This is more than an editorial, it’s a collection of limited-edition fundraising NFTs that send all proceeds directly to Black Women For Black Lives, an organization working on the ground to help Black people flee the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

You can support BW4BL for as little as $20-30 dollars / 0.001 ETH by choosing the “common” rarity option when buying your NFT. If you are able and willing to donate more, you can secure a “rare” or even “legendary” NFT rarity for more ETH.

Why make this an NFT? It makes the story into an additional fundraising vehicle that lets readers send support through crypto—the currency that is most usable and secure for Black people inside this conflict. If NFT’s aren’t for you, you can donate via USD here. We’ve also included other ways to contribute at the end of the editorial.

For Black people seeking refuge from the Russian invasion of Ukraine, there are additional barriers beyond bombed out roads and harsh winter weather.

Black people seeking safety from the violence in Ukraine are routinely asked to verify the humanity automatically granted to white refugees seeking asylum alongside them. So this isn’t another explicit recounting of their traumas – the latest installment of graphic images, and videos documenting racist violence spreading across the Internet. Such visceral documentation shouldn’t be necessary to validate their experiences. That to some audiences they seem to be, in part, is the problem.

Whether citizens, long-term residents, or the large population of foreign students, primarily from African and Caribbean countries, studying at Ukrainian universities, Black people in Ukraine are facing compound struggles due to racism. At the borders of the country, those enthusiastically helping white Ukrainians often treat people of color fleeing the country with skepticism at best, all too often actively discriminating against them, even segregating their admittance or targeting them with violence. They are routinely asked to prove they’re actually from the Ukraine, or actively studying there, which isn’t asked of white refugees. Some Black people in Ukraine have even been pulled off of trains or buses as they attempt to escape the war – some of whom are still missing. A Nigerian first-year medical student in Lviv named Rachel Onyegbule left stranded at a town near Ukraine’s border told CNN, “More than 10 buses came and we were watching everyone leave. We thought after they took all the Ukrainians they would take us, but they told us we had to walk, that there were no more buses.”

These types of discrimination and additional barriers for Black people evacuating Ukraine mean that (even more so than most refugees) their troubles don’t stop when they arrive at the border. In fact, it’s at the Ukrainian border that many report some of the worst discrimination is taking place, including alleged violence from Ukrainian border officials who prioritize those they judge based on appearance to be fellow Ukrainians. On March 1, the UN officially recognized that such racist discrimination was taking place.

Aid from domestic and international organizations such as food, water, shelter and sanitary needs, meanwhile, is less likely to reach them – to say nothing of less official sources of help offered by local populations. When groups mobilize to help get resources to Black people fleeing the crisis in Ukraine on social media, they often receive hostile or dismissive reactions accusing them of divisiveness or employing “whataboutism” to deflect from the urgent and specific needs of Black people in the region. These arguments undermine the reality that Black people fleeing Ukraine face additional barriers to receiving aid and finding safety and security.

“There was definitely a gap in support–and we have to bridge that gap,” says U.K. lawyer Patricia Daley.

Inspired largely by the social media presence of Korrine Sky, a medical student from Zimbabwe who was recently able to cross the border and reunite with her husband after days of journeying in the cold, Daley and senior social worker Tokunbo Koiki raised nearly £90,000 in only a few days for Black people in Ukraine and across the border escaping the war. They have already begun distributing these funds.

“If [another marginalized group was lacking access] we’d do the same thing,” Daley says.

Black people at borders seeking safety are asked to provide proof and documentation waived for white Ukrainians more in line with stereotypes of what Ukrainian citizens look like. Not all Ukrainian citizens or residents, of course, are white. But, those presumptions aside, why would a person’s nationality, place of permanent residence, or status make them more or less in need of or deserving of help in the middle of a war zone?

“People [who have] settled in Ukraine but that’s not their usual home, they matter too,” Daley says.

Black people who are able to cross the Ukrainian border are not guaranteed safety.

Some of the countries bordering Ukraine – namely Hungary and Poland – have governments which have actively promoted racist anti-refugee messaging in recent years in response to refugees from countries in Africa and the Middle East. People of color seeking safety in these countries must navigate harms perpetuated by the racism and xenophobic sentiments stoked by the likes of Poland’s Andrzej Duda and Hungary’s Viktor Orbán, authoritarian leaders who have all too much in common with Vladimir Putin in this regard.

While most of the worst documented harassment, discrimination and violence faced by Black people trying to escape has been on the Ukrainian side of the border, this is not the whole story. In Poland, which one commenter on a social channel devoted to helping Black people in Ukraine called the least hospitable, people have reported militias at the borders targeting Black people trying to enter the country. Some commentators in social channels devoted to helping Black people trying to find safety report that they have advised people to avoid Poland due to such issues, advising them to head to Hungary or Slovakia instead – or even to remain within western regions of Ukraine that are currently safer. Another commenter said that these countries, too, have their issues with racist “hooligans.”

All people fleeing war face immense strain on their mental health from the trauma of this experience. The additional strain of navigating racism in a new country only adds to the mental health impact, and organizers on social channels devoted to helping Black people fleeing violence in Ukraine are calling on organizations to help address the mental health needs as well. Seeing graphic depictions of war, as well as racist violence in news stories, can further traumatize such survivors.

Too often people overlook their humanity, that they are seeking the solace and joy of everyday connections which are all too easy to take for granted.

After arriving at the Romanian border and receiving accommodations from a hotel helping refugees, Korrine Sky wrote: “In a few days, I get to kiss my baby Jojo on the mouth and I’m going to be home in time for her first birthday.”

While she was able to get to safety, she said: “We still have a large student population in Sumy and Kyiv who we are struggling to get transport too. This will be my priority and anyone who can help us do that, it would be greatly appreciated.”

We’d like to ask you for such help here. This editorial has been minted as an NFT which you can purchase for a donation of your choosing, the proceeds of which will be distributed to organizers aiding Black people escaping war in Ukraine.

Our goal is to raise $25M for those organizers on the ground helping Black people find safety and resources. You can also support this cause with non crypto donations here, or offer to volunteer.