Hypocrisy of White Racism

Google recently joined the global community in supporting Ukrainians against the Russian invasion of their country. Kent Walker, who is currently the President, Global Affairs and Chief Legal Officer at Google, published a blog post titled “Helping Ukraine''.

Adding air raid alerts to Android phones in Ukraine, according to Walker, Google is going to launch an app 'Ukraine Alerts' to notify Android users in Ukraine before air strikes. The app will take information from the civil defence system and alert people in any chosen region of Ukraine even when the phone is on silent mode, writes Kent Walker. The move has been followed by Google’s ad suspension in Russia coupled with the removal of Russian state-funded applications in Europe.

Doing so, Google has provided a platform to assist Ukrainian refugees as well. “Hotel owners in countries neighbouring Ukraine can indicate on their Business Profile whether they are offering free or discounted accommodations for refugees. Local businesses can also post to their Business Profile on Search and Maps to offer various services and aid to refugees from Ukraine," Walker further adds in his post.

Facebook, in a similar vein, recently announced that any opprobrium against the Russian invasion will not be blocked or removed. I think Facebook is making sure that people have “freedom of speech” to voice themselves against the cruelty inflicted by pro-war governments.

On the fact of it, such humanitarian overtures to Ukraine seem to be heartwarming. In a marked contrast, however, these actions reek of hypocrisy. For instance, try posting on Facebook against the heinous genocides being committed by Israeli forces in Palestine and let us see whether the same freedom of speech is offered by the Facebook or not.

Of course, all necessary measures to help out the war-stricken people should be taken by the international community, but it must be done without any discrimination, prejudice or  special attention given to any particular nation or religious group. Since all people are considered equal, they must be treated equally and their pain should also be felt in the same way.

Is it just a matter of coincidence that none of these tech giants like Microsoft, Sony, Meta and Google took similar steps for the Muslim world? Why does the deafening silence prevail when injustice strikes Ethiopians, Somalis, Sudanese, Yemenis, Syrians, Afghans, Libyans, Iraqis and Palestinians?

The White xenophobia is nothing less than a pandemic, which has killed more people than any plague has in human history. Even the professions that are categorized as objective and apparently aim to mitigate and expose fallacies, are infected with hatred and prejudice. Journalism is one of them. Recently, Dr. Zahera Harb, who is the Leader of International Journalism Studies Cluster at City, University of London, told Al Jazeera her experience as a journalist covering wars. She recalled how journalists were incessantly criticized for being impartial and emotive when they used sympathetic vocabulary around casualties of war and for refugees. Quoting Jon Snow’s example, when he was terribly arraigned for condemning Israel’s attacks on Gaza, she said that empathy and accurate reporting was considered a threat to journalism’s much-valued "impartiality rule”. She gave an example of the time she was covering Israel’s assaults in Lebanon in 1990 and was not permitted by BBC to call Israel what it was: an “occupying force”.

The bigotry of the West is no breaking news. Nevertheless, it needs to be called out again and again. We need to understand the ins and outs of White racism and the Islamophobia that the West so audaciously promotes with their lucid prejudice against the Muslim world and non-White community.

When the planet was being stained with human blood before the attacks on Ukraine, we were desensitized to violence and affliction. Nobody had a clue that the world would feel for fellow humans, let alone make an effort to tame and sanction a notorious, seemingly powerful invader. Suddenly, it starts mattering. Suddenly, all the claptrap excuses that were made in favour of murderers have dissipated. It looks like there is some light at the end of the tunnel as the Western myopia is finally healing.