The way that is best to manage racism in Kosovo would be to center the discussion on Kosovo’s own racialized minorities. Remedy for foreigners of color are the main discussion without dominating it.
Summer time of 2015 ended up being the first-time we found Kosovo. I became 18 and it also ended up being my time that is first leaving usa.
Upon showing up in Kosovo we straight away became keenly alert to my hyper-visibility. My hair, nose, lips and the body framework had been completely different through the Kosovar ladies I encountered. For a lot of, I became the very first black colored girl they had ever met in true to life. We constantly received compliments back at my black colored features. It was specially strange in my situation because I originate from a tradition where my features are thought unsightly.
My knowledge about road harassment in Kosovo has also very gendered and racial aspects. The road harassment in Kosovo is brutal for many females, aside from cultural history, but my blackness adds another layer to that particular. Guys would frequently follow me personally and scream the names of random female that is black. I acquired familiar with hearing, “Beyonce! Rihanna!” when I moved by categories of guys. When a car or truck saturated in guys began yelling, “baby mama drama!” at me, talking about a us label about black colored female promiscuity. This stereotype, which Kosovars when you look at the vehicle may have not really known, performs regarding the trope associated with the black colored girl who has got numerous young ones from a lot of different dads and spends her time constantly chasing after different dads and causing “drama.”
After my very very first visit to Kosovo in 2015 we made the individual choice to follow Islamic gown code tips, which include the headscarf. It 
was a way to reclaim my body from the male gaze for me. In January of the 12 months, We came back to Kosovo. We hoped that my brand new method of dressing would be a deterrent from road harassment. This turned into totally untrue. Admittedly, the harassment is significantly lower than it had been in 2015. Nonetheless, guys in the road continue to be in the same way bold. Now we have catcalled with Islamic phrases like “Selam alejkum“Mashallah and”.” We have had men ask me personally for coffee and will not just take “no” for a solution. We have also had individuals follow me personally home on more than one event.
I blame a lot of the intimate harassment We face in Kosovo on US news consumption. Awhile ago I happened to be during the cinema viewing the brand new Fast & Furious film. All of the women of color were oversexualized throughout the film. Us media seldom depicts females of color as any thing more than things or props. Whenever you’re working with a society who has small experience of females of color, it has an important effect on their perceptions and presumptions. International ladies of color in Kosovo get to be the exotic, intimate things for several guys in Kosovo. Kosovar guys must additionally be held accountable, nevertheless. The roots of intimate harassment result from profoundly embedded, sexist views about ladies. Although intimate harassment in Kosovo could be racialized, the nagging issue it self is pervasive across ethnic lines.
The desire for black colored womanhood is reflected in great deal of popular Kosovar music. Inside her videos, age Istrefi usually wears black colored hairstyles such as dreads and package braids. Her music and dance-style emulates black colored performers and many even call her the Albanian Rihanna. In the usa, the sight of the white girl imitating black colored womanhood would bring accusations of social appropriation. Nonetheless, social appropriation is a concern of privilege. Privilege is caused by social inequality and it is centered on historic and systematic oppressions that prefer specific groups over other people. Whenever a privileged team appropriates the tradition of a underprivileged team, it decreases the underprivileged team to harmful stereotypes and additional reinforces their marginalized status.
In the us, 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 non-white populations. Hence, in america and Western Europe we speak about white individuals being more privileged than people-of-color (non-white people). Albanians complicate this binary to a large level because they do not have an extensive history of dominating other cultures although they are white Europeans. In reality, they are victims of imperialist and forces that are colonial we frequently ascribe to Europeans.
Furthermore, Albanians have actually endured comparable systematic discrimination that a great many other non-white populations faced. In Yugoslavia, they truly became a racialized other since they lacked Slavic origins. Into the вЂ90s Albanians faced systematic discrimination that excluded them from jobs, schools and federal government. These were victims of police brutality and mass cleansing that is ethnic. With this specific reputation for victimization, I think 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 really 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 numerous jobs and organizations by virtue of my nationality. In addition are able to travel easily compliment of my US passport.
This brings me personally back once again to my question that is original do I critique Kosovar Albanian performers and performers whom absorb facets of black colored tradition in their work?
Nevertheless, i believe the easiest way to cope with problematic racial notions in Kosovo is always to focus on a population that Kosovar Albanians are a lot more acquainted with, the Roma. Roma are discriminated against atlanta divorce attorneys part of Kosovar culture and racism against them is available and normalized. Centering dialogues about racism and race in Kosovo on international folks of color is totally unproductive and deeply problematic. The treating foreigners of color could be an element of the discussion without dominating it. Contextualizing racism in this real method will lay the building blocks for wider conversations about battle and foreigners. I do believe first of all a interior discussion requires become started between civil culture companies, activists, in addition to Kosovo federal government. Furthermore, the community that is international Kosovo has to get this discussion a priority. Any talks on competition in Kosovo which do not concentrate on racialized minorities who really reside in Kosovo will never arrived at fruition.