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The European Vertical: The blue arrows represent contempt.
Vladimir Arsenijević recently wrote an interesting article about the relationship between Serbs and Albanians called “Our negroes, our enemies.” Ethnic relations in the former Yugoslavia are just a big fat depressing mess, and this article does a great job of tackling the particularly bad feelings surrounding Kosovo.
He also mentions the “European vertical,” or the “Yugoslavian brand of racism”, which was:
… always directed at those who were on the next rung down geographically and economically. Hence the Slovenians showed the contempt they felt for the country bumpkins, idlers or failures of the other republics most clearly towards the Croatians; the Croatians for their part passed it on to the Serbs; and the latter, in turn, took pleasure in making fun of the Macedonians or Montenegrins. The Bosnians, on the other hand, as the people who inhabited the centre of the Republic of Yugoslavia, were the object of mockery from all sides.
I don’t agree with his assessment later on of Albanians as “absolute outsiders” because I can think of another group that is even further away outside. It’s still a fascinating article and a great introduction to the Kosovo problem.
And while we’re on the subject, Viktor recently put together one of the greatest posts ever, regarding Serbian conspiracy theories about Kosovo and the world. It’s a must-read.
[Via A Fistful of Euros]
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It’s not just in the Balkans. Check this handy set of charts:
old.exile.ru/151/materials/europeans-chart.html
Really excellent article. I had to link to it on my site. While I disagree with his conclusion to just “wait it out” I did find it very informative. I hope others are looking for real lasting solutions.
This is the link with the story:
old.exile.ru/151/1510101113.html
When I first saw this, I commented that one description is missing: NRH (Not Really Human). This is what all the people from one group thinks of the people from other groups, and the further the group in question is, less human they are.
I read “Our Negroes, Our Enemies” a few weeks back, very interesting article. Reminded me of a couple things, the first when I worked in a restaurant in Athens, OH, where one of my co-workers was a Macedonian woman who was always talking about Albanians. I explained to others that many Yugoslavs (this was a year or two before the country imploded) held a racist attitude towards Albanians. Her well-reasoned response? “I am not a racist, but all Albanians are shit and they should be shot like shit.”
The other was a visit to SLO shortly after independence, and listening to my cousins telling Bosnian jokes at the dinner table while brutal news reports were humming in the background.
Italy - there’s a case in point.
Germany has some, too…
The UK has multiple versions of this; it also has the inverse, because the southeast is the bitterly resented rich elite.