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(Please be advised this article features accounts of racism and racist discourse, including mentions of Nazism.)
The intensifying conflict in Ukraine has raised the issue of racism not only in Ukraine, but Europe. Three specific and related dimensions of racism are evident in this complex conflict.
Many African, Asian, and Middle Eastern nationals spent two to three days at border checkpoints, and reported lack of food, water, accommodation or basic support in freezing winter conditions, while they waited to get through.
A statement issued by the African Union condemned reports about the treatment of Africans as “shockingly racist and in breach of international law” and observed:
Equally disturbing is the unthinkingly racist mainstream media framing of Ukrainian refugees, in comparison to the framing of refugees from Syria, Iraq or Afghanistan or Africa.
Below, a selection of such racist commentary from major news outlets:
“This isn’t Iraq or Afghanistan […] This is a relatively civilised, relatively European city” - Charlie D’Agata, CBS
“War is no longer something visited upon impoverished and remote populations” - Daniel Hannan, The Telegraph
“What’s compelling is looking at them, the way they are dressed. These are prosperous, middle-class people. These are not obviously refugees trying to get away from the Middle East […] or North Africa. They look like any European family that you’d live next door to” – Peter Dobbie, Al Jazeera.
These descriptions of Ukrainian refugees invidiously position them as more “civilised” and “superior” to refugees from the Middle East, African or Asian nations.
This seems to imply that Ukrainian lives are worth saving, while the lives of millions of others who seek refuge are more disposable because they are people who are not “well-dressed”, “middle-class”, don’t “look like us”, or live in more remote, supposedly less “civilised” locations.
The third and more dangerous dimension of racism is the mobilisation of the neo-Fascist, white supremacist Azov movement in Ukraine since 2014. Azov started as a volunteer battalion that was then officially integrated into the National Guard of Ukraine in November 2014. The current Ukrainian government has not made comment on this movement.
In the current crisis, Azov battalion is training Ukrainian civilians for guerrilla-style combat with the Russian military.
However, it is important to also note that similar white nationalist groups exist across Europe and North America. Therefore Putin’s claim of “deNazification” of Ukraine is a flimsy reason for invasion of Ukraine.
Closer to home, alongside other European far-right movements, Azov’s propaganda appears to have inspired Brenton Tarrant of Australia in his deadly terrorist attack on a mosque in Christchurch in 2019. This was evidenced by the sonnerad or black sun on his jacket, a symbol commonly used by the Azov Battalion and far-right brands in France.
Research suggests racism and xenophobia varies with the relationship between hostile government policies and anti-migrant sentiments of the population. In short, the problem of racism is not just Ukrainian or eastern European, it is European.
More nuanced analysis argues there is insufficient evidence to show eastern Europeans are more xenophobic than western Europeans. Any analysis should consider the complex histories of migration from, and through eastern European countries.
Acknowledgement of this institutionalised racism and imperialism would begin by first recognising the Ukraine crisis as a power struggle between the US/NATO and Russia, underwritten by interests of weapons manufacturers and oil companies. This crisis was long predicted by strategic observers of global politics.
Recognising the wider context of institutionalised racism would allow us to connect the current racist treatment of African and Asian migrants in the Ukraine crisis to deadly
European border policies over the past decades. These policies have led to increasing numbers of migrants mostly from Africa and the Middle East, reported as missing in the Mediterranean since 2014.
Finally, we should recognise that any moves to dismantle institutionalised racism are unlikely to be undertaken voluntarily. As Professor of Sociology József Böröcz argues, the defining element of “whiteness” is a “claim, indeed demand, for unconditional global privilege” that is always being reconstituted.
(Bina Fernandez is a Associate professor of the University of Melbourne. This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article here.)
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