Racism

The racist grafitti here is really starting to piss me off. I haven't seen more neo-Nazi symbolism since...I don't know when. And I used to live in France!

My neighbourhood is solidly Romanian. I'm pretty much the only "minority" and I don't stick out that much. However, that didn't stop someone from drawing a couple of swastikas, white power symbols and "Neo-Nazi" labels on local buildings.

There's some anti-Roma grafitti on the phone booth outside my office. I always ignored it until I saw some anti-Jewish grafitti on the phone next to it (with a half-drawn swastika). It upsets me that I can ignore one form of descrimination but get so furious at another.

Timisoara is so "white" that it reminds me of back home. To date, I've seen about four black people and as many Indians. No Asians. I can tell Roma from non-Roma but I'm sure many are "passing". They don't look so different from the rest of the population (but many have an almost Indian "look", with shorter stature, darker skin and black hair).

I'm hesitant to write about Romanian racism because it's only something I've read about, not something I've seen or experienced. During the Holocaust, in what was arguably the most disgusting incident occuring to the Jewish people, Romanians, followers of an ultra right-wing anti-Semitic leader, invaded a village and kidnapped 200 Jewish members of the community. They forced them to strip and led them into a slaughterhouse where they went through all the motions of being slaughtered like animals. In the 1940s, I doubt slaughterhouses were built with the animals' suffering in mind. I feel like being sick whenever I think about it.

Many Romanians are still prejudiced against the Roma. I've met several Roma through my work here and they've been no different than any other Romanian. Many have Romanian first and last names and speak Romanian as a first language. There are good and bad people everywhere, just like there are good and bad Romanians.

Growing up in eastern Canada, I haven't had a lot of exposure to minorities. I was in grade 12 before I had a non-Caucasian person in my class. In Sweden, I had contact with several Muslims and I became friends with some African girls in my residence at university. It wasn't until I went to Strasbourg that I can say that I lived in a truly multicultural environment. For the first time, I felt like I myself was a minority, surrounded by African and Mahgreb students. Strangely enough, I only saw one anti-Black grafitti ("Blanc et Fier!" ["White and Proud!"]) yet tonnes of swastikas and white power symbols.

I don't get it. Maybe I'm just naive, but what's the point of writing "white power" in a society almost uniformely white? I don't think Romania is the top immigration destination of Africans. The Romanian Jewish population was almost entirely decimated during WWII and while I don't want to say the city is covered in anti-Semitic grafitti, it's too common to be ignored. However, in the Romanian defence, many of the swastikas are X'd out. I don't know who was responsible for it.

Sadly enough, hundreds of thousands or even millions of Roma perished in the Holocaust as well, yet history books like to eliminate or ignore this fact.