As Western countries rally in support for Ukraine’s fight against a Russian invasion, hyper-woke commentators are arguing the unity is actually based in white supremacy.
Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine entered its fifth day Monday, and dozens of countries including the U.S., NATO allies and others have imposed harsh economic consequences for Russia. Western media has also offered praise to the Ukrainian people for taking up arms against the would-be occupying force. Woke commentators on Twitter argued the Ukrainians only enjoy that support because they are white.
It would be great to see just a little of that enthusiasm for the legitimacy of armed resistance extended to people who are not white.
— Ben Ehrenreich (@BenEhrenreich) February 26, 2022
The glorification of white people who engage in armed resistance versus the condemnation of people of color who do the same.
— cℓaudia stєℓℓ✰r ✂️ (@ClaudiaStellar) February 26, 2022
The criticisms garnered tens of thousands of likes and retweets. Several of the commentators noted the success of pro-Ukraine crowdfunding efforts as evidence of a racist double standard. They argued that past bans on crowdfunding efforts for pro-Palestinian groups proved that efforts to support Ukraine benefited from racism. (RELATED: ‘F*ck You, B*tch!’: Ukraine UFC Fighter Doesn’t Hold Back In Her Message To Putin)
beyond the strangeness of this, i’m just reminded of the number of muslims and muslim organisations who had their bank accounts shut off and placed on blacklists for donating to charities with tenuous “hamas links” pic.twitter.com/mpKC4RK1lL
— HK (@HKesvani) February 26, 2022
New York Times writer and author of “The 1619 Project,” Nikole Hannah-Jones, weighed in on the grousing as well. She suggested Westerners are only sympathetic to Ukraine because they consider Ukrainians to be “civilized” or “like us.”
What if I told you Europe is not a continent by defintion, but a geopolitical fiction to separate it from Asia and so the alarm about a European, or civilized, or First World nation being invaded is a dog whistle to tell us we should care because they are like us.
— Ida Bae Wells (@nhannahjones) February 27, 2022
The push to force the Ukraine conflict into a racial framework received heavy pushback, however, with observers pointing out numerous instances where the U.S. and its allies rallied behind countries regardless of race.
It’s simple, when the U.S. intervenes on behalf of Koreans, Kuwaitis, etc. it does so out of imperialist ambition. And when it does so on behalf of Ukrainians it’s due to race-based empathy.
— Alex Griswold (@HashtagGriswold) February 28, 2022
“It’s simple, when the U.S. intervenes on behalf of Koreans, Kuwaitis, etc. it does so out of imperialist ambition. And when it does so on behalf of Ukrainians it’s due to race-based empathy,” joked conservative commentator Alex Griswold.