Even a war does not justify racism

We were visiting a small shop in Warszawa. A young man entered the shop, with loud music playing from his telephone - Russian music. The Ukrainian man standing in a queue by the cash register turned around and asked him if he was Russian. The young man nodded, and the Ukrainian got visibly angry and started shouting out expletives. The young man quickly grabbed for his pocket and deescalated the situation by holding up a Ukrainian passport.

I should say that I can perfectly understand the response, given the current situation. That said, racism is (probably) one of the major reasons so many atrocities have happened in the Kyiv-area. The Russian media has gone from promoting Ukrainians as "little brothers" into promoting them as nazists and untermensch (what an irony), making them appear less-human. Some of the Russian soldiers have then come to perceive it as legitimate to terrorize the civilian population around Kyiv.

Given the current situation, I can fully understand that the Ukrainian in the shop got angry - but still, we should always denounce any kind of racism. One can rarely choose nationality, place of birth or citizenship, and should not be discriminated due to those factors.

That said, while one can rarely choose those things, one can choose to display it or not. Given the current situation it appears to be quite insensitive and even an outright bad idea to walk around in Poland today playing loud Russian music or displaying Russian symbols. (Playing any kind of loud music in the public room is impolite - but that's a digression).