· April, 2007

Stories about Ethnicity & Race from April, 2007

France: Expelling Illegal Immigrants

  30 April 2007

Continuing the debate on expelling illegal immigrants living in France, SEMEtt ou l'étincelle noire (Fr) writes about a political asylee who was shipped back to Liberia, a group of long-term illegal immigrants who decided to form an organization to publicly demand naturalization, and how the mass explusions are eroding civil...

Turkey is Typing: The Killings in Malatya

"A handful of monsters walked into a Bible publisher in the Turkish city of Malatya the other day," writes one blogger, describing one of the tragedies which stunned Turkey this week. The brutal killings of three Christian missionaries at a Bible publishing house in Malatya has bloggers across the nation mourning the display of violent intolerance and contrasting the established sanctity of nationhood with the dire need for multi-religious acceptance.

Estonia: “A Russian Rebellion”

  27 April 2007

As Tallinn seems to have entered the second night of rioting over the removal of a Soviet war memorial, here's a blogger's recap (with photos, RUS, by LJ user mrprophet) of what happened the previous night: A Russian rebellion Today I've been to a true Russian rebellion, senseless and relentless....

France: What You May Not Have Read About Voltaire

  27 April 2007

Racisme et Histoire: Le Tabou posts a collection of quotes from some of France's most famous philosophers, writers, and politicians (e.g., Voltaire, Ferry, De Gaulle) you might not read in history books. “I repeat, the super races have a right, because they have only one duty. They have the duty...

France: Rapper Imagines Life as a White Man

  27 April 2007

Regardailleurs blogs screenshots from an hilarious music video (Fr) called “J'suis blanc” (“I'm White”), the latest from French-Congolese hip hop artist Kamini. God comes to Kamini and makes him white for nine and a half weeks and suddenly dealing with “argent, logement, les flics, les gens” (money, housing, cops, people)...

Japan: Reflections on postwar “Child's Play”

  27 April 2007

Debito reproduces a passage from John Dower's famous book “Embracing Defeat” dealing with the games children played in post-WW2 Japan, including “holding a mock black market, playing prostitute and customer, and recreating left-wing political demonstrations.” Debito comments that Dower's account “is something rarely considered in historical accounts: The barometer of...

Kurdistance: A Week Like Any Other

The news coming out of the Kurdish blogs this week is as varied as the landscape of Kurdistan itself. From predictions on Syrian Kurd alliances with Israel, to censorship in Turkey; from explorations of Northern Iraq, to essays on intolerance, the Kurdish bloggers cover it all. But for this week, I think we will begin with why, to Kurds, April is considered as the "Bride of the Year".

Korean bloggers on Virgina Tech shooter Cho Seung-hui

  27 April 2007

Since the Virginia Tech massacre on April 16, 2007, it’s not hard to guess that the South Korea-born shooter, Cho Seung-hui, and what he did are among the hottest issues for Korean bloggers. As the visual shock of the mass murder is fading from the headlines, the angle from which bloggers are viewing the case has been changing.

The French Presidential Election: A View From Outside the Metropole

  26 April 2007

This weekend, more than 60 million French cast their ballots in the first round of the French presidential election, narrowing the list of candidates to two: conservative UMP candidate Nicolas Sarkozy and Socialist Party candidate Segolene Royal. Both face a run-off vote on May 6th. In the five years since...

Arabeyes: Palestinian Jordanian Anyone?

Jordanian blogger Hareega is furious that people avoid discussing racism in his society. He is particularly angry about the discrimination Jordanians of Palestinian origin go through in a country he claims they have helped build and project to the level it is today. يبدو أن الناس بشكل عام تتفادى الخوض...

Namibia: memories of apartheid Namibia

  24 April 2007

iScatterlings’ It’s a Namibian Thing VII: “A lot has been said about apartheid but not too much was mentioned about the white on white apartheid. I suppose it was inevitable in a town like ours to have two distinct factions created. English and Afrikaans. Us kids pepetuated the divide and...

Lebanon: Anti-Semitism, Fist-Fights, etc

Check out the following topics freshly picked from the Lebanese blogosphere this week: an intense argument between American University of Beirut professors, sectarian polarisation in Lebanon and the Virginia Tech shooting which claimed the lives of 33 people, including two of Lebanese origin.

China: Blame Canada?

  23 April 2007

Google seizes up before any results appear in a search for 'Celil,' 'Canada' (in Chinese) and '2007,' fitting given that a proxified search turns up no Chinese language media reports from websites that can be readily viewed within China. It's a different story, as usual, for a Google search which includes the word blog.

Bahrain: On the Great Wall of Adhamiya

Bahraini blogger emoodz wonders whether the US got the inspiration for erecting the Great Wall of Adhamiya in Iraq from the movie 300. “So much for the democracy practiced in Iraq, a wall that is being built along sectarian lines against the will of the Iraqi people in hope of...

Greece: The Roma

  20 April 2007

Romania International Media Watch links to a blog on discrimination of the Roma population of Greece – The Roma Series, by Devious Diva: “Unfortunately, there is seems to be very little tolerance in the Greek society for Roma people or/and especially for people like DD who have been writing about...