Ukraine attention bias

[Easymeasy]

www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-61101732

I'm glad this has been publicly said and a proper discussion needs to be had.
The amount of excuses (even on here) as to the reason people were climbing over themselves to offer empathy, support and money to Ukrainians compared to other countries.

The war in Yugoslavia and now in the Ukraine have a huge 'people like us' factor. Scenes from those cities before the war are indistinguishable from scenes here. I was in Yugoslavia a year before it all kicked off. It felt like all the other cities I travelled through on my interrailing ticket.

For a country that looked and felt indistinguishable from mine to be at war, bombed out, destroyed, was terrifying and has left me aware that there is no particular reason it couldn't happen here.

Ukraine has a similar feel, from what I can see. The landscape, the people, the cities, all look like 'home'.

Yemen and Syria and Ethiopia do not look like home. It doesn't have the same visceral impact. It's terrible, and the siege of that port was desperately sad, but it's slightly removed.

I disagree.

We need the Ukraine to hammer the Russian army, or else we are all doomed.

To do this we need to support the Ukrainian military with weapons (which the government are doing), and to make sure the soldiers know that their families are being cared for so they can keep fighting hard.

This is a strategic tactic, which is what war is about.

We don't need to help people from Syria or Ethiopia, it would nice to help them, and as a country we do to a limited extent, because it is a morally good thing to do. However with the Ukraine we need to do this because we can not risk Russia gaining confidence and momentum, and the war extending further into Europe.

Where are all the other black African countries falling over themselves to help their brothers and sisters in war torn African countries? Or Saudi Arablia and other Arab countries helping Syria?
Most refugees do stay local and are housed in neighbouring countries. Take your point about Saudi Arabia, but it in itself is a hideous regime, I wouldn't want to be a refugee there.

And besides, I don't think you can accuse the Tory government of welcoming Ukraine refugees, as far as I can see they're trying to erect every barrier they can get away with to discourage them for trying to come here. Its absolutely shameful.

That the war in Ukraine should be important to us, more so than our involvement in other wars in recent years around the world, is evident and I don’t think this is bias just the stark reality of what we are facing globally.

That we are somehow have more empathy for white, mainly women and children refugees is an uncomfortable truth we should face head on, accept as reality and start to educate on the bias, realities, myths etc whilst refugees are at the forefront of our minds and we can clearly see those biases.

There have been an insane number of refugees that have come from Ukraine in just a few weeks. Over 4 million I think so far more than the whole conflict in the Balkans, which happened over years. People were worried about that too at the time but this is far more scary as it involves Russia.

Also our government has done almost nothing about accepting refugees . The uk have taken tiny numbers so I don't see how other than rhetoric we have done more to help refugees than in any other conflict.

I have an opinion about this. Some people don't care about Ukraine and don't want to help. They don't want to see the suffering in the news and would rather stick their heads in the sand. That makes them feel bad but rather than admit the truth to themselves they have thought of some weird logic that makes the people who care about Ukraine racist.

I am sure there is white bias yes. However there are also other factors. Most of the ongoing wars across the world are civil wars. Many of them involving people we don't agree with fighting people we don't agree with. In Ukrane an ex global super power invaded a democracy headed by a president who has turned out to be exceptionally good at leading a media campaign. We have a clear line of "the goodies" and "the baddies" to throw support behind.

The majority of world rulers grew up during the cold War and will have clear memories of red threat, so don't want that returning. Assad is clearly less of a threat to us than a country with a big red nuclear button. The refugees from Ukrane have been predominantly women and children, whereas young men tend to be the escapees from other war zones mentioned. So yes, I am sure whiteness plays a significant part, but it is far from the whole story.

Social media is playing a huge part in making Ukraine visible - citizens are live streaming on Tiktok, soldiers are updating on Telegram, the President has daily Facebook broadcasts. Their lives are part of our lives, we aren't waiting for or relying on the BBC to tell us what is happening on the news.

@StarlingsInTheRoof

I am sure there is white bias yes. However there are also other factors. Most of the ongoing wars across the world are civil wars. Many of them involving people we don't agree with fighting people we don't agree with. In Ukrane an ex global super power invaded a democracy headed by a president who has turned out to be exceptionally good at leading a media campaign. We have a clear line of "the goodies" and "the baddies" to throw support behind.

The majority of world rulers grew up during the cold War and will have clear memories of red threat, so don't want that returning. Assad is clearly less of a threat to us than a country with a big red nuclear button. The refugees from Ukrane have been predominantly women and children, whereas young men tend to be the escapees from other war zones mentioned. So yes, I am sure whiteness plays a significant part, but it is far from the whole story.

Makes total sense. Thank you.

Fact is we aren't actually offering the Ukrainian refugees much in the way of support at all, not in comparison to the numbers fleeing. So any discussion about whether or not we are doing more because they are white is irrelevant because we are doing bugger all for them aside from making sympathetic noises.

*The UK government has announced that about 16,400 people have arrived in the UK from Ukraine under the two visa schemes the Home Office has set up to handle refugees.

The UNHCR estimates the number of people who have fled Ukraine for abroad since Russia’s latest invasion began on 24 February is 4,697,964*

The UK have helped with weapons, which is good, but fundamentally more about our own self interests than anything else.

And we were very welcoming to the Vietnamese boat people, donkey's years ago when we were more overtly racist, so it's not uncomplicated racism.

While there's an element of "these people look like us, that could have been me", it's a lot more complicated than that.

• Ukrainians have more access to electronic communications than refugees from past conflicts did. That means that we are better informed than ever.

• The conflict involves a hostile superpower with nuclear weapons. Russia poses a threat to us all, unlike Gaddafi or Assad whose threat didn't really extend beyond their respective countries' borders.

• The Ukrainian leader is very charismatic. Did the victims of any other conflicts have someone like that speaking up for them?