Are you on some sort of "reasons to hate humanity" mailing list? How do you find this stuff? (I'm not clicking through.)
The US is an extremely tolerant country for ethnic minorities, compared to most European countries.
I saw some of this type of footage on the European BBC when I was over there. Russia is slipping into early fascism.
Seems they're speaking Russian; this isn't in the US, I take it. The extreme violent xenophobia in Russia (against Central Asians, Caucasians [from the Caucasus], Africans) is appalling, and it's a slap-on-the-wrist infraction, if that. The stories you hear are literally nightmarish.
It sounds like Russian.
There's an "F18" stamp on the video, but it seems to be unrelated to this F18, oddly enough.
I find the rise of neo-Naziism in Russia particularly annoying, given that ALL of their grandfathers and a fair number of their grandmothers died, you know, at the hands of the Nazis. Read an article with one swastika-covered skinhead saying, "Yeah, my grandpa doesn't really approve, since the Nazis killed all his brothers, but he just doesn't get it."
I should note that Putin has encouraged these anti-immigrant gangs with a wink and a nod. So much so that "Anti-Fascist" gangs have started forming (their term, not mine), which attempt to defend immigrants from these assaults.
Joe's right, and that was especially frightening when, during the recent political scuffle with Georgia, the Russian government basically sent an informal message that there would be a free-for-all on harassing ethnic Georgians, including Russian citizens. They know perfectly well what kind of street-level violence that would mean. The Georgians just yanked their kids out of school and shuttered the windows.
What's in it for Putin?
An unpaid army of Brownshirts?
Putin, of course, doesn't actively encourage, he just fails to vigorously condemn. The mayors of Moscow and St. Pete take their cues and don't make it a priority. There's Great Russian chauvinism at play here, and as in the Georgian scenario, it can be a useful lever to pull.
Moscow and St. Pete were very nice when I was there a few years ago, not that I look even remotely ethnic.
I, also, have not been stabbed in Russia. This is not a great slogan for the tourist bureau.
I should note that Putin has encouraged these anti-immigrant gangs with a wink and a nod. So much so that "Anti-Fascist" gangs have started forming (their term, not mine), which attempt to defend immigrants from these assaults.
Don't worry, that sort of thing is normal in a burgeoning free society. And as you know, state-sponsored racism was made technically illegal no more than 80 years later.
a burgeoning free society
Probably the most optimistic thing I've read about Russia in years!
Yes, it's wonderful that a black person in Moscow has at least as many rights guaranteed by the government as a black person in Arkansas in 1875.
They're cursing in Russian, mostly generic curses, plus "Get the fuck out of here!" to one of the victims. When you hear one of the victims plead, that's also in Russian.
Vile, vile stuff.
I've been hearing vague, disturbing reports about this for almost a year now. All that Soviet post-racist globalism doesn't seem to have gone very deep into Russian society. Although, now that I think about it, the kids perpetrating this shit were probably fairly young when the USSR dissolved.
The ensuing tone of the thread made me rethink my decision to point out a grammatical error in the post. Ahh, the sacrifices a pedant must make.
I suspect that kind of thing happens in the US more often than we realize, though much less often than it does in much (most?) of Europe. Though I suspect most US racist thugs aren't political or organized enough to burn people's passports, even if they are political and organized enough to form militias.
What's with the 'Europe', people?
Former communist Eastern Europe and Russia does not equal 'most of Europe'.
nattargcM, stop trying to weasel out of this, you racist.
We Scots are the font of all racism, I'll hae ye know.