Kovalev's manager: "Sergey is not a racist."

[MDPopescu]

I'm pretty sure he is.

Do you have an actual web address for this one? Or at least the precise date when Kovalev posted it on Twitter?... I'd like to check on this...

[MDPopescu]

Russians hate everyone...no exceptions. Xenophobia is above racism....includes everyone.

... struck by epiphany, doe...
... and they are nationalistic-imperialists also...

[bklynboy]

Don't know how you can defend this and it doesnt make it right just because they use this word in Sergy's hometown. That means he grew up using this word all his life. He said "*****" in the interview like it's a normal word used in his vocab. Now they have to do damage control with HBO and the public.

I don't know anything about Kovalev's views. He may very well be a racist as$hole. BUT words mean different things in different societies; different times and especially in different languages.

f@g and gay mean something different today than they did 100 years ago. Go to china and you will hear people say their version of "ummm" when ordering in a store or a restaurant. It sounds awfully close to nig*er. You can't take that sound out of context and say that the person saying it was a racist.

[DeadLikeMe]

Do you have an actual web address for this one? Or at least the precise date when Kovalev posted it on Twitter?... I'd like to check on this...

I just copied the image url from another thread.

[Razor Ramon]

He doesn't realise in America the only response permitted when being insulted by a black is to drop to your knees a suck his **** to apologise for all the "oppression" that poor man has gone through in his life

[Kagami Taiga]

He doesn't realise in America the only response permitted when being insulted by a black is to drop to your knees a suck his **** to apologise for all the "oppression" that poor man has gone through in his life

Adonis isn't a black American and being insulted in a sporting manner does not suddenly mean u have to respond in a racist manner. U know who does that? Racists. Lol.

[Mooshashi]

I don't know anything about Kovalev's views. He may very well be a racist as$hole. BUT words mean different things in different societies; different times and especially in different languages.

*** and gay mean something different today than they did 100 years ago. Go to china and you will hear people say their version of "ummm" when ordering in a store or a restaurant. It sounds awfully close to nig*er. You can't take that sound out of context and say that the person saying it was a racist.

Lol obviously you've been to China like I have. All you hear is "negga...negga" but as you say it's just like us saying"umm" or "well".

[Dr Rumack]

Down with the white man

The white man will not be denied

[Easy Work.]

Do any of you guys even speak russian? If not dont act like you know **** lol.

[PainfromUkraine]

Re-read this thread from the start again, I remember when it was first posted and I did a lot of translations around the 10 page mark - so you can check that out if you want.

Looking back at it, it's hard to say whether he is racist or not. The area (Chelyabinsk) he comes from in Russia is one of the most ******, tough cities from what I know. And Racism as a whole is a big problem in Russia, and seems to be growing with the rise of xenophobia, ****phobia, far-right ideology and such over there at the moment.

The thing is, 'racism' doesn't really exist in the minds of people that have grown up in similar surroundings like Kovalev. What I mean by that is what he said and the way he said it would not be seen as offensive in Russia, but obviously would in the States.

You'd probably give him the benefit of the doubt and could say he simply wasn't particularly careful with his choice of words and was still acclimatising to the new multicultural world in the USA, compared to how he grew up in the Russian ******.

And 'nyegr' (negro) is just a colloquial term for a black person in the Russian language - people even use it as a joke to describe themselves when they become heavily suntanned - 'ya nyegr' (i'm a negro) they say. It's not used as a term of offense because when used within that group of people it isn't offensive, I guess similar to black people using the word amongst themselves.

That is actually something that is quite ironic...it only seems to be racist if it's directed to an individual of a different background, but isn't racist if it's used within one group. A bit of a double standard.