Joy Reid has argued that there’s greater concern over Ukrainians than victims elsewhere because they’re white and Christian
Black MSNBC host Joy Reid has shared a racial explanation for the outpouring of public and media concern over the Russia-Ukraine crisis, saying Americans are more compassionate about Ukrainians than people in other war-torn nations because those being affected are predominantly white and Christian.
“We should also care this much for refugees and those facing occupation and war in the Middle East and Asia and Africa, too,” Reid said on Monday night’s episode of her show. “The coverage of Ukraine has revealed a pretty radical disparity in how human Ukrainians look and feel to Western media compared to their browner and blacker counterparts.”
Reid contrasted public outcry over the Ukraine conflict to the largely ignored civil war in Yemen, where nearly seven years of bombing by a Saudi Arabia-led coalition has killed thousands of civilians and forced more than 4 million people to flee their homes. Backed by the US and other NATO members, the Saudi-led coalition intervened in Yemen to target Iran-backed Houthi rebels.
Joy Reid makes everything about race again…Claims people are more compassionate towards Ukraine because it’s ‘White And Christian’ pic.twitter.com/6y7Tsrtx4B
“We haven’t witnessed the same type of solidarity for the Yemenis as we do for the Ukrainians,” Reid noted. “We don’t see historic sanctions or global campaigns – corporations like Airbnb and Netflix taking a stand.”
Reid argued that the world is paying more attention to the Ukraine crisis because it’s happening in Europe. “If this was happening anywhere else, would we see the same outpouring of support and compassion? We don’t need to ask ourselves if the international response would be the same if Russia unleashed their horror on a country that wasn’t white and largely Christian because Russia has already done it —in Syria.”
The MSNBC host called the disparity in media coverage a “teachable moment.” She added, “We aren’t afraid to call out our own industry. There is a lot of soul-searching that we need to do in Western media about why some wars and lives seem to matter more than others.”
Reid has a history of looking at a wide range of issues through the lens of skin color. She blamed Joe Biden’s failure to win the 2020 presidential election in a landslide on “racism, anti-blackness, anti-wokeness.” She attributed last summer’s coverage of missing vlogger Gabby Petito to “missing white woman syndrome.”
Last December, she accused billionaire Elon Musk of “misappropriating black vernacular” after he jokingly referred to Senator Elizabeth Warren as a “Karen.”
Nairobi, Kenya, Mar 08 (IPS) – The following feature is part of series to mark International Women’s Day, March 8. Teresa Lokichu recalls the day she attended a meeting convened by high-ranking government officials, community leaders and elders to discuss various pressing issues such as security in her pastoral community of West Pokot in Kenya’s Rift Valley region.
Most civilian fatalities have been linked to an ISIS-affiliated group
Nearly 400 civilians have died in attacks in Afghanistan since the Taliban retook control of the country in 2021, according to the United Nations (UN), with more than 80% of fatalities linked to an ISIS-affiliated group.
The first major human rights assessment of the situation since the Taliban seized Kabul from the US-backed government in August last year reflects the challenge the militant group has in stabilizing the region amid numerous competing forces.
Covering the period from August 2021 to the end of February, the UN found 1,153 casualties and 397 civilian deaths from attacks conducted mostly by the Islamic State Khorasan (ISIS-K) group. Over the same period, more than 50 people with suspected ties to the extremist group have been killed.
“The human rights situation for many Afghans is of profound concern,” UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet said, as she outlined the international body’s findings.
ISIS-K was first identified in the eastern part of Afghanistan in late 2014 and is believed to have spread across the country following the disorder caused by the Taliban’s rapid retaking of the country, with several suicide bombings taking place in recent months.
Alongside the civilian casualties, the senior UN representative claimed that the Taliban was limiting the rights and freedoms of certain groups in the country, with women and girls’ lives particularly restricted by the militant group’s regime.
The report comes ahead of a move by the International Human Rights Council to appoint a special rapporteur on Afghanistan to investigate allegations of violations by the Taliban. US Human Rights Ambassador Michele Taylor has called the appointment of a special rapporteur an “important mechanism for documenting abuses.”
