Torsello, Davide - Pappová, Melinda: Social Networks in Movement. Time, interaction and interethnic spaces in Central Eastern Europe - Nostra Tempora 8. (Somorja-Dunaszerdahely, 2003)
Interaction, migration and change
Race and social relations 263 recalled how during the first few months of operation, inquisitive recipients touched the skin and hair of African volunteers in order to determine what “blackness” felt like. Others recalled asking questions about volunteers’ home countries and cultures. One recipient reflected that at first she did not know what to think of African persons, but that she had learned that they were just like Russians and other “goodhearted” people. "They may have black hands,” she said, “but they have white hearts.” More problematic than these explorations of interest and curiosity, however, are more overt acts of racialized essentialism. COM volunteers and staff note that in the early days of the program, many recipients refused to accept food that was served by African volunteers, preferring instead to serve themselves or to wait for white Russian, North American, or European helpers to bring their meals. In a cultural setting that celebrates acts of hospitality as a marker of closeness and trust between individuals, CCM recipients’ refusals to accept meals from black volunteers were striking rebuffs to possibilities for sociality and intimacy between Muscovite recipients and African volunteers. This problem became so acute that the white American CCM minister finally issued an ultimatum: either recipients would accept food from black volunteers, or they would not be served. Volunteers remembered that most recipients subsequently changed their practices accordingly, although a small contingent elected to forfeit their eligibility and left the program altogether. Several volunteers observed, however, that some recipients continued to demonstrate their discomfort in more indirect ways, such as refusing to accept meals directly from the hands of African volunteers, or by touching as small a piece of the ticket as possible.12 Even more revealing, however, is that tactics of “Othering” such as these are not limited to those performed by Russians against Africans, but have also been performed by African volunteers and directed against Russian recipients. A past director of the CCM program remarked that he had reprimanded African volunteers who refused to serve Russian
