Thursday, July 16, 2009
Russians reject Obama, snub shaking hands
Of course, this was not reported in America. The refusal to welcome Obama in the traditional manner was obviously deliberate, because they ALL refused Obama but they ALL shook Medvedev's hand, who was right behind Obama. Obama was visibly upset at the snub. A unified refusal to shake hands in diplomatic world is a huge signal. Just why the Russians were upset is to be determined...time will tell.
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The Russians did not shake Obama's hand because he is black, and all of Russia's institutions, particularly government, are rampant with racism and discrimination as anyone who has even remotely followed developments in Russia over the last decade knows.
Here in the United States, immigrants, illegal and legal, are marginalized, criticized, ostracized, etc. But in Russia, immigrants, especially those of color, are literally killed every day, openly, in public, and nothing is done. Again, this is not a secret. Even a casual perusal of the topic will yield many, many accounts of such instances and recognition of the problem in Russia.
So, there is no great conspiracy here. The Russian delegation and government is filled at all levels with people who do not just secretly harbor feelings of racism while outwardly displaying otherwise as we are accustomed to here in the U.S., but in Russia the racism is held, as we can see, overtly, in the open.
Indeed, that Obama does not return the discriminatory reprehensible gesture and continues to offer his hand to each individual is to his credit.
The reality is that if Obama were visiting Russia not as a black President, but as a black or other immigrant of color (and frankly, even an immigrant not of color), he very likely would be killed within months of his arrival and no investigation, much less prosecution, would befall his killers.
Discrimination and violence against immigrants and people of color is on par with 1930's Germany. Indeed, it may be much worse, as the tolerance of the violence and discrimination so thoroughly permeates throughout all Russian institutions. That the racism rises to a level where a Russian delegation is comfortable extending such an outward, public display of discrimination to even a visiting head of state, and a U.S. President at that, only demonstrates how serious the problem of racism and discrimination in Russia is.
Thank you for your comment Dima. No, not a conspiracy but at the Prime Minister and Presidential levels one would expect diplomatic protocols to override personal prejudices.
I was unaware of the racism issue in Russia. Straightway after reading your thoughtful comment I found this-
"Not only are Western media well behind the curve in reporting on the epidemic of race violence in Russia, but Western political leaders are woefully deficient in responding to it. The Moscow Bureau of Human Rights estimates there have been 110 xenophobic murders in Russia so far this year, compared to 74 last year."
http://www.americanthinker.com/2009/01/resurgent_racism_in_russia.html
And those estimates of racial violence are extremely low. I mean "off the charts" kind of low. The murders of immigrants are a daily occurrence and are fully tolerated by the police and government and society as a whole.
Thanks Dima. I am sure they are way under-reported. Shocking that this kind of violence is tolerated and also that it is so unknown. We always hear about the clashes between Christian and Muslim in Indonesia and Africa but these attacks on black people in Russia because of race is just as awful.
I think the truth is Obama was introducing Americans to Russian's president
This isn't true. Check snopes.
http://www.snopes.com/politics/obama/snubbed.asp
The people not shaking Obama's hand are AMERICANS. They are not doing so, because Obama is introducing the President of Russia, and they are shaking his hand. Obama's hand gestures are him introducing various people of the AMERICAN delegate to the Russian president.
You can see the other half of the video on Snopes.
I do not like snopes as they have not proved to be accurate. However, I took another look and did another blog entry titled "Rethinking the Obama snub" and debunked it myself, here--
http://elizabethprata.blogspot.com/2009/07/rethinking-obama-handshake-snub.html
thank you for reading!
Russians are not to be trusted. They have a BIG chip on their shoulders with regard to the United States, and mope around about "loosing the Cold War". They don't seem very intent on helping themselves solve their own problems, and rather view America as some sort of threat or reason for their problems. Not to be trusted at all!
When has snopes proven to not be accurate?
I hear the accusation all the time, but I have never been presented with a clear case of Snopes being wrong about an internet rumor and then not immediately correcting it.
Oh My God!! This is absolutely ridiculous.. I fear that might be this same reason that the famous director Jeeva would have been murdered..
Just watch this...sheesh
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=obaErd-jUl0
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