[lbo-talk] Black in the USSR

[Chris Doss]

>OTOH, hooliganism was always a problem in EE, especially in small town
>and the country side.  Groups of hoolingans would attack anyone seen as
>easy target, students, out-of-area visitors, passer-bys.  The problem
>was particularly bad in the 1950s and early 1960s due to a large scale
>migration from the countryside to the cities. Blaming Soviet policies
>for recent wave of hooliganism is pure govno (bullshit) - there is
>plenty of literature in criminology linking violent crime to the
>disintegration of social cohesion, which was plentiful in EE during
>1950s and 1960s (migration) and resurfaced there during the transition
>to a "democracy".
>
>Wojtek

Personal anecdote: A week or so ago a friend of mine (a young American 
woman) were leaving the Public Enemy concert and got on the metro. One 
station down, literally about 150 skinheads jumped into the metro wagons and 
started randomly beating the crap out of people shouting racist epithets, 
apparetntly thinking a Public Enemy concert would attract lots of blacks, 
which is absurd because the blanks in Russia are Africans and don't give a 
fuck about Public Enemy. (Instead, they were beating up mostly Russian 
hip-hop fans.) They beat a cop into unconsciousness.

Needless to see, she and her boyfriend were doubly worried because he is a 
Caucasian. Got out alright though.

This would have been impossible in the Soviet era. Unthinkable.

_________________________________________________________________
Add photos to your e-mail with MSN 8. Get 2 months FREE*.  
http://join.msn.com/?page=features/featuredemail