Blackness and Africanness in Modern Russia: Mass Media and Mass Culture Aspects

1
Blackness and Africanness in Modern RussiaMass
Media and Mass Culture Aspects
2

• The survey was conducted under financial support
  of RFH (Russian Foundation for Humanities) in the
  frames of the project
• The Perception of Africa in Russia. Africas
  Image Evolution in Russian Mass Media
• 06-03-02108?

3
Peter Kareithi believes that we make sense of
our world from the stories we are told. From
these stories we construct the sense of who we
are and, more importantly, who we are not. The
construction of that difference - of the other
- is crucial to the discourse of race.
4
Historical Legacy

• Russia unlike Western countries (e.g. the
  Netherlands, Great Britain, Germany, etc) had not
  epoch-making encounters with African people, did
  not colonize Africa and was not involved in
  slave-owning and segregation.
• The majority of population of the Russian Empire
  was isolated from contacts with Africans merely
  because of a significant distance. Perhaps, the
  only possible example of the interaction of
  Russian elite with an African is a story of
  adoption of Ibrahim Petrovich Gannibal by the
  Tsar Peter the Great.

5
Ibraham (Abram) Gannibal

• god-son and favourite of Peter the Great
• was sent to France to get comprehensive
  education
• When back to Russia, he had many opportunities to
  reveal his bright mind and courage and was placed
  on the retired list in the high rank of "En
  Chef"- General in 1762.

6
Alexander Pushkin about his great-grandfather

• Abyssinian princeling. He died in 1781, left
  seven children and more than 1400 serfs.
• He had a tender, cowardly, but hot temper of
  Abyssinian nature, inclined to unimaginable,
  rash resoluteness.

7
Owing to genius great-grandson of Gannibal -
Alexander Pushkin, his image was not lost in
centuries and even aesthetically assimilated by
the Russian culture.

• The Blackamoor of Peter the Great the
  unfinished novel by Alexander Pushkin
• How Czar Peter the Great Married Off His
  Blackamoor (1976) - feature film in which
  Gannibal appears as a very poetical personality.

8

• How Czar Peter the Great Married Off His
  Blackamoor (1976)

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The Image of Gannibal

• He is not a stranger and even not much a black
• His role was played by a modern Russian poet
  Vladimir Vysotsky, whose face was just a little
  blacked and perceived as a sign, symbolic
  notation of black skin
• He was progressive, well educated and more
  European than Tsar and other Russians.
• He had a hot temper and resoluteness, but tender
  heart
• He demonstrated respect for human rights
  (including serfs and women)

10

• Pushkin was proud of his African roots and
  expressed it in a famous line in Eugene Onegin
  "Under the sky of my Africa" ("Pod nebom Afriki
  moei").
• Marina Tsvetaeva refers to this line in the
  first poem in her cycle, "Poems to Pushkin"

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Pushkin Under the Sky of My Africa

• Marina Tsvetayeva
• Not bad is the Russian classic,
• // Having once African sky // Called his own,
  cursed the Nieva's!
• From Poems to Pushkin, part 1.
• June 25, 1931. Translated by Ilya Shambat

• ?????? ????????
• ??????? ?????????? ???????, // ???? ?????? -
  ????? // ???????, ??????? ?????????!..
• ????? ? ???????. 25 ???? 1931

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The influence of Pushkins individuality and
Russians perception of Africans is a subject for
an independent study. But it seems evident, that
Pushkins example if not inspirited but called
forth the following poetical connotations

• Amity of Russians to Africans is based on
  consanguinity
• A black-skinned is walking in Moscow,
• Not just smile but declaration of love
• Every passer-by gives him
• Evgeni Dolmatovski
• From All just begins. Poems and Songs. About
  Light Africa, about Love, Dreamers and Creators.
  Moscow, 1961

• ?????? ? ?????????? ? ??????? ? ?????
• ???? ?? ?????? ??????????/
• ?? ?????? ?????? ????????? ? ?????/ ????? ???
  ?????? ????????
• ???. ????????????.
• ??? ?????? ??????????. ????? ? ?????. ? ???????
  ??????, ? ?????, ?????????? ? ??????????. ?.,
  1961.

