Minority youth, everyday racism and public spaces in contemporary Russia

Abstract

This article examines the impact of global change and post-Soviet political transformation on diasporic youth cultural practices and experience in Krasnodar, a city in southern Russia. While young Armenians’ leisure spaces are characterized by inclusive notions of ethnic plurality and tolerance, sometimes individuals are racialized or ethnicized when they pass through public spaces. Young Armenians’ leisure spaces are ethnically structured, but not ethnically exclusive. This article challenges the view that young people from ethnic minorities are passive recipients of everyday racism. Instead, it is suggested that young Armenians have routinized their responses to racism and xenophobia in their everyday practices, and so are able to undermine the dominant political discourse.