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Despite being messed up, there's a sort of cultural logic to it. Here's the thing, a lot of cultures really want to keep things to themselves. The mentally goes
by ChrisNorstrom 13y ago
Despite being messed up, there's a sort of cultural logic to it. Here's the thing, a lot of cultures really want to keep things to themselves. The mentally goes like this: "This land is ours, our ancestors fought for it so our culture can have a place to flourish and live on, it's not here for you, get out please." It's not just a European thing, Asian countries are the same way they don't even give you the chance to become a citizen. I've learned to understand it as a natural part of human psychology. It's also not a problem when there's only one ethnicity in the whole country like Japan which is 98% ethnic Japanese but a lot of European countries tend to let others in who are different than them (Jews, Roma, North Africans, Arabs, Indians) and then have problems with assimilation and integration.
Russia's kind of weird, didn't they just open a Jewish history museum dubbed the "Jewish Disney Land" to try to get more Jews to move back? http://www.themoscowtimes.com/arts_n_ideas/article/state-of-art-jewish-museum-opens-in-moscow/471347.html http://www.themoscowtimes.com/arts_n_ideas/article/state-of-... Somehow I think leaders want Jews back but the public doesn't.
- cema 13y agoThe "public" has no problems with Jews, for the most part. These days, being Jewish in Russia is mostly not a problem, even on the contrary. Things may change very quickly, though.
- daffodil08 13y agoI only partially agree with you. Xenophobia is everywhere and in every country of the world, but racism and antisemitism, which are not really based on ethnicity or national identity, seem to be a particularly European disease.
- ChrisNorstrom 13y agoI disagree. If you were to add 10 million Africans, 5 million Arabs, 3 million Jews, 20 Million Europeans to Japan over the next 20 years you can bet your arm and leg that "racism and antisemitism" will sprout in Japan. People feel threatened when someone different starts moving in on their space. I've seen documentaries on a tiny community of Africans living in Beijing and how they are "stopped by police constantly" http://youtu.be/GURLHAM-KoI http://youtu.be/GURLHAM-KoI, and treated the same way in Israel by Jews. http://youtu.be/rYwvGHY1nAI http://youtu.be/rYwvGHY1nAI. You think it's a "white people" problem because that's all you've seen your whole life. As multi-racial/multi-culturalism increases worldwide you'll realize it's something prevalent throughout humanity. That's the compromise, without diversity a society might become stale but diversity brings up problems on it's own as one culture feels it's future is threatened by another.
- zhewei 13y agoNot true. Take the middle-east: Racism: http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2006/sep/08/racisminthemiddleeast http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2006/sep/08/racismi... http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/10/opinion/10iht-edeltahawy.1.18556273.html http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/10/opinion/10iht-edeltahawy.1... Anti-semitism (too easy): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antisemitism_in_the_Arab_world http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antisemitism_in_the_Arab_world Or the rest of the world: A comparison of countries, not sure if you should trust this as an indicator: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/worldviews/wp/2013/05/15/a-fascinating-map-of-the-worlds-most-and-least-racially-tolerant-countries/ http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/worldviews/wp/2013/05/15... Books with anti-semitic conspiracy theories are bestsellers in China: http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/10/02/china-anti-semitic-conspiracy-theories-and-wall-street/ http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/10/02/china-anti-semi... Discrimination against black people in China: http://www.cnn.com/2012/07/24/world/asia/china-tinted-prejudice/ http://www.cnn.com/2012/07/24/world/asia/china-tinted-prejud...
- guard-of-terra 13y agoBy the way, the jewish museum in Moscow is by far the most impressive museum I've ever been too. Looks to be made with help of Israel, tho, and not "leaders". As for public, it does not care: jews are near the bottom of russian xenophobia list as of today.
- jacalata 13y agoActually, it is considered a problem in Japan - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethnic_issues_in_Japan http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethnic_issues_in_Japan.