Russian-speaking LGBTQ Immigrants’ Responses to Racialised Hierarchies in the U.S. – Negotiating Immigrant Precarity and White Privilege
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Alexandra Novitskaya
Abstract
In this article, I analyse opinions on racialisation and racism expressed online by Russian-speaking LGBTQ immigrants in the U.S., in order to investigate their understanding and negotiation of American racialised hierarchies. I argue that racialisation is a two-sided process where the racialised subject can exercise agency by negotiating their place in a racialised hierarchy, and for some it involves adopting either a racist or antiracist position, so as to fit into contemporary American discourse on race. Specifically, Russian-speaking LGBTQ immigrants may take the following positions regarding race and racialisation in the U.S.: 1) identification with whiteness and white supremacy; 2) willful ignorance, or refusal to accept the reality of structural racisms in the U.S.; and 3) multidimensional queer antiracist solidarity. Subsequently, a negotiation of their place within – or against – this hierarchy is a way for immigrants to claim belonging to their new American society. This analysis contrasts with the existing scholarship on post-Soviet diasporas which portrays Russian-speaking immigrants as socially conservative, right-leaning, and prone to racist bias. Specifically, LGBTQ asylum-seekers’ precarious immigrant status and a strong political identification with radical queer activism in the U.S. allows for a production of new forms of political subjectivities and new forms of imagined immigrant belongings, as well as a possibility of new forms of solidarity.
Abstract
In this article, I analyse opinions on racialisation and racism expressed online by Russian-speaking LGBTQ immigrants in the U.S., in order to investigate their understanding and negotiation of American racialised hierarchies. I argue that racialisation is a two-sided process where the racialised subject can exercise agency by negotiating their place in a racialised hierarchy, and for some it involves adopting either a racist or antiracist position, so as to fit into contemporary American discourse on race. Specifically, Russian-speaking LGBTQ immigrants may take the following positions regarding race and racialisation in the U.S.: 1) identification with whiteness and white supremacy; 2) willful ignorance, or refusal to accept the reality of structural racisms in the U.S.; and 3) multidimensional queer antiracist solidarity. Subsequently, a negotiation of their place within – or against – this hierarchy is a way for immigrants to claim belonging to their new American society. This analysis contrasts with the existing scholarship on post-Soviet diasporas which portrays Russian-speaking immigrants as socially conservative, right-leaning, and prone to racist bias. Specifically, LGBTQ asylum-seekers’ precarious immigrant status and a strong political identification with radical queer activism in the U.S. allows for a production of new forms of political subjectivities and new forms of imagined immigrant belongings, as well as a possibility of new forms of solidarity.
Kapitel in diesem Buch
- Inhalt 5
- Einleitung: Antiosteuropäischer Rassismus. Vermessungen eines Forschungsfeldes 1
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Beiträge / Contributions
- Konjunkturen des Rassismus. Überlegungen zu antiosteuropäischem Rassismus 17
- Zur postsozialistischen Kolonialität von Erinnerung, Zugehörigkeit und Raum 33
- Exoticised, but Not Exotic. Translated Collections of Slavic Fairy Tales and the Image of a Cultural Borderland 49
- Gefühle der Unzugehörigkeit. Zur Positionierung von Menschen mit Migrationsbezug zum ehemaligen Jugoslawien im deutschen Diskurs um Rassismus(‑betroffenheit) 69
- „Diskriminierung ist ein sehr starkes Wort”. Rassismuserfahrungen von Personen mit polnischer Einwanderungsgeschichte in intersektionaler Perspektive 87
- Sprachliche Unsicherheit und soziale Distanz. Die Erfahrungen hochqualifizierter polnischer Migrantinnen in Deutschland 103
- Die ‚osteuropäische Frau‘? Eine mediale Bestandsaufnahme der Verbindung von antiosteuropäischem Rassismus und Sexismus 121
- Russian-speaking LGBTQ Immigrants’ Responses to Racialised Hierarchies in the U.S. – Negotiating Immigrant Precarity and White Privilege 139
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Dokumentation / Documentation
- Einblicke in ein ‚unsichtbaresʻ Phänomen. Eine Chronik zur Tödlichkeit des antiosteuropäischen Rassismus seit 1990 159
Kapitel in diesem Buch
- Inhalt 5
- Einleitung: Antiosteuropäischer Rassismus. Vermessungen eines Forschungsfeldes 1
-
Beiträge / Contributions
- Konjunkturen des Rassismus. Überlegungen zu antiosteuropäischem Rassismus 17
- Zur postsozialistischen Kolonialität von Erinnerung, Zugehörigkeit und Raum 33
- Exoticised, but Not Exotic. Translated Collections of Slavic Fairy Tales and the Image of a Cultural Borderland 49
- Gefühle der Unzugehörigkeit. Zur Positionierung von Menschen mit Migrationsbezug zum ehemaligen Jugoslawien im deutschen Diskurs um Rassismus(‑betroffenheit) 69
- „Diskriminierung ist ein sehr starkes Wort”. Rassismuserfahrungen von Personen mit polnischer Einwanderungsgeschichte in intersektionaler Perspektive 87
- Sprachliche Unsicherheit und soziale Distanz. Die Erfahrungen hochqualifizierter polnischer Migrantinnen in Deutschland 103
- Die ‚osteuropäische Frau‘? Eine mediale Bestandsaufnahme der Verbindung von antiosteuropäischem Rassismus und Sexismus 121
- Russian-speaking LGBTQ Immigrants’ Responses to Racialised Hierarchies in the U.S. – Negotiating Immigrant Precarity and White Privilege 139
-
Dokumentation / Documentation
- Einblicke in ein ‚unsichtbaresʻ Phänomen. Eine Chronik zur Tödlichkeit des antiosteuropäischen Rassismus seit 1990 159
