‘Black is Polish’ working to help POC refugees flee Ukraine

Since the Russian invasion of Ukraine began, millions of Ukrainians and others residing in the country have had to flee to neighbouring European countries, with the treacherous journey amplified for many people of colour.

Sema-Tawi Smart is a London, England based model and activist who is working with the group “Black is Polish” to help people of colour fleeing Ukraine find safe places to stay.

“My whole aim is to support and assist as many people of colour as possible in regards to them being able to consider continue their studies in Europe and also place them in homes which can give them a bit of stability versus a hostile camp environment … they’re away from their families; the culture is different.”

Smart says in many cases, African embassies did little to help nationals stuck in the conflict zone, pushing her to jump in and take action.

“Ukrainians were risking their lives to drive through cities to pick up these people. Where were the African embassies? They weren’t on the ground. It was my friends that were on the ground,” Smart explains.

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Black is Polish and Smart have helped relocate people from Liberia, Nigeria, Morocco, Ghana, and many other countries, whose Embassies did little to help nationals stuck in Ukraine, according to Smart.

Smart says although she does not have a significant connection to Ukraine, she knew she had to help people facing the conflict.

“As a dark skinned Black woman, I know what it feels like to have injustice and it makes me so emotional when I see that in any situation. I hate bullies. I feel like a narcissist if I just watch something bad happen and I don’t actively do something to create a solution for that.”

Through her international connections, Smart says she knew she had the means to help people in desperate situations, and she began using her Instagram with nearly 20,000 followers to gain support.

“I have a huge Eastern European community, I thought this is something that I could potentially help with because of my community stretch and my social media. I just started asking people, “Who’s free, who’s available, whose parents have homes?” and then it just escalated.” Smart adds she wanted to shift the narrative, and act rather than talk and post online.

“We can talk all day about racism and the disparities people face, but I’ll be going to the solution because I was seeing South Indians coming together and creating solutions. I was seeing all of these other cultures within people of colour coming together, but not specifically to African students.”

Smart says her and Black is Polish both aim to educate people in Europe about Black and people of colour in Europe and highlight the roles they have played throughout history. She says now is an important for BIPOC in Europe to work together to be compassionate and work to find solutions for the ongoing conflict.

“I’m not a mother, but there is a nurturing instinct inside of me that was like, ‘let’s just fix it. We can’t sit around and watch this.’ I had to step outside of myself and the society we’ve built to victimize people of colour and say, ‘let’s just deal with this. This is our war too.'”

Smart says people living in Ukraine and people of colour are two groups who have been historically mistreated for too long, and urges it is a time to unite.

“A lot of them were like, we’ve got nothing to do with this. This is not our war. And I’m like, whoa, whoa, whoa this country has been disparaged for a long time, just like us.”