“This isn’t a place, with all due respect , like Iraq or Afghanistan that has seen conflict raging for decades. This is a relatively civilized, relatively European city where you wouldn’t expect that or hope that it’s going to happen. I have to choose those words carefully too.” Charlie D’agata, Correspondent CBS News.
“It’s really emotional for me because I see European people with blue eyes and blonde hair being killed, children being killed every day with Putin’s missiles and his helicopters and rockets.” Ukrainian Politician and former prosecutor David Sakvarelidze.
“These are not refugees from Syria, these are refugees from Ukraine… They’re Christian, they’re very similar [to us].” Kelly Cobiela, Correspondent, NBC News.
“The unthinkable has happened. This is not a developing, third-world nation- this is Europe!” Lucy Watson, Correspondent reporting from Poland for Britain’s ITV.
Blacks in Ukraine do not exist. Rather they are invisible if the above quotes are anything to go by. These are just but a few of the sentiments that have rent the airwaves since the conflict in Ukraine started some five days ago. International media correspondents can only see the blonde hair and blue eyes and that is all their hearts are breaking for. They are completely blind as they cover the refugee border crossings where Black people who are predominantly Africans are being shoved and mistreated all the while being denied access to cross over into safety. While I intellectually understand that black is defined as being a color that lacks hue and brightness and absorbs light without reflecting any of the rays composing it, it is just inconceivable and incomprehensible that there is that much absence of light being reflected back into the eyes of all the white media correspondents at the border points from Ukraine that the plight of fellow humans being mistreated cannot get even an ounce of coverage.
Racism doesn’t take a break even smack in the middle of a war it rears its ugly head to always remind us that we are truly on our own.
“This type of commentary reflects the pervasive mentality in Western journalism of normalizing tragedy in parts of the world such as the Middle East, Africa, South Asia and Latin America. It dehumanizes and renders their experience with war as somehow normal and expected.” - Arab and Middle Eastern Journalists Association.
To be African is to always depend on yourself. Africans have to cover their own news complete with supporting evidence for their concerns to even be believed before they can be addressed. When the videos first surfaced online the Russian authorities dismissed it as disinformation. The ludicrousness of it all makes my blood boil! The United Nations only today (4 days later!) just released a statement acknowledging that Africans were indeed mistreated at the border crossing while trying to flee war torn Ukraine. Indians have also been beaten up and mistreated but they can speak for themselves because they have no leg to stand on given how they treat their workers here in Kenya.
To be black is to have your humanity erased, your whole existence denied and your experience dismissed. It is exhausting and frankly just infuriating as a black African to stay civilized when we don’t even have permission to be “civilized” as a developing third-world country. It is terrible that innocent people are dying in this senseless war and that 500,000 people and counting have been displaced from their homes but I cannot seem to muster up any sympathy for Ukrainians because I think they brought this on themselves by agitating Putin.
Everyone knows that you should not argue with a mad man. “If you argue with a madman, it is extremely probable that you will get the worst of it; for in many ways his mind moves all the quicker for not being delayed by the things that go with good judgment.” - G.K. Chesterton. This is in essence what Ukraine thought it could achieve by agitating a mad man at the behest USA. Angela Merkel, Germany’s former Chancellor reported in 2014 that Putin is “out of touch with reality” and I am inclined to believe her assertions. Now a mad man has started a war and the whole world is watching helplessly. If it were in Africa, we would know what to do and how to deal with a mad man because every last one of our markets had mad men and still do as such our capacity to handle mad men has been meticulously honed over the years. I guess being “uncivilized counts” for something after all. That being said, I hope that the black refugees can find their way to safety and back home. Racism doesn’t take a break even smack in the middle of a war it rears its ugly head to always remind us that we are truly on our own. We as Africans should do well to pay attention to this slight, work hard and deliberately towards building systems and structures towards self-reliance which is a complex discussion for another day.
@SquareOblangata.