Race and racism in Kosovo: An Afro-Latina United states woman’s perspective

The way that is best to cope with racism in Kosovo is always to focus the discussion on Kosovo’s own racialized minorities. Remedy for foreigners of color may be area of the discussion without dominating it.

Summer time of 2015 was the time that is first stumbled on Kosovo. I became 18 plus it had been my time that is first leaving united states of america.

Upon showing up in Kosovo we instantly became keenly alert to my hyper-visibility. My locks, nose, lips and human body framework had been completely different through the Kosovar females we encountered. For all, I became initial woman that is black had ever met in true to life. We constantly received compliments to my black colored features. This is specially strange for me personally because I originate from a tradition where my features are thought unsightly.

Street harassment to my experience in Kosovo also offers very gendered and racial aspects. The road harassment in Kosovo is brutal for the majority of women, irrespective of cultural history, but my blackness adds another layer to that particular. Guys would usually follow me personally and scream the names of random female that is black. I obtained familiar with hearing, “Beyonce! Rihanna!” when I moved by categories of males. As soon as a vehicle high in guys began yelling, “baby mama drama!” at me personally, talking about a stereotype that is american black colored feminine promiscuity. This label, which Kosovars when you look at the vehicle may have not really known, performs from the trope associated with the black colored girl who’s got numerous children from a variety of dads and spends her time constantly running after the various fathers and causing “drama.”

After my very very very first day at Kosovo in 2015 we made the individual choice to adhere to Islamic gown code directions, which include the headscarf. For me personally, it had been an visit the site approach to reclaim my own body from the male gaze. In of this year, I returned to Kosovo january. We hoped that my way that is new of would be described as a deterrent from road harassment. This ended up being entirely untrue. Admittedly, the harassment is significantly lower than it had been in 2015. Nonetheless, males regarding the road remain just like bold. Now I have catcalled with Islamic phrases like “Selam alejkum” and “Mashallah.” We have had men ask me personally for coffee and will not just just take “no” for a solution. We have additionally had individuals follow me personally home on one or more occasion.

We blame most of the harassment that is sexual face in Kosovo on US news usage. Awhile ago I became during the cinema viewing the Fast that is new film. All of the women of color were oversexualized throughout the film. Us news seldom illustrates ladies of color as any thing more than things or props. Whenever you’re coping with a society who has small experience of ladies of color, it has an important effect on their perceptions and presumptions. International ladies of color in Kosovo end up being the exotic, intimate things for a lot of males in Kosovo. Kosovar males must be held accountable also, nevertheless. The origins of intimate harassment result from profoundly embedded, sexist views about females. Although sexual harassment in Kosovo may be racialized, the nagging issue it self is pervasive across cultural lines.

The desire for black colored womanhood is reflected in a complete lot of popular Kosovar music. Inside her videos, age Istrefi usually wears hairstyles that are black as dreads and package braids. Her music and emulates that are dance-style musicians and many even call her the Albanian Rihanna. The sight of a white woman imitating black womanhood would bring accusations of cultural appropriation in the United States. Nonetheless, social appropriation is a concern of privilege. Privilege is because social inequality and it is centered on historic and oppressions that are systematic prefer specific teams over other people. Whenever a group that is privileged the tradition of a underprivileged group, it decreases the underprivileged team to harmful stereotypes and additional reinforces their marginalized status.

In america, discussions about privilege and social appropriation frequently belong to a white/person-of-color (POC) binary. The colonialist and imperialist tendencies of white European nations have actually mainly targeted populations that are non-white. Therefore, in america and Western Europe we speak about white individuals being more privileged than people-of-color (non-white individuals). Albanians complicate this binary to a large degree because although they are white Europeans, they don’t have a comprehensive reputation for dominating other countries. In reality, they’ve been victims of imperialist and colonial forces that we frequently ascribe to Europeans.

Furthermore, Albanians have actually experienced comparable systematic discrimination that a number of other non-white populations faced. In Yugoslavia, they truly became a racialized other simply because they lacked Slavic origins. Into the ‘90s Albanians faced discrimination that is systematic excluded them from jobs, schools and federal government. These people were victims of authorities brutality and mass cleansing that is ethnic. With this specific reputation for victimization, we believe it is wholly unproductive to make use of the white/POC binary to ascribe privilege onto Albanians in Kosovo because i actually do perhaps not actually think it exists. In reality, being A us makes me more privileged than Kosovars in a complete large amount of means. Within Kosovo, we have actually usage of jobs that are many organizations by virtue of my nationality. In addition are able to travel easily as a result of my US passport.

This brings me personally back into my initial concern: just how do I critique Kosovar Albanian performers and performers whom absorb areas of black colored tradition to their work?

However, i believe the way that is best to manage problematic racial notions in Kosovo is always to focus on a population that Kosovar Albanians are much more knowledgeable about, the Roma. Roma are discriminated against atlanta divorce attorneys part of Kosovar racism and society against them is available and normalized. Centering dialogues about racism and race in Kosovo on international folks of color is completely unproductive and profoundly problematic. The treating foreigners of color may be area of the discussion without dominating it. Contextualizing racism in this means will lay the building blocks for wider talks about competition and foreigners. I do believe first and foremost a conversation that is internal become started between civil culture companies, activists, plus the Kosovo government. Furthermore, the community that is international Kosovo has to get this discussion a concern. Any talks on competition in Kosovo which do not concentrate on racialized minorities who really are now living in Kosovo will never arrived at fruition.