Racism clearly exists here in the United States. Unfortunately, it is not exclusive to just our country. As I am from Russia, I have seen terrible cases of racism there as well, and also in Europe as a whole. The racial slurs are used in every day language. They stand out to me because here in the states, I rarely hear them in public.
Additionally, sporting events are often used for public displays of racist chants and actions. Claudia Rankine wrote about the racist incidents in the World Cup and the US Open. However, the lower levels of professional sports in Russia are even worse than these cases. I have seen videos of professional soccer games, where chants of racist slurs are sung in chorus, directed at a player from a team. I have seen videos of fans throwing bananas at players as a way to degrade them. These actions absolutely infuriate me. I don't understand how in this day and age we cannot, as a society, treat each other with respect. Surely many people can be different than you, but that does not give you any authority to degrade them. It seems like respect can be so simple, but wow am I wrong. This world has a lot of work to do.
You bring up a good point, it's definitely even worse in Russia. I think the only difference is that in Russia racism, along with other forms of xenophobia, serves to construct a national identity, rather than general whiteness.
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