13
More naive and simple-hearted variant of
awareness of humaneness towards somebody, who
looks different, is in the popular Soviet time
Pioneers song

• ??? ?????? ????? - Under black skin//
• ? ????? ?????? ???? - Negro also has
  heart//
• ??? ???? ????? - He you know can//
• ???????? ? ?????? - Smile and
  love//
• ? ???????? ?????? - And shout
  out loudly //
• ??, ?????, - ???? ???? - We, Negros, are
  also people//
• ?? ?????? ???? - But our black
  skin //
• ?? ????? ??? ???????? - One cannot justify
  to us

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• For Soviet people, an African was not a real
  person, rather theoretical experience.
• Their attitude to Africans was mostly based on
  books and news. Very seldom they could meet an
  African at streets.
• During the Soviet time Black or African people
  were friendly foreigners, socially close and
  full of merits. This image contrasted with the
  image of alien foreigner, always white, rich
  and fat bourgeois.

15
As a publicist D.Mamedova writes

• Black colour of skin was a proof of positive
  character... Moreover, if he was in the Soviet
  Union, no doubts, he is a true friend, having the
  same amicable attitude to the Soviet people for
  their friendship and sympathy. Despite it was a
  shade of paternalism in this sympathy, it was
  still sincere.i
• i ???????? ??. ????? ????? ?????. ????????,
  ?????? ? ?????????? ? ??????? ????????? ???????.
  // Ex libris ??, 1999, ? 32 (104), ??????

16

• L.Rubinstein supports this view Negros were
  object of public respect and widespread hearty
  sympathy. Good Negro was mythological opponent to
  bad American. Negro is poor, honest, generous and
  kept down. American is rich, malicious, insolent
  and every time brandishes weapon. For everybody
  was clear, that American is paunchy man with his
  legs on the table, with large cigar in mouth and
  sack of dollars in hand. To remove all doubts the
  sack has a tag 1.000.000 . In contrast, Negro
  is usually nice, lean guy with neckerchief, old
  pants and open smile i.
• i ?????????? ?. ?????? ?? ?????? //
  ???????????? ??????. 17 ??? 2002 ?.

17

• Official propaganda represented the images of
  freedom fighters against colonialism tearing away
  the chains of slavery and Soviet people
  supporting them in their struggle. Such images
  could be seen everywhere from children cartoons
  to political posters, from news and documentaries
  to feature films.

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The Soviet cinematograph has also contributed
much to the formation of Images of Africans.

• The feature films Maximka (1952)i, Fifteen
  years old Capitan (1945) and the most famous
  Circus (1936) were ideologically adjusted
  manifestations of proletarian internationalism
  and international solidarity of workers.
• i This film topped the box office in 1953. It
  was watched by 33 million audience.

19
The propaganda put the pressure upon society so
intensively that rare manifestations of racism in
private life were a sort of reaction to official
internationalism a paradoxical form of local
dissidence.
20
Liberal transformation and Blacks image in Russia

• Blacks inside Russia (the popular term for
  people from the Caucasus)
• The Blacks from outside Russia

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The period after disintegration of the Soviet
Union

• a complex social and cultural crisis
• spiritual values as well as standards of
  behaviour, which formed the basis of
  self-identification of a personality, lost their
  significance.
• the loss of meaning of purposes generally
  accepted in the society.
• a collapse of the single national identity the
  Soviet people.
• as a result, many issues of ethnicity,
  nationality and race earlier kept in silence
  and considered a taboo have rapidly acquired an
  unusual salience and topicality.

22
The analysis of the image of an alien" in Russia
on the materials of the mass media

• a concept of the "blacks" is popularly understood
  as "aliens" with a negative accent.
• This concept in Russia is partly connected with
  Africans, but mostly with peoples of Caucasus
  origin as well as with peoples from Asian
  republics of the former Soviet Union.
• To ameliorate the situation mass media replace
  the blacks for person of so called Caucasian
  nationality".
• This term is supposed to legitimate the notion of
  alien", so that it loses its negative emotional
  colouring of the blacks.
• the term has a strong negative tinge in public
  consciousness, as it denotes persons, perception
  of whom is connected with potential danger.
• This feeling is aggravated by the critical
  atmosphere prevailing in particular parts of the
  Caucasian region and by streams of refugees with
  whom a common people connects his troubles.
• The term has an offensive character, but its
  pseudo-official form plays the role of a "fig
  leaf".

23
Considerable proportion of materials about the
"blacks" concentrate on the negative aspects of
social life

• criminality
• violation of administrative regulations
• corruption
• drugs
• diseases, etc.

