https://blackgirlnerds.com/africansinukraine-and-the-worldwide-war-against-white-supremacy/
Written By: Wayne Broadway
As surely as there are fish in the sea, there was bound to be anti-Blackness in responses to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. It is, unfortunately, a fact of life in a post-colonial world.
As condemnation has rightly spread worldwide from most nations save a few, there has been much focus on the conflict’s human cost. Men — and transwomen and nonbinary citizens — of fighting age, 18-60, have been banned from leaving the nation. The few who make it to the border are sometimes turned back and told instead to report to a recruitment station.
Elsewhere, ciswomen and children make up many of the nation’s nearly 3 million refugees who have fled the warzone into other parts of Europe and abroad.
Under all this chaos, however, lies an additional layer of strife.
While Ukrainian citizens have seemingly been welcomed with open arms, non-white refugees are living a different reality.
These people, often students, face discrimination at border crossings often by border officials themselves. At these crossings, Ukrainian citizens, predominantly white, are given priority. First- and second-hand accounts have cropped up over Twitter and Instagram under the hashtag “africansinukraine.” Because white supremacy has time for everyone, this discrimination has extended to Middle Eastern and South Asian refugees.
In an article for NBC News, one such refugee presented her story. “There was a gap in the access Black and brown people were getting. There was no one offering their homes to Black people, no one offering to pick up the Black individuals,” said Patricia Daley. She is one of three co-founders of Black Women for Black Lives, an organization that helps Black refugees flee the conflict. “There was a tremendous amount of people offering help and support, but I feel like it was limited to Ukrainian nationals alone. And we know what that means. It’s excluding a group of people. There was a need to support Black people because they weren’t getting the support or access. There was a gap, and we bridged it.”
It goes without saying that the Russian aggression against Ukraine is a war crime in and of itself.
Vladimir Putin and his generals have instigated a “special military operation” against a sovereign nation that has done nothing wrong other than exercise its free will in flirting with the prospect of joining the NATO military alliance or the European Union. That Putin is the worst kind of autocrat and a bad actor on the world stage is similarly clear. Despite his nuclear posturing, nations must continue to retaliate against his regime via sanctions and verbal condemnation to show that this 20th century-style incursion has no place in 2022.
That said, this does not mean that we sweep other things under the rug.
People are being discriminated against both while fleeing from and arriving into nations. This is also a crime.
No, it is not a crime of Putin’s international magnitude, but the scale does not matter when one is discussing human rights. In that case, one violation is far too many.
There have, of course, been troll accounts made on the notorious imageboard website 4chan. These have been made to maliciously parody the Black Lives Matter movement and discredit legitimate calls for racial justice. Still, these poor attempts at subversion and division should not deter us from speaking out against the real acts of discrimination occurring at the Ukrainian border.
Immigrants, whether they are students, doctors, or people simply surviving after escaping their home country’s conflicts, deserve the rights of any “real” Ukrainian.
They should be let on trains with “real” Ukrainians. They should be allowed to stand near the bonfires of “real” Ukrainians. They should be allowed safe passage through the refugee routes of “real Ukrainians” without having to devise a shared document discussing which border crossings are safe and which are hostile to people of color.
It is important to remember the fight against Putin is based on the ideals of national sovereignty and basic human rights. These rights do not end where a dictator’s will begins. They are, in short, of tantamount importance.
Important, too, however, are the rights of people of color to exist freely without skin tone or national heritage affecting their ability to live through an already excruciating conflict.
At this time, when the world is largely banning together to condemn one act, it is right that we condemn another. While these stories do not justify Putin’s claim that he is “denazifying” Ukraine — he, like any demagogue, is simply using any phrase that will aid in vilifying his enemy — they should serve as a reminder that the battle against white supremacy is worldwide and seemingly never-ending.
We should look to these stories, both of the invasion itself and the human cost amplified by various intersections of identity, as a stark lesson.
If skin-based discrimination can happen during a national crisis there, there is no reason it wouldn’t happen here.
Written By: Wayne Broadway
As surely as there are fish in the sea, there was bound to be anti-Blackness in responses to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. It is, unfortunately, a fact of life in a post-colonial world.
As condemnation has rightly spread worldwide from most nations save a few, there has been much focus on the conflict’s human cost. Men — and transwomen and nonbinary citizens — of fighting age, 18-60, have been banned from leaving the nation. The few who make it to the border are sometimes turned back and told instead to report to a recruitment station.
Elsewhere, ciswomen and children make up many of the nation’s nearly 3 million refugees who have fled the warzone into other parts of Europe and abroad.
Under all this chaos, however, lies an additional layer of strife.
