As a Syrian American the last decade has made me numb. I’ve come to accept the fact that: “No one cares about Syria!”
The contrast in coverage of Syria’s suffering, to the media’s coverage of Ukraine’s suffering, had been glaring. It’s a difference I’ve come to attribute to cultural and frankly racist bias. But when the person showing a similar disregard, for a decade of suffering of millions of her fellow human beings, is a person of the integrity, gender and race of Linda Thomas Greenfield, it galls me to no end. How could a UN ambassador, addressing foreign affairs students and their ethnically diverse parents, not know better than to omit Syria from a long list of concerns.
Last week I attended the graduation of my niece from Columbia University school of foreign and Public affairs SIPA. Linda Thomas-Greenfield was the commencement speaker, and I couldn’t wait to hear her review of the important world affairs she is grappling with as our UN ambassador. She addressed a laundry list of every large and small topic conceivable, with the exception of Syria. This would not have been noteworthy had the audience not been foreign affairs students, their diverse elite parents, and had this speaker not been a woman of color. At the end of her speech, a few of us Syrian American parents got up and shouted: “Syria, Syria!”
Her speech addressed the Michigan killings, global warming, racial inequality, her views on our Ukraine policy, and included a stirring personal homage to murdered Palestine Journalist Shireen Abu Aqleh. What it didn’t even allude to is the decade long suffering of Syria. She didn’t even deem to use the familiar platitudes we have grown to hear; “we are aware of Syria’s suffering and are offering humanitarian aid to its people…” This is troubling on many levels because anyone can see the similarity between Ukraine and Syria. Its so obvious. The new general in charge of Russian forces is called the butcher of Aleppo by foreign journalists covering both Russian campaigns; one to prop us Assad and the other to topple Zelensky.
Now here is the million dollar question: was her “not” mentioning Syria, an oversight, or was it policy. Did she forget a crisis she was recently grappling with in Brussels a few weeks ago, or did someone, in charge of redacting her speech at the State Department, take it out of her address. Both ways the omission was a glaring one. An omission not befitting a high ranking state department lifer, giving life lessons to students entering the foreign and public affairs world. Ambassador Buttler Greenfield is woman of unimpeachable credentials who has suffered (I’m sure) many a moment of feeling like she was invisible. For her, of all people, to make this Syrian American-relative of a grad student-feel like I was invisible, is a crying shame.
