Romanian

Romani (adjective) / Roma (noun)

(I have more of these in my "Roma" tag)

Roma =/= Romanian. Romanians are European while Roma are a South Asian diaspora. While Romanians do suffer xenophobia when living in Western Europe and America, anti-Romani sentiment is a type of racism widespread in all of Europe and America. It's particularly important to know the difference between Roma and Romanian, as Romania has a very long history of racism against Roma: slavery, segregation, ghettos, genocide.

#roma #don't hesitate to ask questions if something isn't clear or if you wanna know anything in particular!!

[notlessperfectthanlore]

We need to talk about Chekov.

I find it surprising that no one's ever brought it up but then again, the fandom isn't really aware of Eastern European problems connected with Russian Imperialism.

Bc Chekov's main appeal as a character is that he repeats talking points from Russian Imperialism (aka everything being a Russian invention). As an Eastern European, I never understood what's so funny about that but now with the context of the war it became even more obvious and painful.

What people in the West may not be aware of is that what seems like a harmless joke and specifically Chekov's "quirk" is really not, and has been used by Russians to consolidate their imperialism over Eastern Europe, Central and Nothern Asia for centuries. Russia claims that it is the origin of all Slavic nations to justify why Eastern European Slavic countries like Ukraine, Poland, Belarus, Czechia etc should really be under their power (and has used it to justify subjugating those lands before). It obscures the inventions of ethnic minorities under their rule and homogenises it all as "Russian". Heck, the offical Russian narrative obscures history to the point that it claims Kievan Rus (which has ties to modern Ukraine) is a direct ancestor of modern day Russia, instead of Muscovia. If you didn't know that, that's bc of how far reaching their propaganda is, and bc Western scholars will uncritically take over Russian scholarship, without consulting Eastern European sources. Just like the tos writers apparently did with Chekov. It's an ongoing issue. I have only scratched the surface.

And it's not just that either. In the tribble episode he calls the Klingons "Cossacks" as an insult. Which is so a blatantly an Anti-Ukrainian sentiment I can't believe no one's ever picked up on it. Equating cossacks with negativity and wildness is nothing new and has been employed by Russians to dehumanise Ukrainians in this war as well as in previous ones. It's horrifying to find it repeated in a lighthearted bar fight scene.

Letting a Russian character repeat imperialistic talking points like these uncritically is disappointing but not surprising, given that tos has other problems with racism, misogyny, homophobia and other -isms. But it needs to be talked about and recognised by the fandom as such, and I have never seen it. I hope this post can be the starting point.

#star trek #Star trek tos #Tos #Chekov #pavel chekov #Russia #russian imperialism #Eastern Europe

[haxyr3]

What is тыквенный спас?

If you read Russian news media or follow Russian users on social media, you might have seen a weird expression related to Halloween: тыквенный спас, pumpkin feast of the Savior.

What is it and what does it mean?

There are three autumn feasts in Eastern Orthodoxy: the Honey Feast of The Saviour (August 14), the Apple Feast of The Saviour (aka the Feast of Transfiguration), and the Nut Feast of The Saviour. All of the tree festivals obviously have their roots in pagan traditions of celebrating the harvest.

Halloween as a Western, "borrowed" holiday does not have a long tradition of celebration in Russia, but many young people find it fun and enjoy celebrating it.

As anti-Western sentiment intensifies, schools and universities in Russia are banning Halloween celebrations. In response to this witty people renamed it in the Slavic manner -- тыквенный спас, pumpkin feast of the Savior. This, in my opinion, reframes the absurdity of the moment, but allows young people to enjoy life the way they want and deserve to.

