This post is about Ukrainian and Russian ethnicities inside of Ukraine. FYI... I drew the Ukrainian and Russian flags in Microsoft Paint.


Ukrainian joke: Ukrainian man insists on adopting a black child. So husband and wife travel from orphanage to orphanage. And finally they find a black child at the tenth orphanage. They adopted the child and get him settled in the car to take him home. Wife finally asks, "Why did our child have to be black?". Husband replies, "This way, I am 100% certain he isn't Russian".


Ethnicity is very tribal in nature. It is based on people who identify with each other (typically via genetic background). The people band together based on common religion practices, history, language, and/or cultural practices.


This means that people who look the same (white skin, brown hair) can discriminate against each other. With the racial politics in the United States.... this is sometimes a forgotten fact.


There is a East/West divide in Ukrainian which tends to split the Russian culture vs the Ukrainian culture.


This is a very simple way to look at this..... In some ways too simple. For example, one of the hot spots for Ukrainian/Russian conflict is the Crimean (most Southern area of Ukraine which borders the Black Sea). But it is a good starting place.


This East/West divide existed before Ukraine became a country in 1991. Here is a quote from a Ukrainian blog on the subject of identity.

I came here [University of Louisville] from Ukraine.


..............


A lot of them think that it [Ukraine] is some region of Russia:

“What? Russia?”

“No, Ukraine!”

“Yeah, I understood, you are from Russia”.

That really makes me angry.

...................

And still people call us Russians and it is very unpleasant and unfair. During the Olympic Games of 1988 one athlete from USSR made unbelievable achievements, he won 5 medals in track events, running faster than athletes from Africa and the USA.


Everybody was shocked. And when journalists asked that athlete “How could you Russians do this?” The athlete made some steps back and said: “Don’t call me Russian!!!” He was from Donetsk, the western part from Ukraine.I wrote all this to show that ethnicity always meant very much to us and we did everything to show it.


from: Identity

Please feel free to email me at adoptukraineblog@adoptionmail.com to correct me or share information.