Racism in Russia

Amazing pod. A sobering look at a country I love, although I do think it would could have been more balanced had you interviewed some white Russians. You might enjoy my piece about breakdancing in Russia.

Thanks for this story. It's a powerful portrayal of the realities faced by African migrants in Russia...

Editing, sound, music presents the story in a powerful way...

great work...props. I think the video definitely nailed the issue - law enforcement, or lack of there of. I don't agree with the previous comment which compared the US to Russia in this aspect. Racism is rooted in the US history; Russia has opened its borders in early 90's, and, unfortunatelly, commuism was not the only one to go...

wow..im glad i wondered upon your pods, their really grandoise. who would have known, u never here anything about this..and the sad thing is the racist are getting what they want..hence black people dont want to live there and see Russia as a pitt stop..a dangerous one at that.

Excellent work... I'd love to get your opinion on our video: link

I had no idea. wow. GL

i am a student studying here in moscow, and i must say , that finally some people are beginning to take notice !!.
we are not told about the racist conditions before we arrive, and what makes the matter even worse, it that racism is also faced in the class room. teachers judge you, and somtimes even grade you , based on the fact that you are black.
i think that a piece should also be done on that.
people need to seriously begin to take notice, the international community needs to begin taking action. it is the only way forward.
it is not as though the russian officials don't know, they do, and some even condone it.
may God protect us in this country

I had no idea about Russia. I've done quite a lot of travleing all around the world and have been to 42 states in america. United states is given such a bad rep for being racist when I've come to the conclusion that they are one of the least racist countries.

This was fantastic. It's something I never knew about, now I'm glad that I do.

Big GL from. Very strong piece. Your interviews of the African victims are very effective. This is a story we won't hear in the mainstream media. Thank you for bringing it to us.

These comments are nit picky; but I feel as though I don't know who the Caucasian interviewees are. Who are they? What makes them special on in this subject matter. Are they Russian? They sound American to me.

Also, it would have been nice to set up the correspondents/reporters face after the initial montage. I feel like she was introduced in the middle of the piece, instead of the beginning. I know she's not the story, but she's who's bringing the story to me. I want to trust her.

This would be much stronger if you interviewd some ethnic Russians. If you just listened to this piece you'd have no idea that it was in Russia.

I wish I could say I enjoyed this piece because it is so well done but because so much of this kind of thing is going on in so many places in the world it is hard for me to not react strongly and feel a mixture of anger and sadness.. Very well done piece. GL. It needs to be seen.

This is powerful. I had no idea. Nice work. GL from me for sure.

Nicely done. It's visually appealing and carefully thought through. I especially liked the "social displacement" explanation. Clearly, there is something amiss in the Russian culture, whether it's scarcity, political instability or just plain fear for the future, it's sad to see black men and women taking the brunt of it.

A filmmaking note, if I may. In the front third of the film, during the "social diplacement" analysis, there are a series of cutaway shots, designed to provide a montage of visuals during what would otherwise be a "talking head." This was the only weak part of the pod. There was a static shot of a Soviet-looking tank, then an out-of-focus crowd shot. I think you'd be better served with more dynamic shots as cut-aways, and shots that illustrate the same topic as the interview playing on the sound track. If the track is talking about "social dislocation" you might try to photograph a series of shots of Russians in a busy public setting reacting to Africans. Maybe the Russians are photographed shopping for scarce grocery items and they end up in conflict with Africans. The reactions are what matter.

Otherwise, the interviews are revealing and the specific examples given are heart-felt and the interviewers are persistent.

Great work!

your work is always excellent....btw.. I have a friend who is a black russian..no joke.. I could not believe it and I told him how rare it must be, he thinks its normal.... his father is nigerian, his mother is russian, he was raised in moscow and loves african highlife music. I am going to show him this, I am so curious to see how he will react. I look forward to more pieces from you.

whats dumb is that on a world wide scale, whites are the minority

One way to solve this problem is for the respective African countries from which these black students came from is to put pressure on President Putin to shit or get off the pot and protect and punish those who harm their citizen's.
If not.
China, who is attempting to make political and economic in-roads into the African continent are more than willing to take these black students who in my opinion will be an asset to any society and put them through their very fine educational system.
It's worth a try but the African governments must put their foot down with the Kremlin.

Thanks for bringing awereness about such an important issue like this. It certainly deserves a massive audience. GL from me.

Great job.

I just do not understand why you are hated for the color of your skin, what if everyone hated each other becuase of the color of their skin, I think we would destroy the world for sure.

Wow, great job. Good subject manner and well done interviews.

Good story, sad story. GL

Very moving. Every classroom in America (and the Soviet Union so they would be embarrassed) should see this.

I didn't know that they were that racist in Russia. Good story.
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Very well done on a little known story. You can't have freedom without justice. Would love to know more. GL!

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GL. Great pod. Issues like this need to be exposed world wide, not just because it happens there, but because it happens at all. Well done.

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Awesome - kudos to you and to the Current staff for picking this video so soon after it was uploaded.

this is painfully shocking and belongs on the forefront of our social discourse. thanks for bringing it to light.

Good story, all told. I'd like a little bit more corroboration at points, particularly about the dorm fire -- students think it was a racist attack, but why? What reasons do they give? Nevertheless, this is something that hasn't been touched on much here, so big GL from me.

I was in Eastern Europe (Latvia) for some time a while back and the contrasts: ultrarich and ravaged poor, Latvian nationalisits and Russian aliens, and the "old Europe" and "new Europe" was very apparent. It's almost if that after the wall fell, there was hyper growth in a "steriod-western" type mentality. I appreciate your video. Thank you.

GL from me as well. This is scary stuff.

Shola

Very powerful pod.... very powerful.

WOW! I had no idea this was going on thank you so much for making this pod.
One technical comment: turn down the background music a bit especially during the interviews and boost the sound of the interviews. They are really important and I'm having some trouble hearing them, GL!! ALL THE WAY!