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All of these are considered to be ethnic
characteristics of suspected. This suggests the
existence of ethnic criminality. Hence, this
develops an ideal situation for sparkling off
hatred towards a particular ethnic group and for
the local population develops an idea of a "black
threat". Quite often such materials contain
examples of hate speech.
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The content analysis of the TV news programs
allows to make the following conclusions

• diversified phobias, both ethnic and social in
  character, have influence upon the Russian
  society.
• the main source of danger in mass opinion is
  migration, and, as result, the dominant phobia is
  a migrant phobia.
• Not always this phobia has a trace of ethnicity.
  But, it is easier to identify it as ethnophobia.

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• The main ethnophobia's object is people from the
  Caucasus (particularly from North Caucasia and
  Transcaucasia).
• So called Caucasian Phobia is a new term,
  appeared recently with increase of Caucasian
  Diaspora in other regions of Russia.
• Some researchers reckon it is the most commonly
  used sort of the ethnophobia in modern Russia.
• Besides, image of profiteer-Caucasian has roots
  in mass perception as far back as Soviet Union
  period. This image provoked (and still provokes)
  negative emotions among people.

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Image of profiteer-Caucasian
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• In mass media materials depersonalization of
  representatives of minorities promotes
  intolerance.
• But individualization/personification
  specifying of names, professions, gender
  characteristics, mention of family, children etc
  contributes to their humanizing and gains the
  sympathy to them.

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The Blacks from outside Russia
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What is the image of Africa and Africans in
Russian mass media?

• the statistics on Africa news coverage by NTV
  Channel1 program Segodnya (Today) of the
  eight-month period from September 1, 2000 till
  May 1, 2001.
• 1 NTV was the leading Russian commercial
  TV-channel, famous for democratic views at that
  period

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• During the period the news program reported 52
  stories about Africa, in which only 22 African
  countries had been mentioned.
• Almost a half of these stories (23) told about
  Africa indirectly.
• As regards emotional influence, out of 52 stories
  6 were positive, 20 neutral and 26 negative.

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Africas media coverage

• Mass media very often use Africa and countries of
  the continent as "terrible matching
• The countries of the continent are usually
  represented as a standard of poverty.
• Stories about leaders, political and public
  persons are very rare.
• The continent is faceless and impersonal.
• Africa at telecast is also amusing and terrible,
  generally corresponding to children's poem
  "Children do not go to Africa for a walk", with a
  detailed set of trapping threats and dangers.

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• Russian mass media, as a rule, present material
  using the pattern of idealised advantages of the
  Western values, which they eagerly apply as a
  standard to other cultures.
• Such an attitude denies originality and values of
  other peoples, predominantly those of Asia and
  Africa.
• As a result, the image of Africa is treated as a
  manifestation of an alien culture, inferior to
  the Russian culture.
• By this contrast between "wild Africa" and
  "civilized countries of the West", Russia is a
  priori associated with the latter.

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Image of South Africa in Russian media

• corresponding to the Western tradition, Russian
  mass media perceive the country as a civilized
• the gleam of hope for the continent.
• or the great white hope
• the idea of South Africa as an outpost of a
  settled, comprehensible and civilized world just
  barely holding out on the edges of a continent of
  incipient savagery and chaos, a land of wealth
  and beauty that just might have a chance of
  becoming a success story.
• Perhaps, this opinion about the South Africa
  motivated Russian mass media to pay more
  attention to the country and even to compare it
  with Russia, sometimes not in favour of Russia.

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Conclusions

• I. Many experts apprehend, that racial practice
  of the West, especially of the United States, as
  it represented in mass media, become a common
  starting point for racial discourse all over
  Europe mainly for the countries with high
  percentage of not-white population, migrants from
  former colonies. Owing to wide distribution of
  new informational technologies and consolidation
  of media holdings, these images could form the
  base of new global culture.

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• Blacks in Russian mass media of the last decade
  of XX century were mainly drug-dealers, refugees,
  illegal immigrants, prisoners.
• Voluntarily or not, but the negative image of
  Black/African people as a criminalized and
  detrimental community has been spread

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• Most part of news focuses on entertainment
  industry, sports, criminality and, sometimes,
  poverty
• It seems, that among blacks (including Africans)
  from one side, one admires beautiful athletes,
  musicians, artists but from the other one sees
  wide spreading criminality and poverty
• Black people engaged in ordinary positions of an
  engineer, a doctor, a farmer, a teacher or
  businessman/woman stay screen-off.

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The Africans are still a sort of wonder and
rarity for many Russians

• Pierre Narcis singer, the famous album The
  Chocolate Hare and the goalkeeper of the Russian
  Champion team AK Bars in hockey (2004) Fred
  Brathwaite