Sayfo Omar: This is how Hungary should be loved!
The way of thinking outlined in Tusványos not only protects the majority society here, but also the “mixed races” already living here.
I was lucky enough to listen to Viktor Orbán’s speech live in Tusványos, after a drunken night. When the Prime Minister got to the “mixed race” part, I admit, I was a little surprised. The question struck me, what do our friends in the West have to say about this, including the American Republicans fighting for black and Mexican votes, Marine Le Pen dancing with Africans in her campaign, Geert Wilders with Indonesian ancestry and the others who are already announcing the cancellation of the PC, it is very true they are also trying to avoid being labeled “racist” by the liberals. Are we not unintentionally putting ammunition in the hands of those who have already attacked them because they are talking to the Hungarian government? Then I came to the conclusion that Viktor Orbán’s advisers are not amateurs, what was said was certainly not by chance.
It was only later, reading the domestic reactions, that I realized that I could even take it upon myself.
In particular, when an open letter addressed to Katalin Novák of my fellow Syrian-Hungarian mixed race came across the news wall, in which he asked the question, what does he count for and can he “explain” himself with a blood transfusion or an organ transplant?
I’ll admit, I didn’t think of myself as “mixed race” until now. Of course, it might have turned out differently if the almighty had assigned darker tones. I don’t have the right to discuss the trauma of my friends who were mocked because of their skin color in their childhood, accompanied by the suspicious glances of common sellers. He is at least as determined a child as my rattling classmate for years, that he is mocked by the cruel army. Everyone has their own cross or “great jihad” that they have to carry and fight by themselves. I admit, I once sank into self-pity for a short time when other children were angry on my behalf. Then I understood that there is no greater praise than when someone wants to hurt you because of something you can’t do about, because you couldn’t find anything else on you.
As a “mixed race,” the idea of a mixed society may seem appealing. But would we really have a better fate in a multicultural society that feigns color blindness? Let’s say in the Netherlands or some Scandinavian country, where even though in general everyone has a polite smile, the white locals stick together like a caste against foreigners? In Hungary, being of “mixed race” does not mean a glass ceiling. Those who now take the Prime Minister’s words upon themselves are usually at the top of Maslow’s pyramid, many of them owe their success to their specialness, to the fact that there were not a dozen of them, but one of them, in class, at the university, in a job interview, or when choosing a partner. Because Hungary is not “racially mixed”, their difference is thus not a threat, but exotic. This is how Hungary should be loved.
If we expect solidarity as “mixed race”, we practice it against others. Let’s say with those who love the country in its current state, or with the other minorities. The narrative that began in 2015 can be painful for a few thousand citizens with “migrant roots”. But let’s be clear: at the same time, the idea of an external threat offers hundreds of thousands of Jewish compatriots who previously felt excluded and gypsies to redefine themselves as part of the national body. It was worth it for that alone. Especially since nobody has been an existential threat because of their foreign origin.
The thinking outlined in Tusványos, the rejection of “mixed race” protects not only the majority society, but also the Hungarian “mixed race”.
The anti-Semitism that arose at the end of the 19th century was not fueled by political rhetoric, but rather by hundreds of thousands of Galician migrants. Between the hammer and the anvil were also those Hungarian Jews who, for generations, built Hungary as their homeland.
I have already visited about thirty neighborhoods inhabited by immigrants in Western Europe. Although at home with a full cup, reading Laurent Obertone, many people believe that there is no war and soul-killing struggle in Western Europe for the time being. However, if everything continues like this and the tension continues to grow, it will happen. And then the “mixed races” are not going to do badly here, in the “fascist” Carpathian Basin, but in the West, which still shows a liberal face today, where it has been proven time and time again throughout history that if the majority and the minority are straining against each other, then only the latter can pull the shorter one.
The author is a senior researcher at the Migration Institute
Opening image: MTI/Prime Minister’s Press Office/Benko Vivien Cher