European Perspective

European Perspective

by Robert Kolakowski

I do not claim that I can speak for the whole Europe. I am a Polish man. I am the most familiar with the Central-Eastern Europe. I can paint a picture of Europe, but it will be only a partial representation of the complex national and racial politics in Europe.

Due to a low number of non-white and multiracial people in most of European countries, with the exception of the United Kingdom, France, and Netherlands, national concerns transgress racial concerns. Besides the national conflicts (for example in the Northern Ireland between the Irish and the Protestants, in Bosnia, in Belgium between the French speaking population and the Walloon population, or in Spain the Basque region), there is a deeper division between the Western and Eastern Europe based sometimes on false and sometimes on true subracial ( i.e.: types of humans) differences, but really caused by the having their roots in the 17-th century economic differences.

The problem with the Multiracial versus the one drop of blood rule is certainly known to Europe. I believe that this problem is less acute in the Eastern Europe, since Eastern Europeans are neither are treated as racially pure whites, nor usually are. The truth is, however, far from the overexagguration of some of Western European racialists. Eastern Europeans have some genetic non-Indo-European influences, but for examples in the case of Poles, like me. they were minimal, and in the case of Russians greater, but still not dominant. Due to the above mentioned reasons, Eastern Europeans are more likely to look at a multiracial person, as a multiracial person, and not as at, for instance, black person. However, it does not mean that there are no racists or skinheads in the Eastern Europe.

In the Western Europe, which at least believes into its 100% whiteness, the problem is more acute because once you believe that anything not a 100% white is not white at all, then you will not treat a person of for example white and black parents as partially white, but as a totally non-white person, therefore a black person. This problem, however, is not as acute as it could be in some parts of the Western Europe, like the western part of Germany, because of good economic conditions that make people more tolerant and caring less for ideologies. This problem is also lessened by the racial politics of some countries. For example until recently, or perhaps even now, France does not allow any racial statistics, thus legally making any its citizen, in spite of his or her appearance, just French.

However, the problem is more acute in the … former Eastern Germany. Why ? Because after communism fell, and the economic conditions did not quickly improve, as it was expected after the unification, Eastern Germans started to hark to the “ol’good times of the Nazi Third Reich.”

As you can see the acceptance of multiracial people as multiracial people depends on many factors. The situation in Europe is even more complicated than in the United States because in addition to racial problems, there are ages old national and sub-racial problems. However, there are a few rules that seem to control the readiness of a society to accept the Multiracials. First is if the society has been influenced by non-whites, or people treated as not racially pure. Second is the economic conditions of the society. Third is the racial politics of the government.

Copyright © 1998 The Multiracial Activist. All rights reserved.

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