Race In A Time Of War: The Russian/Ukraine Conflict And The Western Response To Racism At The Border
There are alarming reports from Africans and other people of colour being discriminated against and prevented from accessing transport in their attempt to escape the raging conflict in Ukraine.[i] In this regard, a number of Black people living in Ukraine, many being students, reported “being blocked” as they tried to board trains to escape the war.[ii]
At a Kyiv train station, despite police officers saying “they'd prioritize entry to women and children”, access was denied to a group of African women, some of whom were pregnant, ignoring the pleas of African men to authorities to let them pass.[iii] The blatant racism by Ukrainian police and border officials was laid bare in a station in Lviv, when officers said “only Ukrainian nationals could pass”, allowing "only white people," to pass without checking passports or other national identity documentation.[iv] Further, at the Ukraine-Poland border, “white and non-white people” were “separated by a barricade”, with the “authorities allowing the white group to move quickly and in large numbers, while mostly ignoring people of color”.[v] Non-white refugees reaching the border are reportedly being “pushed to the end of the line and being beaten” by Ukrainian police as they let white Ukrainians through “with no problem at all”.[vi] All of this despite the fact that there are a number of Black Ukrainians, with many being second and third generation descendants of African fathers and Ukrainian mothers.[vii] Polish officials refused Nigerian and other African nationals from entering Poland and Africans were confronted by abuse from Polish officials at the border.[viii] Africans living, working, and studying in Ukraine have been held up in the western part of the country by racist Ukrainian police who have forced them to “remain out in the cold, without food and shelter”.[ix] Estimates by the International Organization of Migration is that there are almost 500,000 people of colour resident in Ukraine and only 6,000 have managed to leave the country thus far.[x]
In the face of these credible damning reports, some Ukrainian and Polish officials denied that there had been racism, incredibly attributing the reports to what they described as “a part of Russian disinformation campaigns”.[xi] Polish police officials declared that everyone fleeing from the conflict in Ukraine were being welcomed to Poland “regardless of nationality”.[xii] However, despite these denials, the Ukraine Government have established hotlines to assist "African, Asian and other students wishing to leave Ukraine".[xiii] Ominously, these outrages were preceded in Poland a week earlier by an attack on people of colour fleeing Ukraine by racist Polish white supremacists. Unfortunately, while the Polish police acknowledged the attacks, they nonetheless warned of “fake reports of violence toward refugees aimed at deterring them from coming”.[xiv] When Kurdish migrants tried to enter Poland from Belarus more recently, they were beaten by “racist” Polish police who “forced them back into forests where many froze to death”. White Ukrainians, on the other hand, are met by people “carrying blankets, boxes of food, and free rides to homes where they can shelter”.[xv]
In contrast, Chinegwu Mbagwu, a 24-year-old doctor from Nigeria “who has saved the lives of gravely ill white Ukrainian children”, spent two days “freezing and starving” in Western Ukraine near the Polish border as Ukrainian guards “blocked her from entering Poland”. She was among many others treated the same way. She told the New York Times in a phone interview, her “voice trembling”, that:
“The Ukrainian border guards were not letting us through...They were beating us with sticks and tearing off our jackets. They slapped us and pushed us to the end of lines that were more than a mile long. It was awful”.[xvi]
A Black Ukrainian, Zhan Beleniuk, who is a former Olympic gold medalist and a member of the Ukrainian parliament, has spoken openly about the discrimination which he has been subjected to.[xvii] Kimberly St. Julian-Varnon, a historian and University of Pennsylvania doctoral candidate, asserted that:
“Unfortunately, as a person who’s worked in the region for over 10 years, this is not surprising. What we’re seeing is a culmination of racism that has always existed in this region, and it’s being exacerbated by the chaos of war....Racist groups are likely to feel emboldened to commit acts of hate amid the chaos of war. While they are representative of their countries' populations, they get an outsized amount of media attention".[xviii]
The blatant abuse and discrimination being experienced by Africans, Asians and, people of colour at the border was widely condemned by African nations, including Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya and Gabon. US civil rights leaders, with the African Union have condemned it as "shockingly racist and in breach of international law".[xix]
The racist outrages have led to an “international coalition of renowned human rights lawyers” who have launched an urgent appeal to the United Nations to respond to the “abominable” racism in Ukraine.[xx] They declared that “Black people and other ethnic minorities” fleeing Ukraine are facing “two wars”, one inflicted by the Russians and another over racial discrimination by Ukrainian officials.[xxi] Convened by U.S. lawyers Ben Crump and Jasmine Rand, who represented the family of George Floyd, the civil society coalition has “petitioned the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights for the U.N” on behalf of refugees “reportedly facing discrimination in Ukraine and near the borders of that country”.[xxii] The coalition has “urged” the UN to call upon the Ukrainian government, its army, and its police to “treat all persons of African descent and other racial minorities with equity”. In “announcing the appeal at an online press conference” the coalition has also urged the U.N. to call for border countries to “admit persons of African descent and racial minorities fleeing the war at rates that are equal to other persons”.[xxiii]
