Non-Russians Must Overcome ‘Internalized Colonialism,’ Shabashevich Says

Paul Goble
    Staunton, Nov. 22 – Non-Russians within the current borders of the Russian Federation face many problems, but one of the most serious is “internalized colonialism” when members of these groups “adopt the views of representatives of the majority, even if they actually contain prejudices directed against you and people like you,” Dor Shabashevich says.
    The Russian-Israeli sociolinguist gives as an example of this phenomenon when “a Kazakh from an aul near Astraskhan moved to the city, began to interact with ‘fashionable guys’ and at some point declares that he would never date a Kazakh woman” because “they are all stupid collective farmers” (semnasem.org/articles/2024/11/15/zachem-uchit-sohranyat-i-prodvigat-yazyki-korennyh-narodov-otvechaet-sociolingvist).
    And non-Russians say such things even if they speak their own national language or view it as part of their identity, Shabashevich says. Such “internalized colonialism” is a threat to the survival of their languages and thus their nations and should be fought by all those who want these things to survive. But to do so, everyone must first recognize that this problem exists.