[ad_1]
Is there racism in a course taught at the University of Sofia? The issue has sparked a debate in recent days amid an open letter from students to the rector of Alma Mater about a controversial course that expresses some blatantly controversial accusations.
On November 11, the Student Society for Equality of the University of Sofia wrote an open letter, which took a firm position: the removal of Professor Mihail Mirchev and his course “Social work with ethnic groups” from the Alma Matera program.
The course itself takes place at the College of Science, Education and Arts, where Mirchev teaches paid classes.
According to the students, authors of the letter, the program’s lectures “are full of racist, xenophobic and anti-Semitic content, which violates the principles on which university education is built.”
Students give a series of examples that defend their thesis. For example, in his second lecture, Mirchev called Pakistanis and Afghans “primitive 7th century cultural norms” and reproduced “false racist anti-Roma tropes.”
“He called the black and Arab immigrants in Italy an “aggressive and reluctant to integrate” minority. In his third lecture, he said of the refugees from Pakistan, Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan and Africa that they were “deeply uneducated people”, “incapable of learning, valuable to learn”, “fit only for very primitive manual labor”.
They also point out that the Roma in Bulgaria, in their words, are “a very aggressive community with very aggressive behavior”, and the birth rate of “Roma”, according to him, “inflates their community”.
The letter also emphasizes that Professor Mirchev addresses one of the students instead of her name, “the mother of two children”, and then in the same lecture she says: “I want you women to give birth a little. on time and a little more! “.
These examples include one from the professor’s fourth lecture, in which he told future social workers that the only thing that could “fix” the gypsies was a “dictatorship.”
“This is only a small part of the harmful and dangerous racist views that Professor Mirchev presents to his students as fact,” says the group’s position.
His accusations about what Mirchev said can (still) be verified on his YouTube page, where all his lectures have been uploaded.
Mirchev himself commented in an interview with Free Europe that he did not accuse the ethnic groups he was commenting on and that he was simply looking for “the details of the different communities in terms of culture, behavior, cultural models, etc.” .
“What they are quoting is not even my sentences, it is not my statements, but words taken out of context,” Mirchev said.
When asked what he means by “Bulgaria can become a Jewish state”, he commented that “in Bulgaria the Jews are much less than 1%, I mean, but at the same time this community has a great influence on everything that determines the power, the media and the environment of the country.
“I have students and students. It is normal that they have a different thinking and sometimes a different ideological dogmatism. My job as a teacher is to teach them to think for themselves, with their heads. But based on facts,” Mirchev wrote in Facebook.
Who is Mihail Mirchev?
Mirchev, son of the former secretary of the Central Committee of the Bulgarian Communist Party Stoyan Mihailov, was born in Sofia and has a fondness for sports as a young man; He’s even a national volleyball player for CSKA, but he never started playing it professionally.
He chooses the “way of his parents”, as he says in an interview for the retro.bg site. His father, who died on October 23 this year, was declared one of the founders of Bulgarian sociology and was one of the few party activists who opposed Todor Zhivkov’s July concept before 1989.
Stoyan Mihailov is also a long-time director of the Institute of Sociology during socialism, and is also the initiator of the so-called Reactivation Process, and then – a member of the commission for their implementation.
Mihail Mirchev continued his professional career: he also graduated in philosophy and sociology from the University of Sofia in 1979 and began his career as a sociologist, scientific secretary and director of the National Institute for Youth Research.
In 1986 he defended his doctoral thesis, and in 1998 he was qualified as associate professor of sociology at the Free University of Burgas. In 2010, as a professor of sociology at UNWE.
He is a member of the Bulgarian Sociological Association and the Union of Bulgarian Journalists.
In the local elections of 2015, he ran for mayor of Sofia, nominated by the inter-party coalition “BSP – Left Bulgaria”. It ranked third with 8.4% of the votes, after Yordanka Fandakova (60.17%), nominated by GERB, and Vili Lilkov (9.62%), nominated by the Reform Bloc.
“For many years I have been in the kitchen of the left, I have worked for key figures, I have personal impressions of decisive events. This makes me good at current political-partisan analyzes and forecasts, simply because I know exactly the past and the genesis of everything”. he says in the same interview.
Mirchev emphasizes that his family adheres to patriarchal values in their contemporary and modern form: “with respect for men and responsibility on their part, with freedom for women and the creation of a loving home environment. The combination is the truth, not in selfish equality. ” “he says.
Prof. Mirchev teaches in the specialty “Social Pedagogy”, 2nd year, part time. His topic is called “Social work with ethnic groups.” You can see his synopsis here.
Which The Society of Students for Equality of the University of Sofia?
The organization was formed in 2017 and aims to combat various forms of discrimination in the university environment.
“What prompted us to make this club was that we wanted to make the environment more receptive and inclusive for all students and teachers, members of the administration,” as stated during the General Assembly of the Student Council in February 2018..
In February 2020, Lukovmarsh organizers and some far-right groups stormed the University of Sofia during a discussion organized by the Student Society for Equality on the occasion of the resurgence of fascism.
At the 2019 event, BNS representatives also attempted to provoke and sabotage the discussion, and the organizers received numerous anonymous threats online, the Barricade website notes.
The causes they supported were a protest against violence against women, as well as the “No Nazis on our streets” march.
What are the reactions to the letter so far?
Three law students from the university’s law school wrote an open letter to the rector calling Mirchev’s letter a “denunciation” of totalitarianism, and said the professor’s lectures were “a realistic way of raising public concerns.” .
“The discussion of cultural norms in Pakistan and Afghanistan as ‘primitive’ is not a manifestation of racism, but rather an objective emphasis on the cultural differences between our culture of democracy, freedom of religion and expression with countries where religious courts predominantly administer justice “they wrote. they.
Regarding the speech to a student as “mother of two children”, the authors of the letter affirm that the demographic crisis in our country is not an imaginary problem, but a very real and serious one, and they express their opinion on this subject, regardless of whether use politically correct terms. or joking tone, it is not a form of discrimination or sexism, but a discussion of a social problem directly related to the subject being studied ”.
“It should also be noted that discussing these topical issues helps to engage students in the current situation of distance learning, which is definitely commendable, not objectionable,” said the three students.
A similar letter in defense of Mirchev appeared from the student club “Spaichi”, which defines itself as right-wing and patriot.
According to him, the letter against Mirchev is a use of “insidious tactics” in order to accumulate dissatisfaction “with his social bubble and channel hatred and fake news,” which shows “lack of morals and ethics among the perpetrators of this act. “.
The club assures that the terms “fascists” and “Nazis” are used without understanding their meaning, although “the University of Sofia is so liberal that it even studies the specialty” Gender Studies “, master’s degree in” Social Studies of Gender “. as “History of women and gender.”
The Deputy Foreign Minister and National Coordinator for the Fight against Anti-Semitism, Georg Georgiev (GERB), who is also a graduate of the University of Sofia, commented on the case in his profile.
He described the language used in Mirchev’s lectures as “extremely unacceptable and full of contradictions and bordering on racism and contempt for the various religious and ethnic groups in Bulgaria.”
Meanwhile, the University of Sofia said the school’s Ethics Commission has carried out an investigation into the case and will check for xenophobia and racism at Professor Mihail Mirchev’s lectures.