Bias Reporting
The Coalition condemned the “offensive” press coverage of the conflict and urged the U.N. to call for the global media to stop using “comparisons of conflict that perpetuate racism and stereotypes”.[xxiv] This is clearly reflected in comments by Charlie D'Agata of CBS News, who argued that:
"This isn't a place -- with all due respect, you know -- like Iraq or Afghanistan that has seen conflict raging for decades. This is a relatively civilised, relatively European -- I have to choose those words carefully too -- city where you wouldn't expect that or hope it is going to happen".[xxv]
A day later, “after much online furor”, D'Agata apologised for his "poor choice of words", however, this was just one of many remarks on “reputable media outlets drawing a line between the conflict unfolding in Ukraine and those in other parts of the world”.[xxvi] There is a double standard in that, whereas “the toll of war” may be similar in the respective conflicts, the “media treatment” is not.[xxvii] Comparisons have been drawn between Europe's “welcoming” of Ukrainian refugees and the “influx” of Syrians, Iraqis and Afghans, which was declared a "migrant crisis".[xxviii]
Ziad Majed, a professor at the American University of Paris, has pointed out that, while there was "magnificent solidarity" from the world over the Ukraine conflict, it also revealed a "shocking distinction", with the “discrepancies” in media treatment revealing the "dehumanisation of refugees from the Middle East". He indicated that when some commentators speak about “people like us”, this suggests that those coming from Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan or Africa are “not (like them)".[xxix] This is demonstrated in remarks from a commentator from Al Jazeera, who asserted that:
"These are not, obviously, refugees trying to get away from areas in the Middle East that are still in a big state of war...They look like any European family that you would live next door to".[xxx]
The network later “issued an apology”, describing the remarks as "insensitive and irresponsible".[xxxi] In a similar vein, columnist Daniel Hannan, who is also a member of the UK Board of Trade, wrote in the Telegraph that this time, war is “wrong” because the people “look like us” and have Instagram and Netflix accounts. It is not in a “poor, remote country” anymore. Similarly, in a segment of BBC news, Ukraine’s Deputy Chief Prosecutor, David Sakvarelidze, stated that “it’s very emotional for me because I see European people with blue eyes and blonde hair being killed”.[xxxii]
The “seeming discrepancies” in the commentary convey the message that refugees are “welcome depending on where they come from”. The Arab and Middle Eastern Journalists' Association condemned examples of “racist news coverage” that “ascribes more importance to some victims of war than others". This type of commentary “reflects the pervasive mentality” in Western journalism of “normalising tragedy” in parts of the world such as the Middle East, Africa, South Asia and Latin America.[xxxiii] A Middle Eastern journalist’s network, ERBIL, Kurdistan, has called on media outlets and news organizations to be “mindful of implicit and explicit bias” in their coverage of the Ukrainian crisis following several remarks by reporters, media pundits, and political figures, that described Ukraine as more “civilized” in comparison to other “war-torn countries”, such as Iraq, Afghanistan, Yemen, and others.[xxxiv] This is reflected in comments from correspondents of several prominent media outlets, “contextualizing conflict, describing the Russian/Ukraine as more “civilized” than other conflict in the Middle East.[xxxv]
The Arab and Middle Eastern Journalists Association (AMEJA) “condemned and rejected” the “orientalist and racist implications” that any population or country is “uncivilized” or bears economic factors that make it “worthy of conflict”. Such commentary “reflects the pervasive mentality in Western journalism of normalizing tragedy in parts of the world” as it “dehumanizes and renders their experience with war as somehow normal and expected”.[xxxvi]
It has been pointed out that the Western media claims to “protect human rights and defend democracy”, when in reality it is “ignorant, racist and cannot see beyond its own nose”.[xxxvii] This highlights an “emphasis” media has put on Christian Europeans with “blond hair and blue eyes” becoming refugees, marking them out as different from “other victims of war”.[xxxviii] Muska Dastageer, a university lecturer stated that:
“It is the same point being made again and again: people in all other conflicts were half humans, of lesser worthy origin and race, but Europeans are full humans. So this war matters”.[xxxix]
In conclusion, the Russia/Ukraine conflict has exposed the fault lines of racism in the core ethos of the European mindset, the ongoing marginalization of the ‘Black other’ in Western society and shows the double standards of so-called Western morality as equality of opportunity revealed as all are equal but some are more equal than others.
