Comments by "Emir" (@irongron) on "Phumzile Van Damme - Digital Disinformation Undermines Global Democratic Processes and Institutions." video.

GOod conversation. When you mentioned that Africans would come to study in the Soviet Union days and Russia, it reminded me about the situation here and a personal anecdote about Ukraine and Africa, Before we had to leave the DNR, becausue it was becooming the toilet of Europe (i.e. the "Ruskiy Mir)., I remember back in 2014 it eas not uncommon to see the the occasisinal African student walking around Donetsk City centre near the Uni my wife taught at. I haven't been to Donetsk City since then but I doubt you'd see any African students now. THey're all gone, it's too dangerous for them to study here. This is how Russia has runied education opportunties in Ukraine.
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@SiliconCurtain Ok I have even more to add, the Mrs was asleep last night when I was up late and listened to the podcast so I asked her this morning, was there lots of AFrican students at her uni and did they complain about racism, and she said, there were African studetns also Asian students, but not any complaints she knew of for racIsm as far as she could recollect from back then pre-2014.
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@SiliconCurtain That's very sad but not surprising. All I can add to that is that I never saw these students being accosted on the streets or being hassled. I tend to think Ukrainians would be more tolerant, being victims of Russian racism themselves. Also Donetsk City was the home of Shakhtar Donetsk FC, and half the players were Brazillian imports, darker lookin' fellas and we all loved them cos they helped good ol' Shakhtar score goals! Also I can speak from my own personal experience back in Australia. where I grew up, having a name like mine was not a good thing -"you can't be Austarlian with a anme like that" - "F off and go back to where you came from wog", the usual racist stuff Aussies dish out. I've never experienced that kind of racism since moving to Ukraine almost a deacde ago. Go figure that one out!
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