MSNBC host Joy Reid claimed Monday that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is receiving worldwide attention because Ukraine is largely white and Christian.
What did Reid say?
During a monologue on her show “The ReidOut,” Reid highlighted the Yemen Civil War, which is widely viewed as a proxy war between Saudi Arabia and Iran.
As Reid explained, the Yemen war, which the U.S. has been involved in by supporting Saudi efforts, has resulted in a significant humanitarian crisis, resulting in millions of displaced people and hundreds of thousands of deaths, according to the United Nations.
But, Reid observed, “we haven’t witnessed the same type of solidarity for the Yeminis as we do for the Ukrainians,” citing sanctions and global companies taking a stand.
“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, with some reporters using very telling comparisons in their analyses of the war,” Reid continued, before playing clips of reporters making comments about the Ukraine war that she found objectionable.
“OK, let’s face it. The world is paying attention because this is happening in Europe,” Reid claimed. “If this was happening anywhere else would we see the same outpouring of support and compassion?”
“Well, we don’t need to ask ourselves if the international response will 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,” she claimed.
“This is a teachable moment for us in the media. We’re not afraid to call out our industry,” Reid continued. “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. And why some refugees get the welcome mat while others get the wall.”
Anything else?
CNN host Fareed Zakaria disagrees with Reid’s assessment, and explained over the weekend precisely why claims like Reid’s are wrong.
According to Zakaria, Russia’s full-scale war is not the same as other wars in Africa, Latin America, and the Middle East because Russia is a the largest nuclear power in the world, and its war may not stop with Ukraine.
“It’s not — to put it directly to people who think about this and they say, ‘Why are Ukrainians, why do we pay so much attention, is it just because they are white?’ — no, it is not because Ukrainians are white or European, it’s because their aggressor, their invader, is a nuclear armed superpower,” Zakaria said. “That if Russia can get away with this, it can get away with invading Poland. It can get away with invading the Baltic states. China can get away with invading Taiwan.”