African Americans and the Soviet Indictment of US Racism

[theworldismine13]

Opposing Jim Crow: African Americans and the Soviet Indictment of US Racism, 1928-1937

In December 1958, US Senator Hubert H. Humphery recalled that at some point during an eight hour meeting with Nikita Khrushchev, the Soviet Premier “tore off on a whole long lecture” that the Senator wished he could remember because it was “the best speech I could ever make in my life on antiracialism. Boy, he really gave me a talking to.” Thus beings Meredith Roman‘s fascinating book Opposing Jim Crow: African Americans and the Soviet Indictment of US Racism, 1928-1937 (Nebraska UP, 2012). At first read, the image of animated Khrushchev haranguing a US Senator with “the best speech” the latter ever heard on the topic of race seems out of place, odd, and to some extent even comical. After all, what could Khrushchev really have known about race in America to impress an American?

Khrushchev’s fluency in “speaking antiracism” was no mere preformative dig at the United States. In fact, many African American travelers and expatriates to the Soviet Union in the 1930s were astonished how much its citizens knew and were concerned about American race relations. In Opposing Jim Crow, Roman shows that antiracism was a genuine vernacular constructed through show trials, antiracist campaigns, media, and representations of racial oppression in the United States. It was through American racism that the USSR was crafted into a morally superior, raceless society. Nothing reinforced this idea more than the adoption of Soviet antiracist discourse by American Americans visitors, expatriates, and sympathizers themselves. But more importantly, it was via these multiple intersections that speaking antiracism became an important, and until now ignored, component in the effort to create new Soviet people in the 1930s.

 

[Mr swag]

they are the most racist people on earth

 

[714562]

It was all for show, much the same way that Islamic terrorists try to divert attention from their medieval ideas by talking about American divorce rates and such.

 

[Type Username Here]

they are the most racist people on earth

For sure. The Soviets were ahead of America in a lot of ways socially though, especially in terms of women's rights.

But you're an idiot if you believe those people gave a shyt about African Americans causes.

 

[theworldismine13]

of course its BS, thats why i dont get down with people trying to use "progressive" political parties as a litmus test for blackness

 

[zerozero]

the evidence is a lot of people outside the united states did care about the african american cause. their societies don't have to be perfect to point out objective problems with america's. the whole anti- and post-colonial movement was involved because a lot of the problems they faced were the same

 

[Type Username Here]

the evidence is a lot of people outside the united states did care about the african american cause. their societies don't have to be perfect to point out objective problems with america's. the whole anti- and post-colonial movement was involved because a lot of the problems they faced were the same

:ndt:

 

[zerozero]

:ndt:

you guys are ignorant of the history. there's a reason all the anti colonial movements and postcolonial countries in the east gravitated towards the USSR. america was on the side of the french, brits, etc

 

[The Real]

In the Soviet Union, remnants of national and racial prejudice from the old society were attacked by education and law. It was a crime to give or receive direct or indirect privileges, or to exercise discrimination because of race or nationality. Any manifestation of racial or national superiority was punishable by law and was regarded as a serious political offense, a social crime.

During my entire stay in the Soviet Union, I encountered only one incident of racial hostility. It was on a Moscow streetcar. Several of us Black students had boarded the car on our way to spend an evening with out friend MacCloud. It was after rush hour and the car was only about half filled with Russian passengers. As usual, we were subjects of friendly curiosity. At one stop, a drunken Russian staggered aboard. Seeing us, he muttered (but loud enough for the whole car to hear) something about ‘Black devils in our country.’

A group of outraged Russian passengers thereupon seized him and ordered the motorman to stop the car. It was a citizen’s arrest, the first I had ever witnessed. ‘How dare you, you scum, insult people who are guests in our country!’…

‘No, citizens,’ said a young man (who had done most of the talking), ‘drunk or not, we don’t allow this sort of thing in our country…’”
- Harry Haywood, a Black Communist, writing about racism in the Soviet Union in his autobiography Black Bolshevik: Autobiography of an Afro-American Communist

If you read Paul Robeson's writings, he also mentions that he was treated with great respect and experienced little to no racism during his trips to the Soviet Union.

