‘Aggression’ against Whites in US Caused by ‘Political Correctness Pushed to Absurdity’, Russia’s Foreign Minister Says
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov during his TV interview in which he lambasted the United States for its political correctness causing, in his view, anti-white racism. Photo: TV grab from Russia’s Channel 1
Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has lashed out against what he appears to see as anti-white racism in the United States, or in his own words, “the aggression displayed against white people” which he says has been brought about “political correctness pushed to absurdity” which “won’t end well”.
Lavrov’s tirade against what he says is racism “the white citizens of the US” connected with the Black Lives Matter movement came in an interview for the “Big Game” political talk show on Russia’s state-owned Channel One TV on Thursday.
In the same interview, in which he predicted that American political correctness “won’t end well”, Russia’s top diplomat also lambasted US foreign policy towards Russia and China and in the Middle East going back to the 2003 Iraq Invasion (the Second Gulf War) under then US President George W. Bush.
Lavrov declared that political correctness was causing censorship, and criticized Hollywood for imposing what he apparently considers unjustified diversity norms.
“Hollywood changes its rules now, too, so that everything reflects the diversity of modern society, which is likewise a form of censorship, which stifles art and imposes various artificial restrictions and demands,” the Russian Foreign Minister said.
“I saw black people playing in Shakespeare’s comedies. I don’t know when we will have a white Othello,” he added, as cited by Russian state news agency TASS.
“You see, that’s absurdity. Political correctness pushed to such absurdity won’t end well,” Lavrov declared.
Commenting on the ongoing rethinking of culture in the US, the Minister noted that processes indeed take place there that “deserve to be described this way.”
The Russian Foreign Minister praised Russia’s own championing of racial inequality and anti-racism – likely a reference to the communist period (1917 – 1991) when the predecessor of today’s Russian Federation, the Soviet Union engaged with the former Third World supporting decolonization and independence movements, and to Russia’s own ethnic diversity which includes a large number of native European and Asian ethnicities, many of them recognized as “peoples”.
During the Soviet period in particular, Soviet anti-Western and anti-capitalism propaganda made a big use of anti-black racism in US in order to lambast the West.
At the same time, however, Lavrov sought to contrast Russia’s approach and heritage in tackling racism with the “absurdity” of modern-day US political correctness which he said was extreme.
“Probably, everyone wants to get rid of racism, and we never doubted that. We were the pioneers of the movement for equal rights of people of any skin color,” Russia’s top diplomat said.
“But there is a risk of reaching the other extremity, what we observed during the BLM (Black Lives Matter) events and the aggression displayed against white people, white US citizens,” he noted, likely referring to violent protests in the wake of the death of George Floyd, a black man, in Minneapolis in May 2020 at the hands of white police officer Derek Chauvin.
Russia’s Foreign Minister pointed out that the US was seeking to spread this approach of race relations across the entire world.
“They have colossal capabilities for that,” he added.
According to the Russian top diplomat, an international day, dedicated to this issue, took place recently.
During it, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said before the General Assembly that the past year had been a year of numerous and severe displays of white “supremacy.”
“I requested a full text of his speech. I would like to understand what exactly he meant,” Lavrov continued.
He emphasized that if UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres’ reference to white supremacy had simply been a desire to be “trending,” then that was regrettable.
“This is the Organization of United Nations, not the Organization Promoting American concepts, or American trends,” Russia’s Foreign Minister concluded in his interview boding political correctness-induced disaster for the United States.
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Ivan Dikov, the founder of HeartlandHinterland.com, is the author of the book “Ugly Bargain: How the European Union and Bulgaria’s Post-Communist Oligarchy Fit Together“, among other books.