While Ukrainian citizens have seemingly been welcomed with open arms, non-white refugees are living a different reality.
These people, often students, face discrimination at border crossings often by border officials themselves. At these crossings, Ukrainian citizens, predominantly white, are given priority. First- and second-hand accounts have cropped up over Twitter and Instagram under the hashtag “africansinukraine.” Because white supremacy has time for everyone, this discrimination has extended to Middle Eastern and South Asian refugees.
In an article for NBC News, one such refugee presented her story. “There was a gap in the access Black and brown people were getting. There was no one offering their homes to Black people, no one offering to pick up the Black individuals,” said Patricia Daley. She is one of three co-founders of Black Women for Black Lives, an organization that helps Black refugees flee the conflict. “There was a tremendous amount of people offering help and support, but I feel like it was limited to Ukrainian nationals alone. And we know what that means. It’s excluding a group of people. There was a need to support Black people because they weren’t getting the support or access. There was a gap, and we bridged it.”
It goes without saying that the Russian aggression against Ukraine is a war crime in and of itself.
Vladimir Putin and his generals have instigated a “special military operation” against a sovereign nation that has done nothing wrong other than exercise its free will in flirting with the prospect of joining the NATO military alliance or the European Union. That Putin is the worst kind of autocrat and a bad actor on the world stage is similarly clear. Despite his nuclear posturing, nations must continue to retaliate against his regime via sanctions and verbal condemnation to show that this 20th century-style incursion has no place in 2022.
That said, this does not mean that we sweep other things under the rug.
People are being discriminated against both while fleeing from and arriving into nations. This is also a crime.
No, it is not a crime of Putin’s international magnitude, but the scale does not matter when one is discussing human rights. In that case, one violation is far too many.
There have, of course, been troll accounts made on the notorious imageboard website 4chan. These have been made to maliciously parody the Black Lives Matter movement and discredit legitimate calls for racial justice. Still, these poor attempts at subversion and division should not deter us from speaking out against the real acts of discrimination occurring at the Ukrainian border.
Immigrants, whether they are students, doctors, or people simply surviving after escaping their home country’s conflicts, deserve the rights of any “real” Ukrainian.
They should be let on trains with “real” Ukrainians. They should be allowed to stand near the bonfires of “real” Ukrainians. They should be allowed safe passage through the refugee routes of “real Ukrainians” without having to devise a shared document discussing which border crossings are safe and which are hostile to people of color.
It is important to remember the fight against Putin is based on the ideals of national sovereignty and basic human rights. These rights do not end where a dictator’s will begins. They are, in short, of tantamount importance.
Important, too, however, are the rights of people of color to exist freely without skin tone or national heritage affecting their ability to live through an already excruciating conflict.
At this time, when the world is largely banning together to condemn one act, it is right that we condemn another. While these stories do not justify Putin’s claim that he is “denazifying” Ukraine — he, like any demagogue, is simply using any phrase that will aid in vilifying his enemy — they should serve as a reminder that the battle against white supremacy is worldwide and seemingly never-ending.
We should look to these stories, both of the invasion itself and the human cost amplified by various intersections of identity, as a stark lesson.
If skin-based discrimination can happen during a national crisis there, there is no reason it wouldn’t happen here.
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Howdy, good people! Welcome to the latest episode of Afronerd Radio's Mid Week in Review airing this Wednesday at 8 p.m. eastern on BTalk 100. Check out the latest meanderings from your highly favored AFROnerdist hosts as they wax about the following topics: the highly-anticipated Disney plus Ms. Marvel trailer dropped this week and we have our thoughts:
As The Batman continues to excel at the box office, more stories are coming out showing pop culture commentators spewing racist potshots at some of the alleged racebending and minority presence exhibited in the film:
Dburt has some thoughts concerning discourse or debates that begin with speakers beginning their arguments with "I feel" as opposed to "I think." What's the difference? Let's discuss; New Zealand filmmaker, Jane Campion (Power of the Dog), while accepting her 2022 Best Director win at the Critics Choice Awards made some disparaging remarks toward tennis icons, Venus and Serena Williams calling into question White feminism; Can we see the return of Kurt Russel as Snake Plisskin from the cult classic, Escape from New York in the near future?; actor, Nicolas Cage portraying a caricature of himself in The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent, maybe the comeback we've been looking for; What is American comic book/superhero culture like in Japan or is it nonexistent due to the local fauna of Manga and Anime?; if time permits we will address some topics that were "leftover" from Sunday's Grindhouse show and lastly, our thoughts about actress Zendaya's dad asserting that Black fathers who are largely responsible for their children's success are oftentimes overlooked, disrespected, or ignored by mainstream media.
