White lives matter more
I'd like to preface this post by saying that I think it's great Ukrainian refugees are being welcomed. I don't want them to be treated worse than they are right now. I don't want to level down the treatment Ukrainian refugees are getting, I want to level up the treatment ALL refugees are getting.
When Russia first invaded Ukraine, my first thought was, "those poor Ukrainians. They'll get no help at all when they flee the fighting." In retrospect, that was breathtakingly naive. I was bewildered to see countries like Poland, Hungary and Denmark (all of whom have been actively hostile to non-white refugees as deliberate government policy) welcome Ukrainian refugees with open arms. That's when I realized it's not refugees in general they have a problem with, it's just the ones with a different skin colour. That unpleasant conclusion has become inescapable.
I don't mean to single out Poland, Hungary or Denmark for special opprobrium. It's happening all over the West. White-majority countries, including my own country of Canada, suddenly care about refugees, and want to help them. Which is great. I'm thrilled Ukrainian refugees are being treated compassionately.
But that newfound compassion and urgency very obviously does not extend to refugees from Afghanistan, Syria, DR Congo, Myanmar, Ethiopia and other places in the world which are also dealing with humanitarian catastrophes at the moment. And the one thing refugees from those places have in common is they're not white.
Apparently blond-haired, blue-eyed refugees tug on the heartstrings of white people in white majority countries in a way that refugees of other shades do not. White lives matter more than the lives of other people. Which any non-white person knew already (and I can picture those readers rolling their eyes at my belated realization of what they've known all their lives). There are whole activist movements built around asserting that black (and brown, and indigenous) lives should ALSO matter.
But speaking as a white person, I hadn't realized before now QUITE how much more invested the average white person is in white lives as opposed to all the others. But there's no escaping that uncomfortable conclusion now. Thank you President Putin, for forcing me to see it. White people are considered more human, more deserving of compassion and aid, than people who don't look like us.
When Russia first invaded Ukraine, my first thought was, "those poor Ukrainians. They'll get no help at all when they flee the fighting." In retrospect, that was breathtakingly naive. I was bewildered to see countries like Poland, Hungary and Denmark (all of whom have been actively hostile to non-white refugees as deliberate government policy) welcome Ukrainian refugees with open arms. That's when I realized it's not refugees in general they have a problem with, it's just the ones with a different skin colour. That unpleasant conclusion has become inescapable.
I don't mean to single out Poland, Hungary or Denmark for special opprobrium. It's happening all over the West. White-majority countries, including my own country of Canada, suddenly care about refugees, and want to help them. Which is great. I'm thrilled Ukrainian refugees are being treated compassionately.
But that newfound compassion and urgency very obviously does not extend to refugees from Afghanistan, Syria, DR Congo, Myanmar, Ethiopia and other places in the world which are also dealing with humanitarian catastrophes at the moment. And the one thing refugees from those places have in common is they're not white.
Apparently blond-haired, blue-eyed refugees tug on the heartstrings of white people in white majority countries in a way that refugees of other shades do not. White lives matter more than the lives of other people. Which any non-white person knew already (and I can picture those readers rolling their eyes at my belated realization of what they've known all their lives). There are whole activist movements built around asserting that black (and brown, and indigenous) lives should ALSO matter.
But speaking as a white person, I hadn't realized before now QUITE how much more invested the average white person is in white lives as opposed to all the others. But there's no escaping that uncomfortable conclusion now. Thank you President Putin, for forcing me to see it. White people are considered more human, more deserving of compassion and aid, than people who don't look like us.