Racism is not very rampant in Croatia, however, it still does exist. It is not widely talked about because racism in Croatia is subtle, and most of it is being committed unknowingly and without ill-intent. Even before the pandemic, non-Caucasian foreigners in Croatia would at one point come across racism – usually, in the form of racial microaggression. Although this term has been around for quite some time, I only first learned about it a few months after I moved to Croatia back in 2016 when I googled the phrase: When racism is so subtle you’re not even sure it is. What triggered me to look into it was when I got fed up from encountering people who yell “Kina” or “Japanka” at me, and from getting a couple of strange questions from people I just met such as if I eat dogs.
So what is microaggression and why is it not talked about in Croatia? Derald W. Sue, a psychology professor from Columbia University, defined it as the everyday slights, indignities, put-downs, and insults that members of marginalized groups experience in their day-to-day interactions with individuals who are often unaware that they have engaged in an offensive or demeaning way. Though this term is most often used in a racial context, it also applies to all marginalized groups including gender, sexual orientation, religion, and disability. Since most encounters of racism in Croatia never escalate to physical hate violence, people have always been hesitant to talk about it – including me. After all, the Philippines has a higher crime rate than Croatia so who am I to complain? Who am I to be dissatisfied with this country? Here, I can walk safely in a way that I couldn’t in Manila. Here, the chances of theft and sexual harassment are much less than in the country I originated from. But the thing is, how should I answer when people ask me if I eat dogs or if they easily assume that I met my Croatian husband through internet dating sites? How should I respond when I walk down the street, minding my own business, and suddenly get singled out by people who yell “Kina”, or when I hear people refer to two of my Filipino friends as “majmun”?
In fear of being labeled as over-reacting and over-sensitive – considering that blatant and obvious discrimination is more concerning – most people never address microagressions head-on because doing so, can cause more trouble than it’s worth. Unfortunately, when the pandemic arrived in Croatia, these “seemingly harmless and unintentional comments” became heightened, dangerous, and impossible to disregard.
The Gradual Rise of Racism in Croatia After Covid-19 Entered the Country
As news about the new coronavirus in China gets more and more horrific, so does the fear and hostility of people in most parts of the world towards Asian people. In Croatia, this fear started to become apparent at the beginning of January 2020, even before the virus entered the country. During this time, most Croatians deliberately avoided being in a close radius with an Asian person, fearing that they could get infected just by being near one. Then, there was the fearmongering that all Asians, even Asian food, carry the virus. I personally experienced this when I went with a friend to Terme Tuhelj to enjoy the saunas in the early February of 2020. There were more people than usual at that time and my friend wasn’t so happy about it, so she told me to cough when I enter the sauna room so that people will leave. I told her that it was her idea so she should do it. She answered me so casually that she is not Asian so it wouldn’t work. A newly-opened Asian restaurant in Croatia received a lot of hate comments back then, too.
The highest peak of racism in Croatia, however, was felt around March to June 2020 just before Croatia took its first lockdown measures. At this time, even my husband prevented me from going out after overhearing two Croatian men talking about dragging out an Indian couple who was getting supplies from the supermarket. I also started to receive messages from my Croatian friends asking if I was safe. In fear of xenophobic attacks, I never left the house without a mask and a pair of sunglasses on to make my ethnicity less noticeable. Also, during this time, many Asian foreigners have experienced refusal of services. For instance, a bus driver refused to let in one Filipino worker in Šibenik. The driver told him that he could not let him enter the bus because he could infect them with the coronavirus. There were also three Filipina workers who went inside a market in Trogir and all the staff including the cashier rushed to the stock room and hid there until they left. In Zagreb, a few Filipino workers received repeated xenophobic verbal attacks in the tram usually coming from high school to college students and older women and men. The worst xenophobic encounter they have had was with an old man who called them trash, spat at them, and told them to go back to China.
The Easing of Racism in Croatia
The COVID-19 pandemic caused huge damage to this country’s economy by heavily affecting the livelihood of a lot of Croatian people especially those in travel and tourism. The loss of jobs and loved ones caused a lot of hate and fear, not just in Croatia, but all over the world as people look for someone to blame for the worldwide impairment caused by the virus. But as the saying “time heals all wounds” goes, Croatia is gradually emerging and recovering from the severe and abrupt damages and changes brought on by COVID-19. People are now less scared as they become more informed and the prejudice towards Asians is getting better. As summer greeted the end of lockdown in Croatia in 2020, and tourists slowly filled its beaches and promenades once again – the lighter and friendlier Croatia that we have always known began to reveal itself to us once more. Although there are still a few racist remarks here and there, I think it is safe to say that the darkest time of racism in Croatia has passed, and with quite a sense of relief that it was never as violent as the Anti-Asian hate crimes that are plaguing other countries.
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