A Letter To Ukrainians From Black America

We feel you.

Credit: Motion Array

I’m sorry, Ukraine.

I’m sorry that White America elected a man who’ll embolden your genocidal neighbor to murder even more of your people and occupy more of your land.

I’m sorry that the American white supremacy that has long terrorized my people will empower Russian supremacy to reign further terror on yours.  

I preface my letter with white America because we did not do this.

Every exit poll shows that white people in almost every statistical category, along with most Latinos (most of whom identify as white) supported Trump. They voted for the man who said migrants are bringing “bad genes” into the country and repeated the vicious lie that Haitians are eating dogs and cats in Ohio. White people voted for the man who goes on lie-laced diatribes about immigrants and crime, all for the benefit of stoking fear, resentment and grievance.

White people voted for a man who threatened to overthrow our government when he refused to accept the 2020 election results and whose infatuation with Putin will threaten your sovereignty even more when he returns to the Oval Office. And if you ask Trump’s white supporters that Putin actively interferes in our elections, they will tell you they are OK with it. 

Meanwhile, ninety-one-percent of Black women voted for Harris, with protecting democracy as their main reason why, according to a CNN exit poll; Black men were right behind them with nearly 80 percent support for Harris. So when you rightfully rail against American voters, be clear to leave us out of your much-justified anger and direct your frustration at those who put Black America and Ukrainians in this mess in the first place: white people. 

Black people and Ukrainains have much in common. We have few allies we can truly depend on when we really need them and we’re the only ones willing to die for democracy. White people feign economic anxiety as an excuse to vote for extremism—even though Black Americans have suffered worse unemployment rates since the 1960s, when the Department of Labor started collecting such data. Nonetheless, we continue to vote for pro-democratic candidates. We are the only race of people who have been that consistent in our voting patterns. Black voter outreach groups do the most to support pro-democracy Democrats, yet deep-pocketed democratic donors refuse to fund their activities when they need the cash the most.

Ukrainians can relate. 

Mainstream media have written thousands of articles about Nazis and far-right extremists in Ukraine, even though you repeatedly reject them in your local and national elections. (Notice that Ukrainians feel all types of anxiety, but don’t elect extremists!) You elect a Jewish president and he appoints a Muslim as your defense minister, yet you’re dogged with accusations of anti-semitism. You’re constantly accused of being a corrupt country, even though you’ve risen on the anti-corruption index during the very years you fight for your very existence. White America elected a convicted felon who lied on his taxes, was found liable for rape, propped up a fake school and almost overthrew the government. Yet, Ukraine is covered in the press as if they are a corrupt-filled wasteland. 

Black America understands very well what it means to be held to a double standard.

Ukraine is literally the only barrier between an expansionist Putin and a free Europe, yet your fellow Europeans (talking to you, especially, Olaf Scholz!) refuse to adequately arm you now so that they don't have to deploy their own troops later. Europeans think Ukrainian refugees are freeloaders for seeking safety in their countries, even though their governments refuse to give you the military hardware needed to make Ukraine safe enough so her people don’t feel forced to flee in the first place.   

The more you pick yourself up by your bootstraps, the more your critics insist that you must have stolen them. 

Let me pull this together so it makes sense: Trump got elected because white people gon’ white people. Europe is leaving you in the lurch because, well, Europe gon’ Europe.

I’m writing to you because we need each other. We need to go to each other’s protests. We need to be at each other’s conferences. We need to appear on each other’s podcasts and other media platforms. We need to be more than allies. We need to befriend one another because our destinies are both linked with Trump’s election. 

While Trump is strategizing over how to placate Putin (a Trump advisor already said, “Crimea is gone”), he has also vowed to mass deport undocumented people, empower cops to enforce the law with extreme violence and weaken all institutions that threaten his power. As someone who has spent the past three years telling Americans that we should care about Ukraine and covering the war from the ground, I’m asking Ukrainians to find community with Black people so we can fight Trump and Putin’s tyranny together.

