To think the situation in Ukraine has highlighted how racist many still are.

[username99903]

The outpouring of shock and horror at the situation is right of course. I am not trying to take away from that. I have seen some amazing examples of people trying to help and charitable giving. I of course have donated. However I can't help but think why we can not feel this empathy toward the people of Yemen, Afghanistan, Syria etc.

I have heard the most appalling statements especially from US channels talking about how Ukraine is a civilised country that you wouldn't expect this to happen to. It's like people think those from the Yemen etc are some how use to war/don't feel pain the way white Europeans do. We literally dehumanise and devalue people lives.

My work place is holding a charity event which again is great. But we have never thought to do it before for any other war where there was mass migration.

It's not a new realisation I just think it's massively highlighted it.

I’m noticing that op hasn’t replied to the point that was made asking if non white non Christian non European countries not doing as much (anything?) to help displaced Ukrainians of a different race/religion/colour are being racist?

Also as flawed as it is Ukraine was a democracy.

There is a chance for people to rule themselves how they want and if an elected person falls short....out the door.

I'e hope.

What more could we do in Syria? Ruled by a dictator who uses chemicals to suppress " his people".
And Afghanistan?

The Ukraine has the infrastructure to document the war via social media channels. We don't rely on journalists on the ground to document the plight of ordinary people...
Then there are also the geographical implications and the fact that it is relatively easy to go to Poland to deliver aid = no visas or other travel restrictions
...
I think people/ keyboard worriers need to put things into perspective. Saying that the help offered is about race is very simplistic. It is about geography, infrastructure and how & who reports about the suffering and displacements

^ This 100% plus political agenda.

@Norsey

I’m noticing that op hasn’t replied to the point that was made asking if non white non Christian non European countries not doing as much (anything?) to help displaced Ukrainians of a different race/religion/colour are being racist?

Are Ukrainians trying to reach safety in these non white non Christian non European countries?

Whilst no doubt some of the difference in reaction will be due to racism, there are so many obvious differences in the situations you describe (in fact, the way you lump on Yemen, Syria and Afghanistan all together is a bit ignorant and racist in itself - is it because they're all brown, OP?)
Firstly, Ukraine borders the EU - Romania, Poland, Slovakia and Hungary. Therefore, there is a direct impact and possibly a threat on the EU, and therefore also us. Poles are also one of the biggest group of European settlers in the UK in the past 20 years, it's hardly surprising we feel more connected to this conflict, because we are more connected. Imagine if Ireland were attacked by Russia , the only country we share a border with, women and children were leaving the country and men signing up to fight, would you still be complaining that people are 'racist' for paying attention? It's the equivalent for EU member states.
Do you have any evidence that people have been less charitable to women and children fleeing war in the other countries you mentioned? Various charities in the UK and across the EU have worked tirelessly to help refugees from the countries you mentioned. I would suggest, though, that this is a new conflict on our doorstep and completely out of the blue, no-one was expecting it. The conflict in Afghanistan has, sadly, been going on for over 20 years, Syria over 10. Tragic though it is, do you really expect people over a 20 year period to be as focussed on an ongoing situation than to a sudden an immediate one on our own doorstep, which is going to impact our own lives?
I agree that the media footage that someone linked above is indeed racist, btw, and find it disgusting the way the black students have been left in the lurch. I think it's more helpful to focus on specifics like this rather than throw vague accusations around.

I think we just identify more easily with Europeans than other continents.

@Norsey

I’m noticing that op hasn’t replied to the point that was made asking if non white non Christian non European countries not doing as much (anything?) to help displaced Ukrainians of a different race/religion/colour are being racist?

No Ukrainian has migrated to the East to non-Christian non-white countries because that would mean crossing the Black Sea or going through Russia 🤦‍♀️.

HOWEVER, the African, Indian and Pakistani students and migrant workers who are trying to flee to safety presumably to get back to their own countries are finding it hard to do so. Being kicked of buses and trains and being made to walk. By Ukrainian officials. Think about that.

I think it normal to have a stronger reaction to people in peril the closer they are to you. If your neighbours house was on fire you'd immediately rush to do anything you can to help. If it were in the street over you'd offer to help but keep out of the way of those directly helping. If it were in the next town you'd feel sympathy on reading about it but probably would just get on with your day.

That's whats happening but on a much larger scale. Our neighbours house is on fire and their kids are running to us screaming in terror.

Well said @Im2022

Yes it absolutely has

We have never ever been so welcoming to other refugees

She worded it clumsily, but it is more shocking to have refugees from a European country that has no history of war

Please, please read up about the history of the area. I've seldom read a statement more jarringly false.

The reality is that many refugees from places like iraq, afghanistan and syria WOULD have preferred to live in the west anyway

Why would you think that? You honestly think people in most of the world would be happy to leave their homes, culture, language, food, extended family, everything that is familiar, just to come and live somewhere alien where they're not particularly welcome?

