No, Even War Is No Excuse to be Racist.
Almost everyone around the world sympathises with Ukraine on the ongoing Russian invasion and assault. We all continue to watch in horror as entire cities are turned into rubble, and homes are left desolate in the aftermath of endless bomb attacks.
But as a black person, my attention was turned very quickly from the military attacks by Russia on Ukraine to the horrible racism displayed by the locals on Africans, who were mostly university students, as they made their way to the Polish border post trying to flee Ukraine.
Although this is happening in the heart of Europe, I’d be lying if I said I was expecting to see rampant discrimination based on race at the very moment a country is in a state of war.
Part of the reason for this was I did not think racists would have the time to display their racism while running for their lives, but a large part of it was because I did not know that a significant number of Africans lived and studied particularly in Ukraine, even though there are many Africans who live across Europe.
Looking back, I realise that I was very naive. I innocently believed in the shared humanity of people fleeing war, but to my surprise, even this fact could not keep people from being racist. But I have come to understand now, like in the words of Amanda Seales, that ‘Racism always got time.’
This is a heartbreaking truth to come to terms with, knowing that there is almost no space or time wherein black people will ever catch a break. We will always be scapegoated and damn well sacrificed to save precious white lives, which are generally thought to be more important than our own.
The truth is white racists generally believe that black people are occupying their place, they believe that we are taking up space that exclusively belongs to them. It is this sense of entitlement that often causes them to think that they are justified in treating black people as subhuman.
As a black person, it will not matter what legal documentation you produce to prove your existence or legal standing in any setting, even that will not be enough to validate your humanity and afford you your rightful place in society, as was seen with the black people at the Ukraine/Polish border post who were present in the country legally.
The Ukrainian officials kept them at bay to make way for eligible white people, while the Polish officials refused them entry into the country, even with the applicable travel documents in hand.
Women and children were physically dragged by white locals from the lines formed to exit Ukraine, students were physically barred from boarding buses and trains to various border posts, while many others were forced to walk for days to reach the border so they can receive any kind of assistance; and all of this because they are African and black.
The border officials deliberately kept African students packed into groups and waiting in the winter cold for days before they could be allowed to cross the border into neighbouring Poland because they were ‘serving Ukrainians first’, this being code for white people. Some of these officials even went as far as demanding money to assist the black students to exit to safety, something they did not require from the white locals.
Look, I understand that human beings are hardwired to save themselves and their loved ones in times of threat and desperation, but no one can tell me that doing this based on race is justified. It is hate, plain and simple. Hate we have come to know all too well which has, in the past, threatened to wipe out an entire continent of people.
So I am struggling. I am struggling to sympathise with people who did not care to show the same sympathy to those who also needed it, simply because they are of a darker hue than them. The assistance they faithfully offered each other shows that they are capable of such sympathy and that they were simply unwilling to do this for others, only because of the colour of their skin.
There are kids who will grow up with the trauma of this military invasion, adults who will not be able to escape the memory of lost loved ones, the loud bombs and missiles, and signing up to fight in a war they never imagined could happen in their lifetime.
Equally, there will be a generation of Africans who will always remember the Ukrainians for their despicable and dehumanising treatment of black people, for deliberately sacrificing their lives to save their own as if black lives do not matter.
