One need only compare Jared Loughner to Nidal Hasan, the Ft. Hood shooter, to see the different kind of debate we would be having in America if the Tucson shooting was carried out by a Muslim. Instead of being a tone-deaf narcissist complaining of blood libel, Palin would be at the forefront of connecting rhetoric to real-world violence! Most (all?) conservatives considered the Ft. Hood shooting a terrorist attack. Virtually no one has said Jared Loughner is a terrorist. He’s a lone nut. America has a lot of lone, white nuts that all act alone but the brown nuts are part of a worldwide war.
One of the interesting strains in our public discourse is the glaring disconnect with the realities of terrorism. Is an act of mass murder such as the one in Tucson an act of terror? Or is it just the random insanity of a lone, mentally unbalanced loner? Well, let’s see…Jared Loughner was White…and, as well all know (and certainly any red-blooded Conservative will tell you), White Folks by definition can’t be terrorists. Now, MAJ Nidal Hassan, the Ft. Hood shooter? Well, of course he’s a terrorist, silly…he’s Muslim…and all Muslims are terrorists. Yes, as sad and counterintuitive as it might seem, our definition of “terrorism” is dependent upon the responsible party’s skin color and religion.
It’s really rather simple when you break it down scientifically. Timothy McVeigh? Eric Rudolph? Scott Roeder. Nope, not terrorists…’cuz their White (and Christian)…remember? Omar Mutallab? Osama bin-Laden? The 19 Swarthy Brown People responsible for the 9.11 attacks? Well, of course they’re terrorists. Hello…THEY’RE MUSLIM!! How could they be anything BUT terrorists?? Man, the next thing you know, they’ll be wanting to build a mosque and community center in lower Manhattan….
We collectively seem to have no problem fearing those whom we can easily recognize as “likely terrorists”. How do we do this? Well, why not start with skin color and religion? Since we already hate and despise Islam and Muslims…and because so many Muslims differ in appearance from most “real” Americans, we can be comfortable in extending our hatred an fear to an entire class of (mostly innocent) people.
This is exactly why we will never be able to effectively address the threat of terrorism until we can be honest about who we define as a “terrorist” and what heinous acts can and should be defined as “terrorism”. If Americans and the Mainstream Media continue to indulge the fantasy that White Folks CAN’T be terrorists and Swarthy Brown People ABSOLUTELY ARE either actual or potential terrorists, we’ll continue to miss the target.
I’m not going to make an argument for what defines a terrorist attack, and who should be considered a terrorist. That’s a debate for intellects nimbler than my own (and best left for another time). I don’t have a dog in this fight, and I have little interest in participating in a debate of this sort. What I do want is some honesty. When the Department of Homeland Security can spotlight the problem and potential of domestic terrorism…and then immediately is condemned and shouted down by voices on the Right, how can we hope to effectively protect this country? If our attention is focused outward because our ignorance and racism won’t allow us to look inward, we’re shutting the barn door after the horses have escaped. And how many more Americans will have to die before we take off the blinders?
If we continue to allow our collective ignorance, racism, and fear of Islam to dictate how we view and react to heinous acts of violence, we have no hope of moving forward. Until and unless we decide to be honest with ourselves about the threats we face- whether from without or within- we’ll remain unable to protect ourselves. This is what happens when ignoring reality becomes a matter of policy.