For instance many Syrians were prosperous, middle-class, living good lives in Syria. You really think they were happy to give all that up, and see their country reduced to rubble, to what, come and claim benefits and live in a council flat in the UK or Germany?

These attitudes themselves reflect a lot.

It’s nonsense that we are more welcoming becuase they are Europeans or close geographically to us

We certainly we not so welcoming to refugees from Bosnia who were mainly Muslim

I disagree. I don't think we are as racist as you are making out. I have a friend who is a senior sister in the NHS. Most of the racism issues between on the wards are between other cultures so the Nigerians have real issues with the Kenyans. It is one of her biggest headaches.

If you had to flee where would you go, Central Europe or Africa? It makes sense that a country's citizens will go to somewhere that is most familiar. To us that would be Europe not South Africa.

There seems to be a concurrent theme everywhere that everyone here is shit and no one does anything. We're all self centred arseholes who had no sympathy for Afganistan and Syria. I just can't see it myself. DH comes from a particularly racist country and he cannot believe the amount of support that pours out of the UK.

What did you personally do for Syria and Afganistan, Op? Were you leading by example?

I think it’s a combo, really. Some of the reporting absolutely has racist undertones (it’s worse because these people are blonde!) and I have no doubt that there are plenty of people who are racist who will also be shouting about Ukraine. But I don’t think it’s racist to be more concerned/aware of a war that is geographically closer and in a more culturally similar country to your own, that’s human nature.

I also think the ever present nuclear factor is feeding into the anxiety a lot as well, which is also understandable

We certainly we not so welcoming to refugees from Bosnia who were mainly Muslim
This is such a disingenuous statement. How do you mean, we were not so welcoming? NATO deployed peacekeeping forces. It was a civil war, and posed no direct threat to us. Also, that was 30 years ago, a completely different era, before social media kept us up to date, before the internet was widely used at all, before the free movement of people in the EU to Britain was commonplace. Were refugees from Bosnia even wanting to come to the UK at that time? You're also ignoring the massive numbers of refugees from Muslim countries that have been welcomed into the UK. Do you have any factual basis for what you are claiming?

Also I think there was a lot of support for Syrian refugees in the UK (among the populace anyway, perhaps not the government). There was a lot of reporting, I know a lot of people who started collections or went to Calais to volunteer, I started supporting certain charities then that I still support today, etc.

@RisingSunn

On BBC News, Ukraine’s deputy chief prosecutor David Sakvarelidze explained being very emotional as he was seeing “European people with blue eyes and blonde hair being killed everyday”.

It’s this kind of thinking

Which feeds into the survival instinct of the human race.

People like me are being killed. Ergo, I could be killed. It becomes about them, not the people being killed.

The reverse. People are being killed but they are not like me. I am safe.

I see OP hasn't returned

Seriously the country has been as united in their support

Mention that someone is Muslim and straight away many are suspicious as they are ‘not like us’

Loads of really good points here.

I’m not denying that racism is involved, but I really think other factors are much more significant. The nature of this war is particularly shocking. It is relatively easily understood to the layperson and quite easy to take a side. Putin is well known and easily characterised (not unfairly TBH) as the villain. You could say similar about Assad but not to the same degree. The connections (both direct and in terms of perception) to WWII are significant.

It’s particularly interesting to see the extent to which non-political organisations are getting in involved with voluntary sanctions against Russia (the likes of H&M shutting stores etc). It’s hard to think of a similar precedent for this (South Africa maybe?).

The potential for it to impact our own lives in the UK directly too - whether through escalating the cost of living crisis (almost certain) or nuclear attack (unlikely but obviously catastrophic).

It’s hardly surprising this is getting attention. And we are, what? 10 days in? Admittedly the support from the public is huge, the amount raised by DEC for Ukraine in a single day is more than the total they raised for Syria.

I do think people have short memories for how much attention was focused on Syria and Afghanistan at particularly intense moments in those conflicts though. And the public outpouring of support that followed.

We are just dealing with a war the understandably resonates with people in the UK more than other conflicts has done.

Racism has been alive and well for decades why does this even come as a suprise to you? Did it not highlight how racism still exists when the black lives matter protests took place?

Did it not make you think wow after all these decades we still haven't managed to improve it, yet it takes a war against a country of predominatly white people for you to get that. Wow

One thing's for sure, Putin would love to see westerners chastising themselves for helping the people of Ukraine in case they're seen as 'racist'. For all those claiming it's 'racist' to help Ukrainians (and how do you even know those people haven't helped others in need?) put your money where your mouth is, go and volunteer to help Syrian/Afghani/Yemeni refugees. Otherwise, stop criticising those trying to help Ukrainians.

The bottom line is that all refugees are equal, but some are more equal than others.

i imagine that if the ukraine people are rascist it is because they do not live alongside people of colour, as we do in many parts of europe

we were rascist in the past, very rascist, think about the 1960s.

i believe if you are a person of colour you would not wish to live in a rascist country, therefore the situation carries on.
but this is simply my opinion

What did you personally do for Syria and Afganistan, Op? Were you leading by example?
THIS