If you’re a Ukrainian in the states and a Black Lives Matter protest pops up, join it. One of the reasons Black Americans sympathize with Palestine so much is because of decades of relationship-building that culminated with activists in the occupied-West Bank showing Black activists how to protect themselves against tear gas in the wake of the Ferguson Uprisings, in 2014. Data show that most Black Americans not only support a ceasefire, but are very critical of the Israeli government over its actions in Gaza.

I’m confident we can get more Black Americans—Democrats’ most reliable voters—to back arming Ukraine if we put in the work to do so. 

My neighbor, a middle-aged Black man, stopped me on the street the other day to ask if Trump would really end the war in Ukraine and bring peace. I spent an hour with the brotha and explained Trump's definition of peace means capitulation. The neighbor said he wanted peace, but wants Ukraine to return to its internationally-recognized borders from 1991. He also asked me about Nazis in Ukraine. I assured him that I would not live in Ukraine if that were true and insisted that he was reading propaganda. 

It took an hour, but I got him on Ukraine’s side. 

That conversation required me to do the work and engage him where he was. I think more Black people can be converted if Ukrainians are willing to step outside of their comfort zones and engage my community. If I, a Black man born and raised the Blackest city in the country (What up doe, Detroit!) can become pro-Ukraine, I think more can follow in my footsteps. 

Of course, this will not be easy. My people rightfully have questions about racism against African students in Ukraine at the start of the war, but wrongly lump Ukrainians into one blob of whiteness that doesn’t speak to who you are. Building solidarity between two very different groups of people is never easy and requires a lot of patience. 

But the benefits of us working through those challenges and coming together far outweigh the downsides.

If you don't think we’re fighting the same white supremacist monster, consider the case of your aid package being held up for months by House Speaker Mike Johnson. The constant excuse was that we needed to prioritize the border and meet the economic needs of everyday Americans instead of sending it overseas to Ukrianians, typical “America First” talking points.

Johnson and his MAGA base were essentially scapegoating undocumented immigrants by attaching false narratives about a porous border that has led to upticks in crime that are not proven by data. MAGA politics blames Detroit, New York and Chicago, all cities with large Black populations, for making life unsafe for white America—even though crime is down in those cities. Trumpism lied about high crime rates as an excuse to keep from sending your country much-needed aid. His lies hurt Black people and immigrants  in the U.S., but they also hurt you over in Ukraine. 

It’s a textbook example of how American-style white supremacy has threatened your sovereignty.  

There are a lot of reasons why people voted for Trump, but one of the main ones is because they are selfish and don’t care about anyone else but themselves. As Black people, we know that our voting choices help everyone—including Ukraine. I know it’s hard to build with other communities because you’re fighting an occupation, but Black folks also have a history of building solidarity with others—even as our own country brutalized us over the centuries.  

What Trump’s election should tell Ukrainians is that the very racist and xenophobic MAGA policy messaging that was aimed at us will now harm you. Putin and Trump are allies in authoritarianism and their vision of the world harms Black folk and Ukrianians alike. Yes, he has nominated some candidates for office whose views aren’t as repulsive as his. But I wouldn’t pin my hopes on Trump doing the right thing. 

He almost never does. 

I’m sorry I don’t have any Taurus missiles for you to shoot deep into Russian territory, dozens of Patriot batteries and F-16s to protect your skies or elected officials with balls to give billions in Russian assets to help rebuild your country. 

You deserve that. 

What I can tell you is that, just as Black people are the moral conscience of America, we know that Ukrainians are the defenders of European democracy. We do so much for people who do so little for us in return. White America failed us and, subsequently, failed you. But our people, Black folk and Ukrainians have survived existential threats to our lives and we will prevail. I hope we can come together in these dark times to fight through Trump and Putin’s tyranny together. 

Because if no one else in the world feels you, trust me, we do.