Thread by @kamilkazani

Regarding the ethnic hierarchy in Russia. It's not some objective system like the Social Credit. There is of course a broad understanding of who stands higher or lower and the darker your skin is, the lower you are. Nevertheless, privilege and underprivilege are often situational

Example. I knew an Armenian technician from Avtovaz, the largest car producer in Russia located in Samara Oblast. His career wasn't going well and he explained it by his ethnicity:

"If I was some Tukhvatullin ("...ullin" = Tatar surname), I'd have been promoted long ago" said he

What did an Armenian technician mean by that? He didn't mean that Armenians "objectively" stand lower than Tatars. He implied that Armenians don't form a big interest group in Avtovaz. There are too few of them there to form a lobby. There is no Armenian network there to fit in

If you are Armenian, it makes sense to join the Armenian network. But in many places, like the Middle Volga machinery cluster, Armenian networks don't really exist. The Tatar ones do though. So in this specific business and area, it's situationally more advantageous to be a Tatar

Again, the more advantageous position of a Tatar over an Armenian is situational. You come to a factory and join your ethnic network. Or you come and see there's no ethnic network to join. In some other business like the medicine in Moscow, it could be the other way around though

While much of privilege and under-privilege is situational, there's an objective hierarchy, too. To put it simply, the whiter you are, the better. The darker you are, the worse. That's very clear and objective

I know it well, because I am white passing. As a result, I was never stopped by the police, or demanded a bribe. My friends who are darker are stopped literally every day.

One scenario:

Show me your documents -> We detain you for 48 hours to establish your identity [or pay us]

Another problem is accommodation. There's a lot of memes with a common topic:

"How you should look to rent an apartment in Moscow"

The context is that many (most?) adverts are "Slavs-only" (только славянам). So these memes show "perfect renters" - cartoonishly exaggerated Slavs

If you google "только славянам", you will see tons of adverts: both from landlords and from renters. This is indeed very common

That's a big topic in large Russian cities and indeed the battles are being fought over it. This complaint from a probably Azeri potential renter and the response of Avito website may be illustrative of it

Interestingly enough, the largest real estate website ЦИАН prohibited "only for Slavs" adverts in early 2022. Why?

To place an IPO at the New York Stock Exchange. They introduced measures against the ethnic discrimination, just to abide by the rules of the US capitalists

"Only for Slavs" adverts should be interpreted situationally, within the cultural context. Poles may be easily excluded. This Polish guy was surprised to find out that he doesn't satisfy the "Only for Slavs" requirement

Russian realities may look rather absurd for a Westerner. Here you see the Jewish Museum and Center for Tolerance in Moscow advert. They are looking for a bartender of "Slavic appearance"

Very tolerant, indeed. A worker doesn't need to be Slavic, just look Slavic. That's enough

If "Slavs" or people of "Slavic appearance" form the most privileged group in Russia, getting a preferential access to jobs, accommodation, career, etc, then who would occupy the lowest places?

The "Blacks". NB: "Blacks" are not Africans, those are "Negroes"

Interestingly enough, while in the English language, the N. word is offensive and the Black sounds neutral, in Russian it may be the other way around. "Negro" word may be neutral, while "Black" (черный) is always very offensive and dehumanising

These guys are obviously "Black"

"Black" is a synonym of a "wetback": the dark skinned underclass on the bottom of social ladder

I would recommend you to watch the Ravshan and Jamshut episodes here, as a crash course into the Russian ethnic hierarchy. They are the epitome of Blackness

While the Blackness has social and anthropological overtones: the dark skinned underclass from the South working on poorly paid manual jobs, it has a purely religious aspect, too. Generally speaking, Christianity kinda whitens you, while Islam makes you very much more Black

This is reflected in memes, too. Consider this photo of Kadyrov with the Fourteen Words - the white nationalist slogan.

That looks very funny. The joke is that:

1) they may seem to be white
2) while in fact, they're 100% Black

Islam makes you Black and Chechens are super Black

White vs Black dichotomy largely shapes the public consciousness and the internal discourse in Russia. Much of the right wing criticism of Putin is that he is too soft on Blacks. By the way, did you notice you never see a discussion about the criticism of Putin *from the right*?

Narrative on Russia is controlled by the media establishment of Moscow. And this media establishment is too invested into the alliance with the far right, who are advocating for a new crusade on Blackness. I'll elaborate it in my material on the "liberal" opposition. The end