Happy Halloween! Bonus: listen how Russians pronounce Halloween on Youglish - to my ear, it sound more like a helloing :)

#russian #russia #halloween #тыквенный спас #absurd

[cringelordofchaos]

(tw mentions of n*zis and hitler's slavophobia and a mention of antisemitism)

funny how many nazi signs you can find drawn by stupid kids on the streets in Serbia like dude you know that guy literally hated everyone except very specific ppl. including us

(for context)

There's a whole Wikipedia article abt it lmao

(I personally wouldn't call anti-slavic sentiment racism bc being Slavic isnt a race but whateva)

Like dude. That guy wouldn't have liked us. I mean obviously even if he would drawing such signs shouldn't be done at all but u r just stupid on another level.

I'm not trying to make that war period all about us btw. Obviously we weren't treated as badly as many other ethnic groups but hitler still didnt like us.

Whatever. Can stupid ppl at my school stop trying so hard to be edgy. I'm so tired

#slavophobia #tw nazi #nazi tw #nazis #nazis tw #i hate my classmates #tw hitler #adolf hitler #tw adolf hitler

[stillunusual]

Israeli Telegram channel refers to a humanitarian aid worker killed by the IDF as a "Polish Nazi"…. The above image was posted on an Israeli Telegram channel called "Terrorists From A Different Perspective", which features pictures of people killed by the IDF and makes fun of them and their deaths.

The channel has 126,000 subscribers.

The photo shows the dead body of Damian Soból, one of seven humanitarian aid workers killed in April 2024 by an Israeli drone that fired three missiles at a World Central Kitchen convoy, which was escorting an aid truck to a food warehouse in Gaza.

According to Haaretz.com: …."at some point, when the convoy was driving along the approved route, the war room of the unit responsible for security of the route ordered the drone operators to attack one of the cars with a missile. Some of the passengers were seen leaving the car after it was hit and switching to one of the other two. They continued to drive and even notified the people responsible that they were attacked, but, seconds later, another missile hit their car. The third car in the convoy approached, and the passengers began to transfer to it the wounded who had survived the second strike in order to get them out of danger. But then a third missile struck them"….

Damian Soból was from Przemyśl, in Poland. He was 35 years old and had also previously provided humanitarian aid to Ukraine.

The Hebrew text underneath the image translates as follows: "Let's say good morning to the Polish scum who is now together with his ancestors, Adolf Hitler's soldiers, deep in the furnace of hell. Rumour has it that after his death the name of the Polish Nazi was changed to Robert Lewandowski"….

The posting of this image and the emojis at the bottom of the screen speak volumes about the delightful folks who subscribe to this channel.

Referring to Soból's ancestors as "Adolf Hitler's soldiers" and calling him a "Polish Nazi" is also a calculated insult to the millions of Polish slavic victims of Nazi Germany.

The targeted killing of Damian Soból and his fellow aid workers understandably caused public outrage in Poland, after which the Israeli ambassador Yacov Livne appeared on Polish TV to deliver a few half hearted words of condolence while playing the victim and whining about antisemitism. When asked about the high levels of anti-Polish sentiment in Israel, he claimed it doesn't exist….

#damian soból #damian sobol #RIP #world central kitchen #poland #polska #israel #palestine #gaza #IDF #wtf #2024

[miapcain]

hi hi i just wanted to say that i am so happy to see slavic names/words casually in a comic! is it Vesna like czech vesna? and i love your art and character designs too, they remind me of ink pen illustrations of old books which i adore. thank you for your hard work

Thank you so much! Yes, Vesna, Ljuba and Snježana are all Czech (though I understand that last one isn't a common spelling in modern day Czech- I almost picked Vešna for the main character because I like it accoustically, but decided to go with the more normal one). I'm so glad you like the style! It was heavily influenced by Socar Miles, one of my favourite artists growing up, and all the old ink illustrated Märchenbücher we had around the house, haha.

I should note I'm Austrian and not Slavic myself, but very interested in Czech history and culture, including German historic anti-Slavic sentiment (which is why the comic is set just north of the Machland during the 13th century Ostsiedlung, in the decades before King Ottokar ruled Austria), which was literally never discussed when I was in school; it's something I care about and want to write about, so if any of it strikes a chord, that makes me very happy!

