I’ve always been intrigued by Ukrainians’ views on race and racism, especially how they understand whiteness.
Over the past few months, Ukrainians have engaged my social media posts on race, sometimes leaving hundreds of comments. My writing on the murder of Iryna Zarutska and how MAGA used her as a white supremacist symbol has really gotten a lot of engagement from Ukrainians.
I’ll be writing more on this subject over the next six months, but I really want to ask more Ukrainians inside of Ukraine how they feel about this topic. Starting Sunday, I’m in Ukraine for the next six months and I’ll be streaming and reporting from there.
Today, I spoke with Notes from the Storm Cellar, who is a professor of history at Morehouse College, an HBCU in Atlanta, Georgia. She is an expert of Ukrainian and Russian history and works primarily on the intersection of race and the ex-USSR. The two of us got into how U.S. racism impacts Ukrainians here in the U.S. and in their own country. We also got into whether or not Europe really sees them as “white.”
Let me know what you think of our conversation in the comments.
Thank you Chris Sampson, Bonnie Leimberger, Leslie in CA, Gayle, Forbearance for truth, and many others for tuning into my live video with Notes from the Storm Cellar! Join me for my next live video in the app.