The USSR also offered free educations and excellent jobs to many Africans during the period of African Nationalism and decolonization.

All of these things are strategic, first and foremost, but my feeling is that they did end up curtailing racism there to some extent, though since the 90s it's been back on the rise, thanks to the nationalist revival. Back then, the Soviet Communist agenda was an internationalist one. Pretty much all their allies were countries with very different racial and cultural makeups- Cuba, China, etc. Obviously there was racism and antisemitism there back then, too, but I don't get the feeling it was the same as it would become during the nationalist revival.

Here's an article on the subject (the source is explicitly Socialist, but the article remains balanced): Black In The Ussr -- New Internationalist

 

[Type Username Here]

you guys are ignorant of the history. there's a reason all the anti colonial movements and postcolonial countries in the east gravitated towards the USSR. america was on the side of the french, brits, etc

I'm not arguing that. I'm saying it's stupid to believe the USSR or Communist countries really gave a shyt.

Che is the perfect example of this. Motherfukker was extremely racist and homophobic.

 

[Julius Skrrvin]

 

[theworldismine13]

you guys are ignorant of the history. there's a reason all the anti colonial movements and postcolonial countries in the east gravitated towards the USSR. america was on the side of the french, brits, etc

what is it that we are ignorant about? the fundamental point is that there is no such thing as permanent friends or enemies only permanent interests

 

[zerozero]

I'm not arguing that. I'm saying it's stupid to believe the USSR or Communist countries really gave a shyt.

Che is the perfect example of this. Motherfukker was extremely racist and homophobic.

well I don't know about what's in the heart of everybody. But I don't think it's hard for an outsider to feel sympathy for somebody being discriminated against in another place even if they're oppressing someone themselves. It's a common phenomenon.

 

[Type Username Here]

what is it that we are ignorant about? the fundamental point is that there is no such thing as permanent friends or enemies only permanent interests

Don't really understand zerozero's stance.

He said on the other thread that the US chooses who to side with here and there according to their interests (which is true) but then he seems to be advocating that the USSR did this out of actual sympathy for the African American cause.

 

[theworldismine13]

In the Soviet Union, remnants of national and racial prejudice from the old society were attacked by education and law. It was a crime to give or receive direct or indirect privileges, or to exercise discrimination because of race or nationality. Any manifestation of racial or national superiority was punishable by law and was regarded as a serious political offense, a social crime.

During my entire stay in the Soviet Union, I encountered only one incident of racial hostility. It was on a Moscow streetcar. Several of us Black students had boarded the car on our way to spend an evening with out friend MacCloud. It was after rush hour and the car was only about half filled with Russian passengers. As usual, we were subjects of friendly curiosity. At one stop, a drunken Russian staggered aboard. Seeing us, he muttered (but loud enough for the whole car to hear) something about ‘Black devils in our country.’

A group of outraged Russian passengers thereupon seized him and ordered the motorman to stop the car. It was a citizen’s arrest, the first I had ever witnessed. ‘How dare you, you scum, insult people who are guests in our country!’…

‘No, citizens,’ said a young man (who had done most of the talking), ‘drunk or not, we don’t allow this sort of thing in our country…’”
- Harry Haywood, a Black Communist, writing about racism in the Soviet Union in his autobiography Black Bolshevik: Autobiography of an Afro-American Communist

If you read Paul Robeson's writings, he also mentions that he was treated with great respect and experienced little to no racism during his trips to the Soviet Union.

The USSR also offered free educations and excellent jobs to many Africans during the period of African Nationalism and decolonization.

All of these things are strategic, first and foremost, but my feeling is that they did end up curtailing racism there to some extent, though since the 90s it's been back on the rise, thanks to the nationalist revival. Back then, the Soviet Communist agenda was an internationalist one. Pretty much all their allies were countries with very different racial and cultural makeups- Cuba, China, etc. Obviously there was racism and antisemitism there back then, too, but I don't get the feeling it was the same as it would become during the nationalist revival.

Here's an article on the subject (the source is explicitly Socialist, but the article remains balanced): Black In The Ussr -- New Internationalist

yeah exactly, communism was very attractive to african americans but communist ideology is still garbage