The Criminal Code of the Russian Federation defines the incitement of ethnic hatred as public actions aimed at inciting hostility, hatred, humiliation of a person’s dignity on the basis of race, nationality or language.
A cautious attitude towards representatives of other peoples lives in a person from ancient times. It is based on fear that causes everything unknown and incomprehensible, as well as on possible competition for resources with another community. Such relations gave rise to the worldview principle of “alien - means enemy”. This is called xenophobia.
Modern man is less affected by xenophobia than his distant ancestors, and yet, under certain circumstances, it comes to life.
Spontaneous kindling
Sometimes ethnic hatred does not even need to be fomented - it flares up on its own. The trigger is the search for the guilty. For example, a person cannot get a job and finds a convenient explanation: immigrants are to blame, they have taken all jobs. On the other hand, immigrants blame the indigenous people for their troubles: the authorities treat them better. The higher the unemployment rate, the more people thinking in this direction, and this is not the opinion of an individual, but a public mood that could well result in unrest and armed clashes.
A major role in this process is played by national stereotypes. For example, there is a vicious tradition of attributing greed and cunning to Jews. It is not far from here to accuse Jews of poverty of representatives of other peoples, and there to fantastic theories about the "world Zionist conspiracy." Caucasian natives are also traditionally credited with increased aggressiveness, so they are in a hurry to accuse them of increased crime, even if there is no evidence that the Caucasians committed the next robbery or rape.
