@wingsofwrath
Obviously, the second-from-last paragraph would be most reasonable approach, having an introductory piece that explains that despite being a homogeneous nation Hungarians still find issues of racism relevant in current times and as such Porgy and Bess, seen in wider prospect, not only lost nothing from its relevancy, but gained new meanings and is a worthy piece to present, especially to homogenous public, which might not experience racism related crap on everyday basis. To say opera is a good medium to convey emotions is a damn understatement. Yet, common sense is so rare these days...
But lets not mix what's anti-immigration is all about in Eastern/Central Europe. It sounds like we close our borders and minds to plights of refugees who wants to find home there, but it's not like that. We are against forced settlement of people who do not want to be settled here! Few millions of Middleeasterners arrived (illegally) into EU and now EU wants to settle them legally in member states more or less proportionately but it's the immigrants who are against that first! They couldn't care less about ex-communist-bloc member states who can't offer as high comfort of life, measured in social care paid and as far as current forced settlement attempts show, they hightail it to Germany / Austria / Scandinavia the moment their friends settled there gets any access to a car. It's usually a matter of week or two for them to dissappear without trace, presumably returning to a status of illegal immigrant in some Western State. What's a point of settlement program that results in a third or a half participants returning to illegal immigrancy as soon as they are able to? How can a reasonable government not be opposed to it?
It's not hard to comprehend that Muslim immigrants want to live in Muslim-rich area, or at least a diverse one, one that's multiracial and handles accompanying problems with years of practice. And it's not ex-commie states fault they are unnaturally homogenous. We weren't until 2WW. Soviets in 1945 redraw borders on their whim and forcibly relocated everyone who was out of place in this new order. Nobody knows how many thousands perished because those relocations usual Soviet standard of care: bare freight wagons. And under next 45 years of communist rule we rebuilt after war as well as we could, but not up to Western standards. So don't blame Hungary, a Maine-sized country with a Michigan-sized population, for being poor, reasonable, homogenous, unwanted as a home by Muslim immigrants and last but least, against the forced settlement, because we know firsthand how badly it sucks.
But as for Romani case, and in general, yes, we tend to be racist. It's just pure xenophobia, not a racism per se. It's not about color or religion, it's more about the fact they are aliens, or just different, and skin color and faith is just a cherry on this rotten cake. Xenophobia is a natural thing for homogenous population, natural as in "default state it drifts to", not a commendable thing of course. We are afraid of new things, different things from the ones we know, that's how our species survived. We can easily overcome it by learning, knowing, experiencing, getting to like. And getting liked by locals is what sometimes happen to immigrants... from some locals. Let's not pretend any population is universally decent. Any human sample, sampled from any community under any criterion is bound to be a mixed bag.
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@wingsofwrath
Obviously, the second-from-last paragraph would be most reasonable approach, having an introductory piece that explains that despite being a homogeneous nation Hungarians still find issues of racism relevant in current times and as such Porgy and Bess, seen in wider prospect, not only lost nothing from its relevancy, but gained new meanings and is a worthy piece to present, especially to homogenous public, which might not experience racism related crap on everyday basis. To say opera is a good medium to convey emotions is a damn understatement. Yet, common sense is so rare these days...
But lets not mix what's anti-immigration is all about in Eastern/Central Europe. It sounds like we close our borders and minds to plights of refugees who wants to find home there, but it's not like that. We are against forced settlement of people who do not want to be settled here! Few millions of Middleeasterners arrived (illegally) into EU and now EU wants to settle them legally in member states more or less proportionately but it's the immigrants who are against that first! They couldn't care less about ex-communist-bloc member states who can't offer as high comfort of life, measured in social care paid and as far as current forced settlement attempts show, they hightail it to Germany / Austria / Scandinavia the moment their friends settled there gets any access to a car. It's usually a matter of week or two for them to dissappear without trace, presumably returning to a status of illegal immigrant in some Western State. What's a point of settlement program that results in a third or a half participants returning to illegal immigrancy as soon as they are able to? How can a reasonable government not be opposed to it?
It's not hard to comprehend that Muslim immigrants want to live in Muslim-rich area, or at least a diverse one, one that's multiracial and handles accompanying problems with years of practice. And it's not ex-commie states fault they are unnaturally homogenous. We weren't until 2WW. Soviets in 1945 redraw borders on their whim and forcibly relocated everyone who was out of place in this new order. Nobody knows how many thousands perished because those relocations usual Soviet standard of care: bare freight wagons. And under next 45 years of communist rule we rebuilt after war as well as we could, but not up to Western standards. So don't blame Hungary, a Maine-sized country with a Michigan-sized population, for being poor, reasonable, homogenous, unwanted as a home by Muslim immigrants and last but least, against the forced settlement, because we know firsthand how badly it sucks.
But as for Romani case, and in general, yes, we tend to be racist. It's just pure xenophobia, not a racism per se. It's not about color or religion, it's more about the fact they are aliens, or just different, and skin color and faith is just a cherry on this rotten cake. Xenophobia is a natural thing for homogenous population, natural as in "default state it drifts to", not a commendable thing of course. We are afraid of new things, different things from the ones we know, that's how our species survived. We can easily overcome it by learning, knowing, experiencing, getting to like. And getting liked by locals is what sometimes happen to immigrants... from some locals. Let's not pretend any population is universally decent. Any human sample, sampled from any community under any criterion is bound to be a mixed bag.