Sometimes it hurts to read the Belarusian blogosphere. Seriously. Among Livejournal bloggers, there are well-known Belarusian analysts, journalists, musicians, politicians, educators, nonprofit activists. I have met in real life many of the people whose blogs I occasionally read. Most of them seem to be totally adequate and normal people. But what some of them write on their blogs is troubling. A normal guy whose face could be seen on Belsat, or whose voice could be heard on Radio Liberty, or whose album you’ve just bought, writes outright racist, xenophobic postings on Livejournal.com. It leaves me guessing whether it’s some virtual alter ego, Slim Shady kind of persona being revealed online, while his or her real views are not that controversial. But then I ask myself what if that online persona is what this person is all about in real life, although not showing it publicly.

As an example, I was shocked to see a post like this in the Belarusian Livejournal political community by_politics, or to read a totally racist post like this. Haiti, in fact, has become a popular topic to chatter about and for some to sarcastically grin at the pain of Haitians. It hurts to read how my compatriots, some of whom have received foreign aid themselves, seem to be quite cynical about the Haitian earthquake and purely racist hiding under a veil of Internet anonymity.

Luckily, there are voices of sanity, for instance, here. So, please, by reading my blog post, don’t run into conclusions that Belarusians are xenophobes or racists. Unfortunately, some are.