In the past two weeks, with global attention glued to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the deep-seated racism embedded in leading media institutions has been on full display. Mainstream media’s impassioned pleas to help Ukrainian refugees have often been sprinkled with coded language like “civilised” and “middle class”, and bewilderment at how such violence could ever be inflicted on “blonde and blue-eyed” Europeans. Many from the global south couldn’t help but wonder: where was this sympathetic coverage when Syria, Palestine, Afghanistan, Iraq, Yemen and so many more met a similar fate at the ha…