On Tuesday’s CBS Mornings, co-host and Democratic Party donor Gayle King channeled MSNBC’s ReidOut host Joy Reid by playing the race card concerning the ongoing plight of the millions of Ukrainian refugees, lamenting that those who’ve come to the United States from El Salvador, Haiti, and Honduras “were not welcome” nor “received very well.”
In other words, the west has shown its racist bones by showing unity for displaced white people while scoffing at similarly innocent black and brown people.
King conveniently ignored the facts separating the two with Ukrainians given permission to cross the border to neighboring countries due to Russia’s unprovoked war while the latter group has flooded and crossed the U.S.-Mexico border illegally.
Co-host Nate Burleson set it up by first asking International Rescue Committee CEO David Miliband how the “treatment” of Ukrainians “compare to refugees from Syria and Afghanistan.”
Miliband went along, saying there’s “unity” in the E.U. on Ukrainians and helped over “1.5 million” across the border versus “disunity” with those from the Middle East as “it took three months for a million people to flee Syria.”
King then went to skin color:
A lot of people are starting to say, “listen, when people were coming here from El Salvador, Honduras, they were not welcome. They were really — well — they were not received very well.” When you talk about Syria and Afghanistan, too, what do you think is the difference here?
Miliband said people need to “be honest about” why that’s happened because “[t]here’s more fear of incorporating and integrating people from different races and different religions into national life.”
He also insisted that people assimilate, saying those who receive “a second chance” after “fleeing for their freedom and for their lives” go onto “patriotic and productive citizens” of their “adopt[ed]” country.
Nonetheless, King continued to show her ignorance in wrapping the segment, saying that “people need to be reminded of” Miliband’s (pie-in-the-sky) point, adding:
[Y]ou look at people coming from Haiti, people coming, as I said, El Salvador, Honduras. They were treated this well. And I think we all want the Ukrainian people to be helped. Everybody agrees with that, but there's enough pain to go around here.
In essence, what Reid did was what RedState referred to as “whataboutism with the ongoing brutality against the Ukrainian people,” while ignoring what Ian Miles Cheong pointed out as a long track record of the west being “the most compassionate donors of developing nations in their times of need,” including earthquakes in Haiti.
We could restate the point about how flooding the U.S. southern border and expecting amnesty and welfare is entirely different from Ukrainians being shot at and shelled as part of a war by a nuclear state, but it’s safe to say it wouldn’t make a difference for King.
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To see the relevant CBS transcript from March 8, click “expand.”
CBS Mornings
March 8, 2022
7:42 a.m. Eastern[ON-SCREEN HEADLINE: The Refugee Crisis; Int’l Rescue Commitee Leader on Ukraine & Other Refugees]
NATE BURLESON: David, how does this treatment compare to refugees from Syria and Afghanistan?
DAVID MILIBAND: In the case of the European Union, we've got unity now where there was disunity before. We've got welcome now where there was a very divided response before. In the case of the Syrian crisis, it took three months for a million people to flee Syria. In the case of Ukraine, it's taken a week, and we're now up to 1.5 million.
GAYLE KING: And — and why do you think that is? A lot of people are starting to say, “listen, when people were coming here from El Salvador, Honduras, they were not welcome. They were really — well — they were not received very well.”
BURLESON: Mmm.
KING: When you talk about Syria and Afghanistan, too, what do you think is the difference here?
MILIBAND: Well, it's simple. There's more fear of incorporating and integrating people from different races and different religions into national life. Let's be honest about it. Now, what we know from the history of this country, the International Rescue Committee was founded by Albert Einstein, we've worked here for 80 years and around the world for 80 years as well. What we know is that, in the end, people fleeing for their freedom and for their lives, they're desperate to have a second chance, and the countries that they adopt as their new homes, they become patriotic and productive citizens because of the chance that’s given them.
KING: Yeah, I think people need to be reminded of that. You know, we had, time and time — you look at people coming from Haiti, people coming, as I said, El Salvador, Honduras. They were treated this well. And I think we all want the Ukrainian people to be helped. Everybody agrees with that, but there's enough pain to go around here.
