Russia’s war against Ukraine is now over a month old. This fact is numbing to consider, even for those an ocean’s length or more away.

When people grow numb to the horrors on their TV screens, complacency creeps in. Wars and humanitarian catastrophes almost always have this dangerous effect. As more reports of mass graves emerge from Mariupol or Kharkiv, the shock value drops. Humans are master adapters, which means this war risks fading into the background.

But there’s something different about Ukraine that makes the sober warning above seem provincial. To be sure, combating apathy about the war will prove essential in the coming weeks. The problem, however, is the ease with which such apathy goes unchallenged when it comes to other ongoing wars and humanitarian crises.

The war against Ukraine shows that neither the West nor Western media have rid themselves of Eurocentrism and blatant racism. For one, racism clearly pervades Europe’s treatment of refugees. Africans in Ukraine were deliberately  prevented from evacuating as white Ukrainians were rushed out.

The lingering racist biases within Western media have revealed themselves as well. The most glaring example thus far came when a CBS reporter expressed astonishment that such violence could come to a place that, unlike Iraq or Afghanistan, is “relatively civilized.”

Perhaps more pernicious than racist coverage is no coverage — i.e., what doesn’t get discussed. Outside Europe, scores of countries in dire conditions rarely get mainstream attention.

Yemen is suffering a major humanitarian disaster amid its war with the U.A.E. and Saudi Arabia. Malicious thugs are squashing Myanmar’s fledgling democracy. Lebanon is enduring one of the world’s worst depressions of the past two centuries. The Ethiopia-Tigray war and the misery it has brought to civilians have been especially neglected. 

This is not to mention Syria, China’s Uyghurs, Central American migrants or Afghanistan — perhaps the worst off.

Palestinians have a shorthand for this bias as applied to Palestine, namely “the Palestine exception.” Many Westerners willingly support humanitarian causes around the world until the question of Palestine is raised.

The coverage of the war against Ukraine has already offered a striking example of this double standard. While Ukrainians are rightfully praised for preparing Molotov cocktails to hurl at invaders, Palestinians who throw rocks at their occupiers are vilified and jailed.

None of this diminishes the gravity of Russia’s invasion. It is the most urgent matter in world affairs, not just because of Putin’s war crimes and Ukrainian suffering, but because of the war’s immense geopolitical and economic implications.

It’s not that Ukraine deserves less attention: The coverage is simply disproportionate relative to that of other nations’ plights. The Western public should channel the same zeal into support for other beleaguered countries too.

The Biden administration has an opportunity to rectify some of this inattention while still helping Ukraine — a diplomatic two-for-one if you will. Doing so could draw the Western public’s attention, albeit belatedly, to a neglected conflict America has had its hands in: Yemen.

It so happens that Dubai has been in the news lately, and not just for Rick Ross’s spectacularly failed attempt at camel-riding. As the U.S. and Europe levy unprecedented sanctions against Russia, the U.A.E. still welcomes oligarchs. The Emirati government has refused to impose sanctions or even voice opposition to the war. Dubai in particular continues to serve as a haven for oligarchs, leaving their assets and accounts unfrozen.

It’s true that oligarchs have long relied heavily on American and British financial networks and embedded their wealth within them. At this moment, however, the UAE is actively undermining a critical effort to cripple Putin’s regime and the invasion.

The U.A.E. is also guilty of atrocities in Yemen, as is its partner aggressor, Saudi Arabia. President Biden pledged to stop supporting the Saudi-Emirati side in January 2021. In spite of this promise, the U.S. continues to send the U.A.E. warships and help it intercept drone strikes from Yemen’s Houthi rebels. The fact that this duplicity is treated as obscure, low-level diplomacy unworthy of significant media focus is probably not unrelated to its locale, little-old Yemen.

Some diplomatic ingenuity could help both Yemen and Ukraine. In protest of the UAE’s oligarch-coddling, the U.S. should immediately deny the country any further assistance with its war against Yemen.

This move would be a step toward de-escalation in Yemen. It could also shore up the sanctions campaign against Russia if the UAE feels isolated enough to join the West’s efforts.

Yemen isn’t the only cause connected to Ukraine. Many Syrians recognize in Ukrainian cities the same brutal tactics Russia employed in Aleppo in 2016, and fear Syria’s holdout Idlib province could face Russian aggression next. What’s more, every country in need of food aid will suffer as a result of the war on Ukraine.

As it grapples with Russia, the West has a responsibility to purge its coverage of racism and Eurocentrism, forces that contribute to ignorance of non-European crises. Diplomatic steps that blend Ukraine policy with that of another non-European nation could be a clever start.

Eddie is a junior in LAS.

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