Are we Ukranians xenophobics

[ricardo]

Many times I asked myself this question.
I have met Ukranian born and overseas Ukranians or born in Ukraine and there is a common trait that of beign remarkably xenophobic and strongly patronising, therefore it begs the question whether it is a cultural inheritance or something tought by outsiders or just mere coincidence.
I came to conclusion that it may be a cultural inheritance something handed outsince the days of the Golden Hordes or or The Tartars.
Some people argue that it is a communist inheritance where in order to climb the ladder of success or merely to survive one would willigly subject or become part of this club. However in the other hand staunch anticommunist or communits also exhibit this traits not matter where from Ukraine they may have come from and year still don't make a difference. Why?
Take for instance my own parents lived in what was Eastern Poland
other people that I have met came from Lviv, Chernobyl, Kharkov,
Odessa to name a few irrespective of the year of immigration they showed some degree of us vs them in the West.
Some of the discussions under way on this forum also remind me of this deep xenophobic and somewhat negative attitudes.

[Nu_To_Nicho]

Ukrainians are xenophobic? Which ones?

[Volodya987]

I cannot find zenophobia in my dickandharry. What does it mean?

[Freedom1]

I think that is a spurious observation.

[ricardo]

Originally posted by Freedom1
I think that is a spurious observation.

Hmm! Kinda vague statement but that's your opinion

[Freedom1]

Nothing vague about it.

Although admittedly, past Ukrainian history has shown no favors from bordering countries, so some amount of distrust would be sociologically ingrained. However, to then leap and say Ukraininas are xenophobic is spurious, i.e. without logical or valid underpinnigns.

Ukrainins in " diaspora" I would not characterize as xenophobic. Slightly insular, maybe. Somewhat insecure about their national identity, maybe.

But the French have a near monopoly on xenophobia, wouldn't you agree?

I can see how you've come to your conclusion, but I would encourage you to explore a bit deeper, with the always present caveat of the danger of gross generalizations.

BTW, I didn't mean to come off as gruff, I was paging through some sophnmoric iodocy on this board before I came to your most thought-provoking discussion. Put me in a non-productive frame-of-mind I'm afraid.

There certainly is, I would agree, something quite idiocyncratic , or held in common, about the Ukrainian identity. As young people, living abroad, we felt that there was something about the oppression that carried through to our self-identities. I should think that many of us who grew up as 1st generation immigrants have attempted, adn might have been successful, at cleansing ourselves of some of that 'baggage'.

[Ulysses]

Hey Ricardo,

You bring up an interesting topic. I am not too familiar with Ukrainians and their view on people of other races, but I am familiar with Western Europeans from countries where the genetic stock is predominantly homogenic.

The Western Europeans I have met from these countries, have been from a wide spectrum (Jorg Haider supporters to Bush is Hitler leftists) of soceity. What I have observed is that they have negative opinions of people from Asian or Black genetic stock. I believe the primary reason is that they have not been raised in a multi-cultural society.

Originally posted by ricardo
Many times I asked myself this question.
I have met Ukranian born and overseas Ukranians or born in Ukraine and there is a common trait that of beign remarkably xenophobic and strongly patronising, therefore it begs the question whether it is a cultural inheritance or something tought by outsiders or just mere coincidence.
I came to conclusion that it may be a cultural inheritance something handed outsince the days of the Golden Hordes or or The Tartars.
Some people argue that it is a communist inheritance where in order to climb the ladder of success or merely to survive one would willigly subject or become part of this club. However in the other hand staunch anticommunist or communits also exhibit this traits not matter where from Ukraine they may have come from and year still don't make a difference. Why?
Take for instance my own parents lived in what was Eastern Poland
other people that I have met came from Lviv, Chernobyl, Kharkov,
Odessa to name a few irrespective of the year of immigration they showed some degree of us vs them in the West.
Some of the discussions under way on this forum also remind me of this deep xenophobic and somewhat negative attitudes.