Little Putin

          A few weeks ago my floor mate had his grandparents visit him. And after his grandfather heard that I’m Russian, we had a very interesting dialogue:

Grandfather (with authentic southern accent): “Hm… Russian. You know, there are more than 200 countries in the world and I love travelling, but Russia is not on my top 100 destinations to visit.”

Me (with authentic Russian accent): “Ok… why?”

Him: “Cause y’all just a bunch of little Putins there.”

          Well… I definitely felt slightly stigmatized or, in other words, negatively perceived based on the particular group I belong too, in this case, Russian citizens (Major & Crocker, 1993).

Don't I look like one though? :)

           When you live in a foreign to you country, you can kind of expect that once in a while you’ll be a target of somebody’s prejudices and stereotypes. However, I don’t blame that grandfather at all. I honestly admit that from time to time I do the same thing towards other groups of people. In fact, I proved it to be true by taking an Implicit Association Test (Greenwald, McGhee, & Schwartz, 1998). It records what qualities (good/bad) and stereotypes you associate with certain groups of people (elderly, black, gay, and others). The test measures how fast you create your associations. For example, if you have a negative attitude towards old people, you will be able to assign them to the “negative” group instantly.

          I have taken two tests that have resulted in me having “moderate association between young people and personal warmth” and “automatic preference of White people over Black people”. As for the first one, I feel like I just averagely perceive people from all age groups as possibly being nice or mean. As for the color of skin association, I believe it comes from my cultural background. In Russia, especially where I am from, your chances of meeting an African-American person are very close to zero. I have met a Black person for the first time ever when I was 16 and went to Florida. 

          And I totally understand that she was the same human being as anyone else around but I just couldn’t help noticing her skin color. It is just so different. My grandmother that I have mentioned in previous posts, has seen an African-American person exactly once in her life, and she describes it as a very frightening experience. When this past summer we were watching FIFA World Cup Brazil, if a black player had control over the ball, she would cheer, “Run, monkey, run!” She just never had a chance to interact with any African-Americans and with her strong character, it’s pretty much impossible to prove her wrong in any argument over it now. But, honestly, I have to work on my own view of black people as well. My freshman year at college in Bulgaria I met an African American who was flirting with me and trying to get my phone number and add me on Facebook. That usually boosts girl’s confidence but that situation made me very nervous and uncomfortable just because I have never encountered it before. He gave me a note with his name and as I found out later he is a soccer player who plays for one of the biggest clubs in Bulgaria, is quite famous and a lot of people would love to meet him. The moral of the story: don’t let your prejudices limit your world!  

Michael Tawiah, Levski Soccer Club player

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Greenwald, A. G., McGhee, D. E., & Schwartz, J. L. (1998). Measuring individual differences in 

implicit cognition: The implicit association test. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 74(6), 1464-1480.


Major, B., & Crocker, J. (1993). Social Stigma: The afective consequences of attributional ambiguity. In D. M. Mackie & D. L. Hamilton (Eds.), Affect, cogniton, ans stereotyping: Interactive processes in intergroup pereption (pp. 345-370). New York: Academic Press.

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