Only hours after these blasts occurred at the Boston Marathon on Monday afternoon people were calling this a terrorist attack. Carefully chosen words were issued from President Obama promising that justice would be served; “We will find out who did this and we will hold them accountable,” says President Obama. The explosion hit international news and social media was overwhelmed with tweets and photos, links and opinions. No officials declared this incident an attack, right away, but everyone was thinking it. In a way, we are programmed to think that way. We have been brought up to correlate bombs with "terrorism" and violence with "attack" so it's no surprise that the first person to be interviewed was a Saudi man who was fleeing the scene. It was the same motive on September 11th. In fact, history does repeat itself. New York Times Says, " It was unclear Monday evening who might be responsible for the blast. Although investigators said that they were speaking to a Saudi citizen who was injured in the blast… A law enforcement official said later Monday that the man, was in the United States on a student visa and came under scrutiny because of his injuries, his proximity to the blasts and his nationality — but added that he was not known to federal authorities and that his role in the attack, if any, was unclear" and furthermore ABC News confirms, "12:47 a.m. ET: Sources tell ABC News authorities are looking for any friends and associates of the 20-year-old Saudi national". So why, in a progressive society would we immediately suspect a foreigner as the perpetrator? When will we open our eyes to the facts and react with certainty not speculation?
A few weeks ago, we watched a film in Marita's class called Divided We Fall: Americans in the Aftermath which revealed the impact of racial and religious profiling just minutes to years after the attacks on 9/11. It was clear that the story of September 11th that was publicized was only one side of the account. Many men and women were attacked simply for looking "suspicious" which our media was quick to correlate with "turban" or "Muslim". These stereotypes are what get us into trouble. When so many people just want the facts, the media has immense power to skew the truth and spin situations to appease a specific audience. The narrator of the film said, "The whole country came together as one. This was the great American story. But I was hearing a second story, drowned out by the anthem of national unity. This story traveled by word of mouth, through emails and phone calls. Americans were being beat up on city streets, Americans who looked like me, or my dad, or my grandfather. Threatened, chased, stabbed. And then a Sikh man was shot and killed. It felt so close, as if an uncle had been killed. How could both be the face of America, this unity, and this hatred?".
It's true, our nation is facing a terrible fate. We are coming up with more reasons to hate each other and less reasons to identify as "One nation, Under God". Yet, why should we? If this is the story we are putting out, I don't blame those who are scared or skeptical. The only thing they are at fault for is not looking further for different answers. Complacency is our biggest enemy. In light of recent events I cannot help but thinking this is happening all over again. Immediately the media points to the person who stands out as the one to blame. When he leads to a dead end, they look for his friends. It's incredible to think that in the face of increasing racism and stereotyping our country can still promote itself as "a land of freedom". It makes me question how free we really are if the media is our only access to what is happening in our world. We fall victim to exaggeration, opinions and biases. When we should be uniting together, supporting our friends and families we are walking around scared. The images that the media puts out remind us that different is bad and furthermore if you are a specific type of different you are probably, possibly a terrorist. It is easy enough to convince people to think a certain way. Whether it's through word-of-mouth or news broadcasts our society has accepted stereotyping and profiling and instead of honoring the victims we are quickly making more victims. It's unbelievable. Where is the pride in that?
One of the readings for class this week was "45 Years After MLK Assassination: What Have We Learned?" written by Adele Stan on April 4th. Stan writes, "if there was ever a time to reconvene the coalition that Martin Luther King was organizing on the eve of his death, it's now. Or maybe yesterday, or 10 years ago. But definitely now". This is so true. Just twenty years after the end of Apartheid in South Africa and almost fifty years after the passage of the Civil RightsAct in the United States racism is still occurring even if nobody is saying it. The repercussions from the apartheid era are still perfectly evident across all of South Africa. Harbored resentment ignites immense tension. Moving forward is a thought but realistically this seems to be a society that thrives off of recognizing differences. It's clear just by looking at where people live, which schools they attend, where they shop. Then again, which society is not concerned with everything that is "wrong" (aka different)? All over the world, white girls are taught to fear "large black men" when if fact, a "small white man" can be just as dangerous. Every stranger should be approached with caution. Every situation can be potentially dangerous. Except that's not what we are taught. We must defend ourselves from "dangerous areas". Have you ever noticed all the "dangerous areas" are predominately black or Hispanic communities? When we expect fear we will encounter the fear. It gives us reason to believe we are right and perpetuate the messages that our youth is hearing and that the media is spewing before the entire story unfolds. The institutionalized racism that plagues our consistently segregated schools sends the eternal message of superiority and inequality. Such inequality is reaching our teens in LGBTQ communities and victims of mental illness. Being not white, not heterosexual, not "normal" is wrong and therefore we are encouraged to place judgment or blame. Where did we learn this? The media. Our society is headed in a terrible downward spiral. With racist attitudes on the rise and hatred seeping from each trauma that we encounter the impending idea that we are never safe is daunting. Everyone is to be feared for something if you read the right sources; if you look hard enough you'll find the words you want to hear which implicate the people you "know" are bad. In my opinion, whether or not we say it, our judgments are weakening us. Martin Luther King's words say to us that for every time you choose to discriminate you are diminishing the dream. It only takes one person to ignite a movement. It takes many more to create change. Each of us is responsible for rekindling the pride which brought us out of the civil rights movement. Not merely as citizens but as human beings we are obligated to restore our dignity and empower our people.
When recalling the events which occurred at the Boston Marathon on April 15, 2013:
Be present. Honor the victims. Know your facts. Advocate. Understand. Trust. Believe.
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