Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Friday March 25, 2022
Ukraine refugee crisis exposes racism and contradictions in the definition of human
May 9, 2019
Not only has the Russian invasion of Ukraine brought to light the awful tragedies that accompany armed conflict, but the subsequent refugee crisis has also uncovered deeply seated racism in the country.
Reporters have documented dehumanizing treatment against international students from Africa, South Asia and the Middle East in Ukraine. This treatment also extended to racialized permanent residents of Ukraine, including a long-time practising Nigerian doctor.
While white women and children were given priority on vehicles departing the country, African women were barred from trains leaving Kyiv even though there were empty seats.
These incidents demonstrate a racist logic that positions some people as vulnerable, and others as beyond the realm of moral obligation to receive protection. Black and racialized people, it seems, are not as deserving of care.
As Black Studies researchers in the field of education, we study how colonialism and anti-Blackness shape what we know. Although some have been shocked by these reports, we are not surprised.
The contradictions inherent in the incidents of racism occurring in Ukraine are part of a long legacy of the exclusive ways the West defines who counts as human.
July 16, 2009
The liberal notion of western society was forged during the 15th-19th centuries when Africans were enslaved across the West. Because of this, liberal conceptions of justice do not consider Indigenous, Black and racialized persons to be on the same level as white Europeans.
For example, the French Revolution pursued the values of liberté, egalité, fraternité even while the French fought to uphold Black enslavement in Haiti (then known as Saint Domingue).
Similarly, the American constitution declared that “all men are created equal” while declaring that Black persons counted as only three-fifths of a person.
The 1948 UN Declaration of human rights was created to contest Nazism and anti-semitism, but did not seek to redress centuries of colonialism of racialized people. Author and poet Aimé Césaire pointed out: “Europeans tolerated Nazism before it was inflicted on them… because until then, it had been applied only to non-European people.”
The liberal notion of western society was forged during the 15th-19th centuries when Africans were enslaved across the West. Because of this, liberal conceptions of justice do not consider Indigenous, Black and racialized persons to be on the same level as white Europeans.
For example, the French Revolution pursued the values of liberté, egalité, fraternité even while the French fought to uphold Black enslavement in Haiti (then known as Saint Domingue).
Similarly, the American constitution declared that “all men are created equal” while declaring that Black persons counted as only three-fifths of a person.
The 1948 UN Declaration of human rights was created to contest Nazism and anti-semitism, but did not seek to redress centuries of colonialism of racialized people. Author and poet Aimé Césaire pointed out: “Europeans tolerated Nazism before it was inflicted on them… because until then, it had been applied only to non-European people.” (Continued: The Conversation)