That said, if I make any mistakes or false assumptions, please do point them out. The last thing I want these stories to be is harmful or hurtful in some way.

Thank you for the kind words and ask!

#Vesna #v:dtwof meta #asks

[queerbauten]

I love how the callouts against Kyle Gordon went from, “one of his characters is an ableist stereotype,” to, “Kyle Gordon, a Jewish comedian, is an antisemite, because we can barely imagine someone poking fun at their own culture”

#Kyle Gordon #DJ Crazy Times #(allegedly The Kid That’s No Fun was also based on himself but I haven’t seen the source) #also I love how people on here only care about anti-Slavic sentiment when they can: #1) earn Progressive Points™️ from it; or 2) act like white privilege doesn’t exist #(like… I side-eye the chose to make DCT an ex-Yugoslav) #(because most of those one-hit Eurodance acts were from other (more Western) parts of Europe) #(but like. I can guarantee you Slavs have bigger problems that you’re ignoring) #antisemitism tw #xenophobia tw #ableism tw #racism mention #(white Slavs experience white privilege. cry about it) #text heavy

[autistic-and-radical]

Fun fact, most xenophobia and racism (slavophobia) that I experience online isn't from white people

Some POC act as if me being white means that they can be xenophobic and discriminative towards me :)

And no, it's not "payback" for what my ancestors did (actually they did nothing. Historically, Slavs have nothing to do with slavery I mean they do cuz slavs were the first slaves ever but yk what I mean) it's just slavophobia and sense of entitlement.

Like bro, why when I spoke up about my issues, oppression and discrimination as a slav on tiktok, people (like I said, mostly POC) had to run to my comments, call me race-related insults, tell me that my culture is boring and not even worth of appropriation or that my traditional food is disgusting or that slavs are not capable of understanding "real oppression" or that we never been oppressed. Why? Because we're white (which is not true, I know many POC slavs)

Also I'm not saying that all POC are like this or that I don't experience Slavophobia from white people

rant over

#racism #xenophobia #slav #slavic culture #slavophobia #anti slavic sentiments #rant #tw: rant #history #oppression

[irithnova]

Seeing as this myrddin blocked me and is now spreading baseless accusations about me being a Russian agent.

This is in reference to my post in which I explain using historical detail why it is incorrect to say that Mongols are ancestors/direct ancestors to Russians. I explain why it is not only incorrect to say this, but it also has the potential to harbour harmful rhetoric about Mongolians, Russians, and Eastern Europeans as a whole, as this pseudo-history is rooted in racial science and is used to spread slavophobia and anti Mongolian sentiment.

Here is my original post, please go and read it for yourself:

I explained that yes, the Mongols/Golden horde did have a lasting impact impact on Russian history, culture and identity, and it is important to acknowledge their contributions. But I also explained how the Mongol invasions did not include mass migration and assimilation of Mongol populations into Eastern European (compared to the other Khanates) and the Mongols were essentially a ruling elite - an outside force coming in.

I explained how people often exaggerate Mongol influence on Russia/Eastern Europe for more sinister reasons. I said how the core of Russian culture is Slavic, and how many different cultures have had an impact on the course of Russian history. I explained why it is important not to exaggerate Mongol influence on Russia/Eastern Europe to the extent that people run around saying how Mongols are ancestors to them, as it is not historically sound and is rooted in racial science/slavophobia.

The idea that Eastern Europeans in general are not "true Europeans" and are really just "Mongol mongrels" is not exactly a new concept. However there has been a surge of popularity in hurling the term "Mongol", "Mongol Hordes" as an insult towards Russians. Do you... Not see how this is a problem? Not only is it incredibly, incredibly racist towards the Mongolian people, to use their ethnic term to denote "barbaric", "backwards" or "savage", as I want to reiterate, this rhetoric has its origins in Nazi racial science, and is also slavophobic.