One thing that Dburt is doing (finally) is investing in cryptocurrency, courtesy of Roundlyx. We would implore our followers to investigate, discern and then explore by using our referral code: afro-87A4BF
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As we’ve seen with cult horror flicks like Karyn Kusama’s Jennifer’s Body, and Ana Lily Amirpour’s A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night, female filmmakers bring a much-needed female perspective to the horror genre, exploring social issues like body image, female sexuality, and motherhood. Horror fans are familiar with names like Kasi Lemmons (Eve’s Bayou), Mary Harron (American Psycho), Jennifer Kent (The Babadook), Mary Lambert (Pet Sematary), Kathryn Bigelow (Near Dark), and the Soska Sisters (American Mary).
Here are just a few women making waves in the horror genre you may not know but absolutely should.
Mimi Cave’s directorial debut Fresh premiered at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival and recently began streaming on Hulu. Written by Lauryn Kahn (Ibiza), the horror-comedy explores women’s fears when it comes to modern dating through a single woman’s disastrous encounter with a charming sociopath. While she’s just now getting noticed in Hollywood, Cave’s previous work includes commercials and music videos for artists like Sleigh Bells and Vance Joy. She notes that her background in dancing helps her approach filmmaking from a “physical standpoint” with a “spatial awareness.” With Fresh, Mimi Cave proves that she’s an intuitive filmmaker with a unique eye, who will continue to chill and thrill us.
If you’re a fan of Jordan Peele, chances are you’re familiar with Nia DaCosta, with who he collaborated on Candyman. The film was largely marketed using Peele’s name. Once the film came out, DaCosta showed everyone that she’s the person we should be talking about. She became the first Black female director to have a #1 film at the box office and is currently working on The Marvels. She may be one of the most exciting voices in horror, but she’s just getting started.
In 2016, Julia Ducournau came on the scene with the cannibalistic horror film Raw, a bloody coming-of-age tale that garnered high praise. Last year, the French writer-director won the Palme d’Or at the 2021 Cannes Film Festival Titane, making history as the second female director to take the top prize. In an interview with Sharon Stone, she said that she created a character that was “hyper-violent” and went “against every feminist stereotype of softness, being polite, having a great body.” Having already made her way into television, directing episodes of Servant, Ducournau is sure to go on as an iconic filmmaker in horror.
Speaking of making history, Nikyatu Jusu’s Nanny recently won Sundance Film Festival’s Grand Jury Prize, the first horror movie to win the top award. Jusu herself is only the second Black woman to win. Nanny centers on a Senegal woman caring for the child of a wealthy white family in Manhattan while she saves money to bring her son over from West Africa to live with her in New York. Jusu calls the film “a dark, but hopeful, love letter for mothers who have been systematically excluded from the American dream.” Not only is this film centered on a Black woman, but there were several women of color behind the camera including cinematographer Rina Yang (Euphoria), casting director Kim Coleman (Lovecraft Country), and costume designer Charlese Antoinette Jones (Judas and the Black Messiah), just to name a few.
Ruth Paxton’s feature directorial debut A Banquet follows a widow raising her two teenage daughters, the eldest of which experiences a spiritual awakening and stops eating. Paxton was drawn to Justin Bull’s great script and felt she could make the well-written characters even more authentic. “I know these relationships, I know these women, but I think I can deepen the characterization here,” she said. The result is a deeply unsettling, authentically feminine portrait of complex mother-daughter relationships, the psychology of food, personal spirituality, and more.
Another recent horror hit out of Sundance is Mariama Diallo’s Master, an atmospheric thriller following three Black women as they navigate a predominantly white university. Like other films on this list, Diallo’s personal experience as a Black woman in America gave her the tools to authentically portray the common microaggressions people of color deal with on the daily. The director recently told BGN, “There’s a responsibility that I feel to do it properly and to do it honestly and not to do it in a way that feels kind of crass or exploitative…” Something that the horror genre offers filmmakers is a sense of freedom. Diallo perfectly blends horror with drama, mystery, and thriller, to tell a very real story.
Writer-director Rose Glass solidified her status as a modern horror auteur with her debut film Saint Maud, a surreal psychological horror about a young hospice nurse and her fanatical Catholic faith. Maud’s personal relationship with God intensifies, leading to hallucinations and an obsession with her female patient. Glass told Film4, “I’m interested in brains and bodies and the fact they can go wrong.” Given the focus of this list, she’s clearly not alone since most of these women find themselves fascinated with the macabre. As she says, “Women love messed up stuff.”