amide Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, part of the global spotlight has focused on the torture and discrimination of Indians, Africans, Arabs and other people of color trying to cross the Ukrainian border. Race is often deciding whether people fleeing the war will be welcome or face hostility when they reach European nations for refuge.
The prime ministers of Bulgaria and Poland have declared their countries would accept as many Ukrainian refugees as possible because “these are not the refugees we are used to. These are intelligent and educated people.” These countries have often denied entry to Iraqi, Afghan and Syrian refugees in the past.
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The way sections of the western media are covering the war betrays deep racist exceptionalism. Journalists have implied war is meant perhaps only for “impoverished and remote” countries and not a “civilised” nation with “blue eyes and blonde hair people who have “Instagram and Netflix accounts”. Some western commentators have also inferred that only countries like Iraq and Afghanistan perhaps deserve war.
There is also shock about “well-dressed, prosperous middle class, next-door, white Christian people” being victims of war, with the inference that refugees can stream only from the Middle East or North Africa. The maximum surprise is over the fact that war has visited a European country, “instead of a Third-World nation”.
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The African Union and the Arab and Middle East Journalists’ Association have condemned such treatments and remarks that have tarnished the West’s “high moral ground” of standing up to the Russian aggression in Ukraine.
But when everyone is trying to escape the same risks, why discriminate based on their race? And how did “Third-World” nations become so synonymous with war? Who fought their battles there?
Let’s go back to the Cold War (1945-1990). The Cold War, which often didn’t stay cold, was fought between the Western Bloc led by the US and other “First-World” nations (capitalist, developed and generally democratic) and the Eastern Bloc led by the Soviet Union that influenced the “Second World” (communist, authoritarian and militarily powerful).
As most of their colonies achieved independence by 1960, they were the “Third-World (developing and least developed countries) and the Cold War battlefields.
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When one listens to western commentators, some questions crop up. Who invaded Iraq or Afghanistan? Who fought wars in Syria? Who is fighting in Yemen? And why?
The answer to the Yemen question, for example, can answer many of these questions. Caught in the US-Iran proxy war, the country has been ravaged, with schools, colleges, hospitals and other public utilities being bombed since 2015.
Tens of thousands of people have been killed and more than 4 million others displaced. About 8 million people may lose all humanitarian aid now. Signs of a typical “Third World” country?
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In Syria, Russia launched a bloody intervention to prop up Bashar al-Assad’s regime about six years ago. The US also intervened, but to back anti-Assad forces. And both Russia and the US fought terror outfit ISIS (Islamic State of Iraq and Syria) in Syria. All this triggered a wave of people seeking refuge in the West.
Russia and the US have both invaded Afghanistan for whatever causes they wanted to champion that led to similar destruction and a large number of people living in exile. Western powers invaded Iraq to find weapons of mass destruction. None was found. We again had similar destruction and a large number of people living in exile. It’s a long list.
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If war can visit only poor countries, what makes them poor? Many would agree with Indian parliamentarian Shashi Tharoor’s famous Oxford speech that later led to multiple TV interviews and also a full-blown book. The Congress MP essentially said the British destroyed the Indian economy and pushed the country back by several decades.
The same could be true for many other British colonies in the “Third-World”. Without decades of colonization, they could have had their own versions of “Netflix and Instagram” much earlier, and that would have perhaps made them look more “civilised” if not white.
But beyond such passionate arguments, let’s look at racism in its historical context. Racism was more pronounced when Caucasian people from industrializing Europe tried to dominate brown (Indian sub-continent) and yellow-skin (Mongolian) Asians.
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Racial superiority or inferiority did not feature in narratives in this manner in earlier phases when Caucasian Europeans’ interactions with Armenian or Mediterranean people were greater, compared to Asian people of colour.
In the Age of Exploration, the Caucasian European powers needed new markets to colonise. Indian sub-continent, East Asia, South-East Asia and Africa became their targets. The industrialized people needed a narrative to make their imposed superiority accepted by the people of colour.
Many believe that the West often needs to refer to the “Third-World” countries to calm its anxieties triggered by its own moral deformities or civilizational fault-lines. Anything shameful, blame it on the non-white world. White exceptionalism affirmed; the feeling of shame handled.
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That’s how defensive projection works: attributing one’s own unacceptable urges to another. When you bully or ridicule someone or a community, you essentially project your own struggle with self-esteem onto that person.
For example, when America faces chaos or shame, sections of the media there often headline their pieces that question if the US is becoming a third-world country.
The Human Rights Watch has reported that racism and xenophobia remain entrenched problems in most western countries. In fact, across the globe. It’s a fact that ethnic discrimination has become more and more prominent due to ultra-nationalist parties gaining attention in recent years.
But in times of war, when protecting human lives and dignity should be a top priority, the West’s racist response amid Russia’s invasion of Ukraine was the last thing we wanted, particularly when the Covid-19 pandemic has shattered the myth of race-based distinction .
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