I’ve had a few Facebook friends gently admonishing me about registering my voice against an unjust war against Ukraine while being mute on the racism experienced by African students.

Let me register that I appreciate these concerns: the experience of African students has been infuriating and excruciating.

Having said that, injustice is injustice notwithstanding whether those on the receiving end like you or not. I consider it bad thinking that if injustice occurs against those that hate me, this should lead me to care less. Jesus was on point when He admonished His disciples to love and pray for their enemies (ironically His most ignored teaching). Therefore, if I hate injustice, I should take a stand notwithstanding who it is metered against.

As for racism, I am on record, perhaps to the chagrin of many, saying racism is not a person, it’s a system. It’s a system that has been intricately interwoven at the very core of European identity.

Now, this may seem like a rather harsh statement. However, I commend to you an excellently and empirically evidenced work by a world-renowned anthropologist, Ralph Wald Sussman, titled The myth of race. Sussman eloquently demonstrates how the very core of European identity was systematically infused with the concept of racial superiority from its inception.

Racism is a system that only a few have managed to escape from. If things had been swapped around, that is, if Africans had been infused with an identity of racial superiority from the inception of African identity, we would not have fared any better. Human nature, it turns out, is horrifyingly fickle.

In this regard, we would do well to separate people from their socialised behaviours. In other words, it is plain old good thinking not to equate people with their behaviour, let alone a traumatised nation caught in a state of war.

So here is the thing: yes, it’s heart-breaking what African students have experienced in probably the most traumatic episode of their lives and these racist actions should be condemned. And yes, Ukraine deserves our African support during an episode that has played itself out many times over in Africa. These should not be mutually exclusive.