Job Discussion Forums

[corall]

hello all,

i am coming to istanbul in four weeks. i have read all the posts over the last few months (which i have learned a lot) but i have not come across any thoughts on racism in the country. i am a young black female and i wonder about the attitudes of people towards blacks, ie. curiousity or blatent racism, or a mix of both? keep in mind, i am pretty tough-skinned and used to being the ONLY black person around - i did teach in korea for two years, but i am curious all the same.

also any info on things i should bring with me, because it's unavailable there or hard to find?

oh yes... and of course when i arrive i'll have to go for a couple beers...any takers?

thanks again

[dmb]

Turks can be a bit racist but it is usually aimed at Arabs.
As usuual, I'm up for a beer.

[Mike_2003]

Hi,

I'm sure there was a thread on this a while back. It might be worth doing a search.

Regards,
Mike

[ghost]

There was a black English gentleman who taught English at the Amerika Kultur Dernegi in Eskisehir...and all the students loved him. He was very popular and the Turks liked him because they said he had a funny face and disposition.

In Turkey ethnics have to get used to some appalling ignorance when it comes to generalizations about blacks and other races....and you have to take those with a grain of salt.

Taking the Turkish Super Football League as a barometer...black professional football (soccer) players do better in Turkey in comparison with other countries. In Italy, for example, as recently as 2003, Black professional soccer players are often the victims of racist taunts from the opposing fans....with banana skins sometimes being thrown onto the field.

The situation is even worse in Eastern Europe, where blacks run the risk of physical intimidation in countries like Poland/Czech Republic/Slovakia.

Yes, the Turks make silly jokes about blacks and other races...but it is not malicious and your physical person will not be under threat.

Further....a black who speaks Turkish will be greeted with admiration and amusement, because that is so foreign to their way of thinking.

A few years ago a Nigerian player for Besiktas landed Turkish Citizenship and played for the National Team. He was well liked and admired throughout Turkey, and even hosted a variety T.V. show.

[corall]

i have looked back and not much said actually...

thanks for the input. korea was pretty bad for racism, but only when i started learning the language. still nothing i couldn't handle...

funny thing dmb, was going to put in my original post "i know dmb'll be up for a beer, any others?" i'll pm when i get into town.

[Gomez]

Hi. One small little thing comes up from time to time: what's the proper term for a black American. Some students I've had have been watching a lot of films and listening to music and they come up with some often times pretty negative and derogatory terms for blacks. It's not malicious or mean spirited, they just plain didn't know how bad a name or word it was. You may run into it. But, people here are very polite and probably wouldn't say anything at all rather than risk making a mistake like that. Welcome to Istanbul. I hope you'll like it. There are quite helpful people posting here if you have any questions about housing and how to get things for your apartment.

[yaramaz]

Second the motion for a beer... I'll be back in the first week of September.

[dmb]

Funny thing, I was going to write I'm sure Yaramaz will be up for a beer too.

[corall]

i was waiting for yaramaz too...

anything i should bring with when i come?

thanks bunches

[yaramaz]

Goodness. My reputation appears to have preceded me and lo, it isn't exactly stellar, as our Ghost once declared.

Am I really so predictable? If I had stayed away from the boards for a few more days would you have sent the search party out after me?

Alas.

Am still on for a buyuk bira though.

[Gomez]

Beer is good. Wet and cold. When might this gathering...gather?

[corall]

yaramaz i don't know about you and ghost at all...seems a little tense at times...

as for beer times gomez, i get into town in 4 weeks time, but yaramaz gets into town in sept?

either way, anytime is a good beer time

[Gomez]

Hi Corall, I just re-read your initial post. One thing I've always found a little hard to find here is aspirin. I'm an Excedrine person myself. There are plenty of pain killers here, but if you're partial to one kind of medicine, you might want to bring some. Besides that, there's a Chinese market here where you can buy all kinds of food for making Chinese, plus most of the big chain grocery stores carry international food stuff now, spaghetti sauce, salsa, different kinds of cheese, and you can find a lot of things for the house as various shops. I was in a store today that sold Dr. Pepper. I laughed my ass off. There's a lot of stuff you can't get, but you get over it pretty quickly. And you said you lived in Korea for two years, so actually, this whole post is pretty meaningless as you have a very good idea of what you can and can't get. Anyway, I should have thought of that before writing all of this. Medicine. That's all. And cameras are cheaper outside of Turkey than inside.

Beer.

[corall]

can you find tampons there? very very very difficult to find in korea.


also gomez,

i refer to myself as black, because when i hear afro-american i think that not all blacks are american. but that's just me, i don't know how others feel.

cheers guys!
thanks again

[Gomez]

I guess I should have added that I don't always know the right term to use. I grew up in Atlanta and there's still a lot of crap there. I don't prefer afro American either. Anyway, I'll just refer to you as Corall.
Tampons, I don't know about, but you can get pads here. Orchid is available everywhere.