Canceling Russian Mustard Will Not Help Ukraine

Since the start of the Russia-Ukraine war there have been several instances of individuals, organizations, and companies severing ties with anything and anybody Russian. From people dumping their (not actually) Russian vodka down the drain and leaving negative Yelp reviews for Russian restaurants to a 20-year-old Russian pianist who despite having spoken out against the war having his performances in Canada canceled to Netflix shelving a planned adaptation of Leo Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina, publicly breaking up with Russia is all the rage.

And then there is this

To state the obvious — none of this will have any effect on Putin or do anything to either stop the war or help Ukrainians. I imagine most Ukrainians would not agree with any of these actions. And yet.

But none of this is about supporting Ukrainians, not really. It is about making sure everybody knows you do not support Russia in any way, even if that means punishing people who also do not support Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. This is about being so warped by the Western culture wars that the only way one knows how to process an actual war is to use silly culture war tactics to combat it.

Russia and Russians are not the enemies here, Putin is. Lashing out at Russian individuals and businesses in North America doesn’t hurt him. Making yourself the center of the story by publicly denouncing people and objects because of their place of birth isn’t helping Ukrainians or giving them comfort.

Knock it off.

Originally published at https://jenmonroe.substack.com on March 15, 2022.