I said that the core of Russian culture is Slavic. Nowhere, in my post, did I ever dabble in debating on whether Russia is the direct heir or descendant to Kievan Rus', nor did I use this as a justification to label, Ukrainians as Nazis for wanting to defend their country from the Russian invasion, nor did I then go onto use this to justify a "denazification" of Ukraine.

If you take a look at my account, you can see that I am extremely critical of the Russian state.

Also I just think it's so... Typically American to accuse people you don't like of being a Russian agent lol.

In my post, I added this screenshot of someone tweeting anti-Mongolian sentiment in order to give an example of how pseudo-history and racial science gives way for anti-Mongolian sentiment to rear it's ugly head :

I was not calling a Ukrainian a Nazi for criticising Russia - this person is not even Ukrainian judging by his Irish name.

Even if this person was a Ukrainian, does that give them a right to throw around anti-Mongolian sentiment?? Do Ukrainians have free reign to hurl around the word "Mongol" like it's an insult and perpetuate harmful racial science??

I love how myrddin suddenly started Mongolia posting - pretending like they give a fuck about Mongolian culture, history and people, but then goes ahead and derails a post talking about anti-Mongolian sentiment and racial science and turns it into some fucking debate about Russia being or not being the heir of Kievan Rus when I NEVER EVEN SAID SHIT ABOUT THAT IN MY ORIGINAL POST. I EVEN SAID THAT MANY DIFFERENT CULTURES HAD A LASTING IMPACT ON THE COURSE OF RUSSIA'S HISTORY, IDENTITY AND CULTURE, AND I WASN'T TRYING TO SQUEEZE RUSSIA INTO A BOX OF "WHITE, SLAVIC" FOR THE SAKE OF MY ARGUMENT.

ALL I DID WAS EXPLAIN WHY IT IS IMPORTANT TO BE CAREFUL ABOUT EXAGGERATING MONGOL INFLUENCE TO THE POINT WHERE Y'ALL CALL MONGOLS ANCESTORS TO RUSSIANS WHEN ITS BOTH HISTORICALLY INACCURATE AND USED FOR OFFENSIVE RHETORIC

Myrddin - can you even read? 🤭

@myrddin-wylt

#hetalia #aph mongolia #hws mongolia #Hetalia Mongolia #hetalia world stars #hetalia world series #hetalia world twinkle #Aph Russia #Hws Russia #Hetalia Russia #Ivan Braginsky #Hetalia discourse #Hetalia fandom #Historical hetalia #Hetalia critical #Hetalia racism #Myrddin-wyllt

[catboybiologist]

Wait, you're Slavic?

Any perspectives on how that interacts with queernes, that is definitely not a thing I know a lot about. (feel free not to answer if it's too personal).

Not really. I'm American born and raised. My parents are technically immigrants, each from a different eastern european country. But they each came over here when they were kids, and have had interesting on and off connections with their home countries. Neither have accents, and typically don't look or act much different than standard white americans. I have noticed some pervasive quirks and values, however, and talking to my more fully Slavic friends, they seem rooted in the same place.

I can absolutely comment on how this has affected me, but I want to be abundantly clear: I cannot speak to an actual, lived Slavic queer experience. I'm not even bilingual (thank you, weird desire of my parents to make me "more american" by not teaching me their languages). I can comment on the cultural norms that it seems like my family has passed down, and the small amount I've seen in the immigrant communities they're a part of here. However, its pretty much impossible for me to untangle these from the quirks of just my family and family friends. That's my disclaimer, and if actual Slavic people want to comment about this (especially with what's happening in Russia) I would love to hear it.

Obviously I'm also not going to completely air my family's dirty laundry as well, so hopefully this won't get uncomfortably specific for me. I do want to talk about it though.

If there's anything I *can* comment on here, I can divide it into two things: atheistic conservative social values, and immigrant academic culture.

