it’s hard to be a person of color, someone whose identity’s foundational stone was set in the non-western world and engage with media, history, or culture produced by the west. one is constantly negotiating a minefield. with all its politico-historical analysis and feeling, the russian invasion of ukraine is not a global south problem. it does not, for the most part, involve people of color. yet western commentators, media and politicians found ways of dragging in the other and raising their glass to racism.
first the bulgarian PM said something like: ‘these are not the refugees we are used to. they are european, intelligent, educated people, some are IT programmers…this is not the usual refugee wave of people with an unknown past. no european country is afraid of them.’
in the british telegraph, daniel hannan wrote emotionally: ‘they seem so like us. that is what makes it so shocking. war is no longer something visited upon impoverished and remote populations. it can happen to anyone.’
on france’s BFM TV, a commentator pontificated: ‘we’re not talking here about syrians fleeing the bombing of the syrian regime backed by putin, we’re talking about europeans leaving in cars that look like ours to save their lives.’
and on america’s CBS news a world-weary guy declared: ‘this is not a place like iraq or afghanistan…’ he was generous enough to call ukrainian cities ‘relatively civilized’ and ‘relatively european,’ confessing how he had to choose those words carefully.
to hell with these people and their parochial, racist worldview. posting this graphic to remind everyone that folx are the same everywhere, war is always repugnant, and some of the most grotesque violence in the world is funded and wielded by the ‘civilized’ west.
stop wars everywhere. and let people move freely and safely.
#waronukraine #russianwar #ukraine #russia #warsucks #stopwars #syria #iraq #afghanistan #refugeesarehumanbeings #europeanracism #europeanexceptionalism #westernmedia #europeanpolitics #racistinfrastructure #racisthistory