The Race Equality Centre (TREC) vehemently condemns the reprehensible racist behaviour of the Ukrainian and Polish police and authorities. TREC calls for an immediate cessation of all racist treatment being meted out to those fleeing Ukraine with Black and/or brown skins. In the same vein TREC condemns the appalling bias reporting being used in the media to suggest that the pictures on our screens are devasting because of the ‘colour’ of those being killed and dispossessed. Our hearts are with all those fleeing for their lives, not just in Ukraine but the world over. A refugee is a refugee, irrespective of origin. The UN 1951 Refugee Convention makes no such distinction and therefore TREC urges the government of the United Kingdom, the European Union and indeed the United Nations to use their mechanisms to bring such barbaric acts to an immediate end.
[i] Bethany Rielly and and John Wojcik (2022): “Black Refugee Lives Matter: U.N. urged to act on Ukraine border racism” In the People's World website, March 3, 2022. Available online <https://www.peoplesworld.org/article/black-refugee-lives-matter-u-n-urged-to-act-on-ukraine-border-racism/ >; Russell Contreras (2022): “Leaders Decry Reported Mistreatment of Africans Fleeing Ukraine” In the Axio website, March 3. Available online <Leaders decry reported mistreatment of Africans fleeing Ukraine (axios.com) >; Faladell Allassan (2022): “Africans In Ukraine: Escaping Students Describe Rejection at Border” In the Axios website, March 8. Available online <Africans in Ukraine face racism from authorities as they escape (axios.com) >;
[ii] Faladell Allassan (2022) supra.
[iii] Ibid.
[iv] Ibid.
[v] Ibid.
[vi] Bethany Rielly and and John Wojcik (2022) supra.
[vii] Russell Contreras (2022) supra,
[viii] Faladell Allassan (2022) supra.; Russell Contreras (2022) supra,
[ix] Bethany Rielly and and John Wojcik (2022) supra.
[x] Ibid.
[xi] Faladell Allassan (2022) supra.
[xii] Russell Contreras (2022) supra,
[xiii] Faladell Allassan (2022) supra.
[xiv] Ibid.
[xv] Bethany Rielly and and John Wojcik (2022) supra.
[xvi] Ibid.
[xvii] Russell Contreras (2022) supra,
[xviii] Faladell Allassan (2022) supra.
[xix] Faladell Allassan (2022) supra.; Russell Contreras (2022) supra,
[xx] Bethany Rielly and and John Wojcik (2022) supra.
[xxi] Ibid.
[xxii] Ibid.
[xxiii] Ibid.
[xxiv] Ibid.
[xxv] France 24 (2022): “Arabs Decry 'Racist' Double Standard in Ukraine Media Commentary” In the France 24 website, March 1. Available online <Arabs decry 'racist' double standard in Ukraine media commentary (france24.com) >
[xxvi] Ibid.
[xxvii] Ibid.
[xxviii] Ibid.
[xxix] Ibid.
[xxx] Ibid.
[xxxi] Ibid.
[xxxii] Loyal Shakir (2022): “'Racist and dehumanizing:' Western media coverage of Ukraine's plight criticized” In the Rudaw website, February 28. Available online <'Racist and dehumanizing:' Western media coverage... | Rudaw.net >
[xxxiii] France 24 (2022) supra.
[xxxiv] Loyal Shakir (2022) supra.
[xxxv] Ibid.
[xxxvi] Ibid.
[xxxvii] France 24 (2022) supra.
[xxxviii] Ibid.
[xxxix] Ibid.