'The mistreatment of Black students trying to flee Ukraine is a reminder of racism’s reach around the world,' writes columnist solomonjones1.
that an African medical student was ordered to get off a bus at a checkpoint near Ukraine’s border with Poland, forced to watch as only Ukrainians were allowed to board the bus and leave. Another African student told the news outlet that she and her Black compatriots had to walk in freezing temperatures as 10 buses filled with Ukrainians passed them by. An Indian student told CNN that non-Ukrainians had to wait in long lines in the cold as they sought to cross the border.
It’s not just the individual stories that are striking. It is the almost reflexive racism that they illustrate. That in a time of war, when those with whom they share ethnic bonds are killing their women and children, Ukrainians are lashing out at people of color who want nothing more than to leave.16,000 students from Morocco, Egypt, and Nigeria alone
. Other students hail from Ghana, Kenya, and other African nations. They go there because Ukrainian universities offer the same quality education as schools in Western Europe, but at less cost. As the Russian invasion rages on, however, those African students are paying a far steeper price than anyone could have imagined.I remain sympathetic to the cause of the Ukrainians.
But I am empathetic to the plight of the thousands of Black students stuck in Ukraine. I see myself in them. They came with the optimism of youth and the desire for knowledge. They came seeking lessons that would set them on the path to careers as engineers and doctors. If and when they get out of Ukraine, they will leave with lessons of a different sort. They will know that they are rare, and their distinctiveness comes with a cost. They will know that life is unfair, and that its cruelty crops up at the most inopportune moments. They will know that they are stronger than they think they are. They will know, in no uncertain terms, that they are Black.
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