Ukraine and White Privilege
The unfolding refugee tragedy in Ukraine and the international outpouring of public sympathy and increased aid, as well as intense media attention, has prompted Black leaders and other human rights activists to complain that “white privilege” is at play here as compared to the treatment of Middle Easter and African refugees. I want to address the notion of white privilege as it’s playing out in the present context.
First, it should be noted that the European Union in general, and Germany in particular, have had a protocol in place for years to let in hundreds of thousands of Middle Eastern refugees, if not more. Turkey (a NATO member) alone has taken in well over a million, and there’s been plenty of media coverage about the Syrian refugee plight over the years, as well, so it might be argued that we’re talking about a difference in degree, not kind.
Yet I think Black activists in particular would not agree that it is a “difference in degree, not kind,” when a comparison is made between Ukrainian refugees and the suffering of sub-Saharan Africans caught up in Ukraine. Spokespersons for both Nigeria and South Africa, as well as activists in America, have recently claimed that African students who had been studying in Ukraine either were turned away when seeking refuge in Poland, which shares a border with Ukraine, or were told to make their own arrangements to be saved. See story here. Poland denies the claim, though it, along with Hungary, have greatly resisted taking many Syrian refugees even though the countries are part of the European Union.
“To be clear: We should care about Ukraine,” Nikole Hannah-Jones, the creator of The 1919 Project, recently tweeted. “But not because it is European, or the people appear white, or they are ‘civilized’ and not ‘impoverished.’ All people deserve to be free and to be welcome when their countries are at war.”
I can’t disagree with that sentiment, and I don’t want to qualify this endorsement in any way. From a human rights perspective Hannah-Jones is absolutely correct. Yet the geopolitical context and the very real threats to the rest of Europe caused by the Russian invasion seem lost on her. This is more than a refugee crisis for Europe; the invasion poses a real threat to their very security and existence. This is over and above and separate from the disparate response to various refugee crises.
Russia is nuclear armed, with a large standing army and tons of modern weaponry (though apparently not as up to snuff as Western armaments, from what the world has seen in action so far). Al Qaeda or ISIS or the the Taliban are not nuclear armed, though Iran will be soon enough. Russia, in the guise of the former Soviet Union, dominated nearly all of Eastern Europe after World War II and invaded Hungary in 1956 and the former Czechoslovakia in 1968, as well as fighting a long war in Afghanistan in the 1980s. These facts lead to very practical reasons why European countries, and America, would react differently to the Ukrainian crisis as compared to others, and why the media would respond accordingly. This is not Noam Chomsky’s “propaganda model” the media are following, but very real news.
Beyond “whiteness,” there is also Christianity. While many Ukrainians are Eastern rites or Russian Orthodox (and not necessarily Catholic as in very Catholic Poland) they are still Christian. Ms. Hannah-Jones is making the same mistake that Whoopi Goldberg recently made – Europe has long defined “race” as much more than just “whiteness.” The Nazis killed Jews and Roma not because they were white or non-white, but were identified as races in a different way, in a way that had a large measure of religious affiliation and culture built in.
Hannah-Jones has cited alarming language used by a few reporters in the current crisis, language that to me, as well as to her, do suggest we’re helping people because we think they’re more “like us.” Again, from a human rights perspective this should not be happening. Everyone is like us. Yet it remains an unrealized dream for human rights activists that culture, or religion, or language, or history shouldn’t matter at all when it comes to helping others.