News out of Ukraine is grim.

[conuly]

And I have intense sympathy for anybody there.

This sympathy is only slightly marred by the dichotomy of the worldwide response to Ukrainian refugees and, say, Afghan refugees.

Though that does still piss me off. We had no call to just cut and run and ditch the people in Afghanistan who helped us - but we did! And we had no call to strand asylum seekers at the border between the US and Mexico - but we're still doing it!

I just... it just upsets me.

Comments

[readerjane]

Yeah. I want America to be “I lift my lamp beside the golden door,” and most of the time she’s just not. It’s depressing. I can vote, and donate, and it’s still just so sad.

[conuly]

Small comfort that it's not just an isolated American phenomenon, this blatant racism weird pickiness.

[oracne]

This.

[siliconshaman]

You're not the only person that's pointed out the disparity in the response between Ukrainian and say Syrian refugees..

Of course, the obvious reason is that Ukrainians are white for the most part, and the Syrians, Afghans and Mexicans are not.

If it's any consolation, the UK is being just as two-faced about it, along with most of the European countries. So it's not just American that's being racist as fuck...

[conuly]

That is not very consoling at all, I'm afraid.

[siliconshaman]

True... there are times when I am very disappointed in humanity, and believe me, if the bar was any lower to start with, you'd have to dig to find it.

[ranunculus]

And here I was thinking that we were already busy with a pick and shovel trying to find the bar....

[radiantfracture]

same.

[rebeccmeister]

Not to mention the way different groups of people already within the US get treated!

[gingicat]

Agreed.

[sabotabby]

Agreed 100%.

[lilysea]

There have also been stories about people of colour who came to Ukraine years ago as refugees,

received Ukrainian citizenship,

and are being treated harshly at the European borders because while they are Ukrainian citizens, they're not *white* Ukrainian citizens... :(

[conuly]

It's so infuriating.

[silveradept]

It has been a few years of exposing the racist assumptions that most of the world operates on, but it feels like most of the people who were exposed learned nothing and plenty more are actively trying to re-suppress that knowledge.

I have great sympathy to anyone whose world is populated by the terrors of war, and can appreciate the fine art of diplomacy involved in trying to get someone who is ordering atrocities to face accountability for them without tipping over into a scenario where annihilation of wide swaths of existence happens, but I also want it to be simple enough of "bad person did bad things, bad person and their enablers removed from power and prosecuted," wherever it happens.

[zesty_pinto]

I agree about the lopsided support. As much as I keep seeing Ukrainians argue against having nazis (which we all know is disingenuous Russian sophistry), there's so many things that the people there do not acknowledge. No one talks about the lopsided treatment of PoC there. No one really likes to acknowledge Peace Corps telling you to basically get over any chance you get called a slur. No one seems to find it strange that NATO made the nazi problem apparent because they kept highlighting people with blatant alt-right memorabilia.

I think it's okay to say screw the Russian leadership and I hope the blatant sign of how much Russia's military budget emphasizes how weak they really are, and it's just as okay to say screw the people who don't want to acknowledge they treat minorities badly in Ukraine.

[frith]

It's definitely a very annoying dichotomy. Cases in point: Countries around the world still doing business as usual with Saudi Arabia despite the Turkish trial for the murder of journalist Khashoggi complete with audio of the journalist being murdered (court case has now been abandoned); the Ethiopian army murdering Tigrayans; There's also Yemen; And I recall the total lack of action on the Rwanda genocide despite numerous pleas for aid from Dallaire.

I wonder if the UN was ever relevant or if it was always a justice-washing tool for the power elite.