"#RussianColonialism 101" book is almost done. We need a bit of your help to cross the finish line.
i am blown away by the passion of your solidarity. but i am honestly all in tears too reading your empowering and kind messages of solidarity attached to these donations.
i have the best community of followers.
in less than two days together we've raised almost 70% of the needed funds. less than EUR 2500 is lacking to close the gap
you all together are superhumans. so grateful.
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thank you @EricaMarat. how many Ukrainians were slaughtered and tortured to death by russians for displaying or owning a Ukrainian flag? too many. they didn’t die so other russians can instrumentalize our flag to market and monetize their products — disregarding the intent
centering russian stories by russian authors and using Ukrainian genocide as aesthetic backdrop for a marketing campaign is cringe enough. i don’t need to read the book to recognize how morally wrong it is.
however, doing it in the context of centuries of russian authors and academics benefiting from systemic erasure of Ukrainian and other indigenous voices by russian colonialism is just plain tone-deaf and ignorant. it should not be normalized or tolerated. period.
"people in the West have these abstract discussions 'Ukraine should do this or Russia should do that.' they operate in pretty simplified versions of history that are told through narratives rather than through actual research" @krides
have you noticed how uncomfortable some foreigners get around Ukrainians? especially around those of us who speak out and unapologetically manifest our identities?
perhaps because Ukrainians are calling out the injustice of a genocide happening in the middle of Europe in 2022 and the 'never again' bs. perhaps because we are pointing to problems with the international order that many would rather ignore.
хіба ось так повинно бути:
щоб замість сонця і квітів - кулі?
щоб замість пестощів і любові
боятись стати на міну в полі?
не чути співу пташок, лиш звуки
сирен повсюди, кричать: "тривога!"
так неповинно, не мусить бути
весна ж бо створенна не для цього
too often i question if it’s all for nothing. after a year of non-stop explaining, we still face gaslighting, marginalization, dismissal. genocide is still on. yet, we made a promise with @Val_Voshchevska in honor of silenced Ukrainians: Ukrainian voices will be heard & respected
then everyday more friends and listeners and supporters keep showing up. our team is growing, our reach is expanding. it is a humbling reminder that people rely on our work of amplifying more Ukrainian voices and decolonizing more Ukrainian topics
lately, on the darkest most hopeless days i re-read Kameniary, one of the most famous Ukrainian liberation poems by Ivan Franko, written during dark days of r’ssian colonial rule in 1878. let me share my favorite passage, translated to English:
full disclosure: my own relation with race is confusing — a sort of white-passing boy with asian, roma, georgian roots. but what is not confusing is my strong identity of a Ukrainian. both can be true at the same time.