Joy Reid's Provocative Comments About Ukraine Have Twitter Divided
A clip of Joy Reid talking about the situation in Ukraine and its racial implications is going viral on Twitter. The moment happened during the host's show, "The ReidOut" on MSNBC as she opined that the media is covering the current European war differently than other humanitarian crises around the globe. "There is a lot of soul-searching 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," she said in part.
Reid's monologue began with an observation about refugees in Yemen. "We haven't witnessed the same type of solidarity for the Yemeni as we do for the Ukrainians," she said. The anchor went on to state that she is not suggesting people and corporations should not "care this much" about Ukraine — they should. But Reid added we should also care about humanitarian crises like the one playing out in Yemen the same amount.
Reid's read was ultimately that we as Western citizens feel more strongly about the war in Ukraine because the people there are mostly white and Christian. "The world is paying attention because this is happening in Europe," she said, and questioned why certain wars and lives matter more to the media
Not everyone agrees with Joy Reid's take on Ukraine but she also has supporters
As Reid started trending on Twitter, people weighed in on her provocative comments. "Ukraine gets invaded by Russia, and you make it about how another population is the injured party. Nice. If you can't see why this is different, I would say other journalists are more well qualified than you. If you can't see Russia reclaiming soviet era territory by force," one social media user blasted the host.
"I stopped watching your show because you find racism in every story, which feels more like your personal expression than reporting what's happening. Ukraine is about tenacious people courageously fighting for democracy," tweeted someone else.
Other viewers were compelled by Reid's words, with one countering, "She didn't have to 'find racism' in this. She showed clips of people in the media literally saying that the reason the Ukraine story impacted them is that it involved 'blue eyed, blonde haired' victims who were 'European' *instead of* people in the 'third world.'" Agreed another Twitter user, "Yep. I sure don't remember wall-to-wall news coverage day after day all day long (you too MSNBC) of refugees, deaths of civilians, buildings destroyed in Syria, Afghanistan, Sudan...just sayin'."
At least one Twitter user found some middle ground, commenting, "The disparity between refugees Reid pointed out is valid, however a war in Europe could easily spread to other European nations, causing WW3. Yemen isn't the same trigger; neither was Afghanistan, Iraq or Syria. Agree the overall reporting on other refugees is pretty shameful."