Western media hypocrisy

Putin’s invasion of Ukraine has generated an inspiring wave of solidarity around the world, but for many — especially non-White observers — it has been impossible to tune out the racist biases in Western media and politics.

Western media is covering the Ukrainian crisis with blatant racism. Numerous Western news outlets have aired views and statements that have been condemned as racist or problematic. From France to the UK and the US, much of the media coverage of the war in Ukraine has been saturated with racial bias. It’s dangerous, if unsurprising.

Former Conservative politician Daniel Hannan wrote in Britain’s Telegraph newspaper that they seem so like us which makes it shocking. According to him, “Ukraine is a European country. Its people watch Netflix and have Instagram accounts, vote in free elections and read uncensored newspapers. War is no longer something visited upon impoverished and remote populations. It can happen to anyone.”

A commentator on BFM TV, France’s leading news channel, said during a live broadcast that it is sad that it is happening in Europe. He mentioned, “We are in the 21st century, we are in a European city and we have cruise missile fire as though we were in Iraq or Afghanistan, can you imagine!”

During another BFM TV broadcast, journalist Philippe Corbe said: “We’re not talking here about Syrians fleeing the bombing of the Syrian regime backed by Putin, we’re talking about Europeans leaving in cars that look like ours to save their lives.”

On the BBC, a former deputy prosecutor general of Ukraine was emotional not because the people are homeless, not because their country is being invaded but because their hair is blonde.

“It’s very emotional for me because I see European people with blue eyes and blond hair … being killed every day,” he said.

This expert is emotional not because the people are homeless, not because their country is being invaded but because their hair is blonde.

Even an Al Jazeera anchor used racist remarks for the people of the Middle East and North Africa.

“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,” he said.

While an ITV News reporter said, “Now the unthinkable has happened to them, and this is not a developing, Third World nation; this is Europe.”

This is the clear example of systemic racism and the sad part is that it is not being said on some white supremacy cult, this is happening on live television.

While NBC news correspondent Hallie Cobiella was shocked to see white people seeking refuge. “To put it bluntly, these are not refugees from Syria, these are refugees from Ukraine. They are Christians, they’re white. They’re very similar [to us],” Cobiella said.

The implication for anyone reading or watching — particularly anyone with ties to a nation that has also seen foreign intervention, conflict, sanctions and mass migration — is clear: It’s much worse when White Europeans suffer than when it’s Arabs or other non-White people. Yemenis, Iraqis, Nigerians, Libyans, Afghans, Palestinians, Syrians, Hondurans — well, they are used to it.

Wion news Executive Editor, Palki Sharma Upadhiya, drew comparisons between the 2015 refugee crises to the current scenario. She rightly pointed out that around 1.3 million people sought asylum in Europe, and most of them were from Syria, Afghanistan and Nigeria. The Western countries shut their borders, herded the refugees like cattle and branded them as terrorists back then. The question arises that why the European countries are welcoming Ukrainian refugees (nothing against them, they deserve all the help), when Ukraine is not even a member of the European Union. It is not even part of NATO, so what explains this level of assistance? The answer is very simple ‘Racism’. Ukrainians are Europeans, they get the red carpet but Africans and Asians get border crackdowns and refugee camps.

The insults went beyond media coverage. A French politician termed Ukrainian refugees represent high-quality immigration. In fact, The Bulgarian prime minister termed Asian refugees as terrorists. According to him, “Ukrainian refugees are intelligent, they are educated… This is not the refugee wave we have been used to, people we were not sure about their identity, people with unclear pasts, who could have been even terrorists.” This is coming from the European head of the state who is openly calling West Asian refugees terrorists.

CBS’s senior correspondent, Charlie D’Agata, is appalled by the war not because there is death and destruction but because it is happening in Europe.

“This isn’t a place, with all due respect, like Iraq or Afghanistan that has seen conflict raging for decades. This is a relatively civilised, relatively European — I have to choose those words carefully, too  — the city where you wouldn’t expect that or hope that it’s going to happen,” D’Agata said.

So, according to CBS, Iraq and Afghanistan are uncivilised countries, their people are uncultured, their regimes are irresponsible; so they deserve war, they deserve hundreds of bombs and years of occupation. On the other hand, Ukraine does not deserve war or hardships because Ukraine is ‘civilised’.

Historically, Europe has been a home to some of the worst wars and the worst war crimes in human history, for example; ‘The Holocaust’. In fact, among the 248 armed conflicts that occurred in 153 regions across the world from 1945 to 2001, 201 were initiated by the US, accounting for 81 per cent of the total number.

According to The Independent race correspondent, Nadine white, The media has also glorified Ukrainian locals’ armed resistance to the Russians in a way that’s not afforded to nations comprised of Black and Brown people. Crowd funding campaigns towards this effort are being shared on social media, whereas donations to monetary accounts, such as PayPal, thought to be associated with public aid efforts linked to Middle Eastern countries have been subject to sanctions.

On Friday, Sky News broadcast a clip of people making Molotov cocktails — effectively bombs — explaining in intricate detail how to make these devices as effective as possible. Can we imagine if these were Syrians or Palestinians? They would quickly be branded as terrorists.

Now is as good a time as any for those at the helm of media organisations and journalists reporting on Ukraine to have a long, hard think about how to privately examine their own privileges and go about producing balanced coverage.

This double standard is so evident in how the White-supremacist Westerners engage in international relations. Far too often, they dehumanise non-White populations, diminishing their importance, and that leads to one thing: the degrading of their right to live in dignity.

Apart from racism, the Western media hypocrisy became more evident when Daily Mail, British Newspaper, headlined Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan’s two months prior scheduled visit to Russia as ‘shameful’ but used the neutral tone for the ineffective Western sanctions as the West is still paying Russia more than $1 billion-a-day for oil and gas. If the West is actually concerned for the crisis in Ukraine and ready to support Ukraine in every possible manner, then why they are still fuelling the Russian economy with billion dollars every day.

Such racist attitude of Western media shows that the West still needs to do a lot to curtail racism. Such derogatory remarks from the major news outlet in a casual manner would legitimise racism. If this does not expose Western hypocrisy, nothing does. They invaded Asian and African countries, they waged war, they committed war crimes and when the people fled they shut their borders. This shows that refugees were never the problem or the money or borders were not the issue. The issue was the ‘race.’