“This isn’t a place like Iraq or Afghanistan”: coverage of the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the Middle Eastern other

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ABSTRACT The study employs a postcolonial critique of the media coverage during the Russian invasion of Ukraine. By using literature on whiteness and Islamophobia and the need for a postcolonial critique, the author analyzes the hegemonic rhetoric surrounding the Ukrainian refugee crisis in comparison to coverage of violence directed toward brown bodies. The study also juxtaposes a postcolonial critique against vernacular readings of how social media users reacted to the attacks. Thus, the goal is to present trajectories for future studies of whiteness.