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Candace Owens is back for another hot take and this time the conservative news pundit ruffled a few people’s feathers about Russia’s war raid over Ukraine.
The Fox News correspondent appeared to show support to Russia, noting how the country’s citizens were being criticized and discriminated against as Putin intensified airstrikes on Ukraine over the last week.
“Absolutely appalling the way Russians are being treated in America and abroad. That our leaders and government institutions are allowing for-and at times calling for this discrimination following their global ‘black lives matter‘ hysteria is quite telling,” Owens tweeted on Mar. 9.
The “Blexit” activist doubled down on her statement, adding, “Russian Lives Matter.”
This is obviously a very sensitive topic and many social media goers didn’t see eye to eye with the Daily Wire podcast host, given that millions of Ukrainian families have fled over the last month to seek refuge amid the ongoing war. According to CNN, since Mar. 14, nearly 636 civilians have died in Ukraine as Putin continues to order catastrophic missile strikes across the country. 1,125 civilians have been injured so far, the report noted.
One angry Twitter goer responded:
“Russia lives matter so much to Putin’s war crime regime that they sent portable crematories to hide the deaths. Candace is clearly on payroll pushing Kremlin garbage while supporting genocide.”
Another person commented:
“You know what doesn’t matter? Your opinion.”
While a third user criticized Owens, linking a BBC article about Russia’s recent strike on a maternity and children’s hospital in Mariupol.
“Let’s hope you are joking after what the Russians did at the maternity and children’s hospital…Would you like to explain this?” they asked.
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After an onslaught of backlash, Owens took to Twitter again on Mar. 14, and vehemently stood by “every word” of her controversial “tweet pertaining to the treatment of Russian citizens aboard.”
She continued:
“Those calling for Russian students, opera singers, etc to be banned are the kind of scum who would have demanded the Japanese internment.”
Many users noted that the complicated war has impacted not only Russian and Ukrainian citizens but millions of ex-pats and students who are currently attending university in both countries. Earlier this month, harrowing stories of discrimination began to surface from inside Ukraine as thousands of African students attempted to flee the capital city of Kyiv, Lviv, and the surrounding cities.
Clement Akenboro, an economics student from Nigeria, told NPR he was thrown off a train headed to Poland from Lviv by security guards.
“They drug all the Black guys from the train,” he said, adding, that the experience made him break down into tears. Some students claimed that they were taunted with racist comments as they tried to escape, while others recounted seeing segregated lines for Ukrainians and non-white people at the Poland–Ukraine border. Morocco, Nigeria, and Egypt make up the massive student body in Ukraine, with nearly 16,000 African people studying in the country, News One noted.
In a follow-up tweet on Monday, the “Blackout” author added, “I do not care if you are Russian, Chinese, or otherwise abroad-no citizen should face discrimination because of the actions of their government. NONE of our world leaders have clean hands. May I never be made to stand trial for the plenty sins of the American government.”
What did you think of Owens’s Russian lives matter tweet? Was it insensitive?
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