Race, Innocence, and Objectification of the Nation in Latvia

Abstract

In June 2020, an earnest debate occurred in Latvian society surrounding controversy around the local ice cream brand called “Blacky” in English. While some pointed out that this was an expression of racism, others defended the right to name things “as they were” and relocated the political context within a nationalist perspective that “lacked” a racial history. This article explores “racial innocence” as a form of racism in Latvia. Racism and racial innocence, universalism, and particularism in interpreting race mobilize different sets of connections, not only revealing diverse understandings of race but also claiming authority and presenting inner logic to assert these positions. Despite the claimed lack of racial encounters and the absence of a history of colonial superiority, Latvians use racism as a part of the nation-building process and as a way of placing the country on the global map. I suggest that racial innocence is the dominant framework of conceiving racism, where the concept of race plays an important part in creating local hierarchies of the Self and Other. In the Latvian context, race is very much about “self” and self-boundedness, which is being challenged in the process of Europeanization and in situations of interpersonal encounters requiring a reconsideration of the ethics of conduct, racial privilege, and the “natural” grounds of Latvian society.