As I've said, I was raised atheist. While the orthodox church and other local Christian branches are still culturally relevant forces in Eastern Europe, from my understanding it hasn't been near the level of Catholicism or various Protestant movements in other countries. Most Slavic immigrants I've interacted with are atheist. They do, however, still carry extremely strong conservative cultural values despite that, and are often politically right wing as a result. The most strong and deeply rooted representation of this is the vehement protection of the "family unit" above all else. Which, as I'm sure you all will agree with, sounds nice on its surface but has a lot of branching consequences. Resolving conflict between family members is more paramount than actually resolving the hurt of individuals. There's a sense of forced closeness much of the time. And of course.... queerphobia. Anti gay marriage sentiments, regressive opinions about reproductive rights, anti-trans opinions based on preservation of the ability to reproduce.... yeah there's a lot to unpack there. A lot of this is a common theme, but most of the time, it's rooted in religion. This is very easy to completely excuse in your head. Slavs, however, typically seem to frame the root mentalities that drive these in terms of "survival", the stability of society and the societal purpose of these values, and also weird, lopsided scientific explanations for them (eg, I've heard multiple times independently that gay people are "evolutionary errors"). Which, I'm sure someone way more qualified than me to comment could write a book about how this relates to post-war and post-Soviet collective trauma, but that would be WAY outside of my scope. This makes it... always just a little different than the types of homophobia that people talk about in more classic american families, and its interesting to compare and contrast.

The other one, which I talked about more in my previous post, is high academic standards. This I think is a shared experience of children of immigrants from many places, even a couple of generations out. The stereotype of the "Tiger Mom" is the typical example, even though the scope is well beyond that. But there's a very simple explanation: the United States put harsh immigration restrictions on many countries that were seen as non-allies for the majority of the 20th century. The best way around them was, and still is, being highly educated. It's no accident that my educated family was allowed to immigrate to this country during an arms race with Eastern bloc countries. Brain Drain policies were a factor, and the cultural expectation for immigrants to be "useful" was another. What this creates is a massive cultural message to immigrants: education is the key to everything. When someone's entire current life is dependent on being high achieving and well educated, its going to create some fucky expectations for their kids. I've compared this experience with some of my East Asian friends growing up, and there's a lot of unexpected parallels.

Of course, my parents are a lot more Americanized than most immigrants, so this also falls under the umbrella of "if I'm speaking on something I actually have no idea about please correct me".

Together, I think this manifested in me not as classic internalized queerphobia, but more as a distinct sense that I shouldn't care at all, and shame for wanting to develop an aspect of myself. I didn't really hate the queer aspect of myself specifically, I had a nonspecific distaste for any aspect of my being that didn't comply with the things I said above. I haven't had that much queerphobia directed at me specifically- moreso, its a topic thats not talked about at all, as if its not real. I can only infer an opinion when loose lips start saying things after some alcohol. Which of course, there's a lot of.

Politically, I'm actually very proud of how my parents and grandparents act. They vote in left leaning ways- but they're oddities in their communities because of it. They also do so very begrudgingly (except my grandma, who has strong progressive whoop-your-ass vibes [I love her so much]), and I'm pretty sure its more about the current state of the Republican party as opposed to their actual values. With everything I've said as well, I also have very little idea how they would react to my queerness on a personal level. I'm not out to them, and I know that there's a huge difference in many people's minds between supporting queer rights as a political movement, vs how you engage with a queer person in your actual life. I've heard some very nasty things said by my parents in that regard, and the way there's a rift between "consenting adults doing whatever they want with themselves" vs actually evaluating people as... yknow. People. The "family unity above all else" aspects are particularly scary for me, and I have no idea how they'll react if I ever bring a man home to them, much less when I come out to them about gender. But that's a tangent.

Would love to hear more experiences related to this!!!! Again, its very difficult to untangle how much of this is Slavic cultural values trickling through the generations, and how much is just quirks of particular people I know.

#trans #queer #lgbt #bisexual