While America was engulfed in the story of two French terrorist executing 10 journalists in France, several thousands miles across the Atlantic Ocean, a domestic terrorist received scant coverage. Not until twitter (#NAACPBombing) and social media exploded, did the traditional mainstream media deem it needed more coverage.
Joy-Ann Reid did a splendid job of deconstructing the bad reporting. She first provided the FBI’s definition of terrorism.
The FBI defines terrorism as “the unlawful use of force or violence against persons or property to intimidate or coerce a government, the civilian population, or any segment thereof in furtherance of political or social objectives.” The FBI further classifies terrorism as either domestic or international, depending on the origin, base, and objectives of the terrorist organization. We investigate terrorism-related matters without regard to race, religion, national origin, or gender. Reference to individual members of any political, ethnic, or religious group does not imply that all members of that group are terrorists. Terrorists represent a small minority in any large social context.
Reid then referenced to an article by Mic.com’s Elizabeth Plank titled “One Tweet Perfectly Sums Up the Big Problem With How We Talk About Terrorism.”
If a terrorist attack took place right here in the U.S., wouldn’t it be a national story?
Terrorism may be defined as “the use of violence and threats to intimidate or coerce, especially for political purposes,” but if you asked most people, the term conjures one image: brown people with beards and bombs. Nothing has made that profoundly racist misunderstanding clearer than the news coverage of two violent attacks that happened within roughly 24 hours.
On Tuesday morning, the NAACP offices in Colorado Springs, Colorado, came under attack when someone who is believed be a balding white man in his 40s dropped an explosive device that went off a few feet from the building. And on Wednesday morning, news broke of a horrifying mass shooting at satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo in France that left 12 dead and several wounded.
Both acts were motivated by radical ideology, but only one of them is being covered by the 24-hour news cycle. What gives?
According to Ebony senior digital editor Jamilah Lemieux, it’s because we rush to label attacks carried out by non-whites as “terrorism,” but when the perpetrator is white, we view those cases as isolated acts of violence.
Many were upset with the reporting. First, a terrorist act that occurred within virtually the same news cycle across the pond took on much more importance than a terrorist act in the United States. Secondly, the description of the two terrorist events were starkly different.
This type of reporting is not just relegated to terrorism where most believe terrorists are ‘brown people with beards and bombs’. Other minorities are stigmatized by profiling as they shop, drive, or simply exist in the public sphere.
Here is the reality. This type of reporting has two distinct effects. The first is that it unfairly stigmatizes distinct communities. Muslims feel as if they carry the weight of every Islamist terrorist on their shoulders. Minorities feel the stress of always being watched or singled out irrespective of their social status.
Another effect however is the creation of a willfully ignorant populace that endangers us all. Heather Hurlburt, Director, New Models of Policy Change and Michael O’Hanlon, Senior Fellow at The Brookings Institution appeared on the Ed Show to discuss the shootings in France and Americans’ apprehensions a few days ago. Their take was rather probative.
Hulburt said that the types of attack that occurred in Paris was less likely in the US because she is only visualizing attacks from Islamist as terrorism. O’Hanlon rightfully reminded the audience that America has already suffered similar fate with more murdered at the hands of our own ‘terrorists’. The only difference is that these were not ‘brown people with beards and bombs’.
Americans better wake up. Racism is a cancer. Prejudice is a cancer. More importantly it does not only hurt the aggrieved but the perpetrator as well. As America seals its borders to ‘brown people with beards and bombs’ Right Wing terrorists like the followers of Cliven Bundy and other well armed militias will hit us when we least expect.
