Opinion – Cida Bento: When the refugee is white European

“The most racist coverage of Ukraine on TV” was denounced by journalist Alan MacLeod on his Twitter, reproducing lines or texts, such as “… look at them, the way they are dressed. They are prosperous people, of class They are obviously not refugees trying to escape the Middle East…or North Africa. They look like any European family that would live next door to you” (Al Jazeera).
“This is not Iraq or Afghanistan…this is a relatively civilized, relatively European city,” says Charlie D’Agata, a correspondent for CBS.

“It’s very emotional for me because I see European people with blue eyes and blond hair being killed,” Ukraine’s Deputy Chief Prosecutor David Sakvarelidze told the BBC.

“They are not like other children that we are used to seeing suffering on TV, these children are blonde with blue eyes, and that is very important”, points out an interviewee on the Spanish channel La Sexta.

“These are not refugees from Syria, they are refugees from Ukraine … they are Christians, they are white, they are similar to us,” according to BFM TV (France), explaining why Poland is accepting refugees.

The pain and amazement of seeing refugees with blue eyes and blond hair, white and Christians “like us”, “could be our neighbors” explained in an expressive part of the coverage of the war, reveal how much the pact of whiteness of protection and care between “equals” is a worldwide and Eurocentric phenomenon. It cannot be broken, because the “like us white Europeans” could not be affected by the violence that ravages Syrian, Afghan, Iraqi, Indian and especially African refugees.

This pact is also evident in the allegations that white Ukrainian refugees have primacy over Indian and African refugees from Ukraine, as we have seen repeatedly in the press.

“Africans, no! They have to go to the end of the line”, according to a report by Visão, from Portugal. Ukrainian soldiers stop Europeans born in Portugal on the border with Poland because they are black and give priority to whites.

Ukrainians themselves are not allowing Africans to board free trains to leave Ukraine. “There are reports that the Ukrainian police removed all Africans from the trains, while allowing citizens from ALL other countries,” writes a former Nigerian minister, according to the report. sheet.

This valorization of a group with an Aryan profile, to the detriment of other groups, was always at the base of Nazism. And what is claimed is that everyone, regardless of skin, eye and hair color, has the same rights.

It is essential to pay attention to the excellent report of this week’s Forum magazine, calling attention to the fact that Ukraine and the USA were the only ones, among 181 countries, that took a stand against a United Nations (UN) resolution to combat the glorification of the Nazism.

In December 2021, this resolution, presented by Russia, was passed and cites “fighting the glorification of Nazism, neo-Nazism and other practices that contribute to fuel contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance”.

The US justified its vote using the “freedom of speech” argument. This minimization posture is dangerous and gives rise to an insidious vitality to the discourse of neo-Nazi groups, especially in Eastern European countries. It is important to point out that the growth of neo-Nazis has been spreading strongly throughout Europe and the United States.

Racism feeds and justifies inequalities and works as a binding force for the discourse of violence. Armed groups, militias and racists challenge the democratic world with the dogma of differences and exacerbated and violent identity bias.

It is a great challenge to overcome the escalation of warmongering and xenophobic thinking that fuels violence in contemporary societies. The fight against racism is a fundamental part of this board.

This column was co-authored with economist Mário Theodoro Lisboa