It’s becoming increasingly challenging to believe that U.S. media actually care about Muslim lives. Why do I say that? Simple: they don’t cover terror attacks carried out or planned against Muslims with the same zeal as attacks against others. The latest example came after the horrific terror attack Tuesday night at the Istanbul airport that left at least 43 dead and over 230 people injured. Of those killed, it is likely that 30 or more of the victims were Muslim given that, according to Turkish officials, they come from predominantly Muslim countries: 23 Turks along with five Saudis, two Iraqis, a Jordanian, a Tunisian and an Iranian. Many, including myself, expected media outlets to cover this incident with at least the same intensity and breadth as they covered the Brussels terror attack in March that left 31 dead. Then we saw American news media spring into action, sending a cadre of anchors and reporters to Belgium providing “wall-to-wall coverage.”
It’s not a stretch to argue that, while we (globally speaking) value human life and believe that all should be treated equally, the fact is that some lives are deemed more valuable than others. All one need do is contrast the coverage afforded tragedies in Paris, Brussels, and Orlando with the attention give to the attacks at the Istanbul airport, in Bangladesh, or the car bomb in Baghdad that killed (as of today) 250 people. To not acknowledge the clear and obvious difference in tone, tenor, and degree of coverage is to miss the glaringly obvious.
As much as trafficking in racial terms can be overly simplistic and inflammatory, there’s simply no way to sugarcoat what should be clear to any rational observer. If a terrorist attack is perpetrated upon White Christians, it’s a tragedy of unimaginable proportions, and the media will fall all over themselves covering it. If the same thing happens to Muslims (especially in a Muslim country)…and the media reaction is “Meh….”
Yes, that’s a generalization, of course, but the difference between the media coverage in the aftermath of Istanbul, Bangladesh, and Baghdad vis-a-vis Paris, Brussels, and Orlando is striking. While no reasonable person would accuse TV news operations of being openly racist, the implied message sent is that Muslim lives simply don’t mattter as much as those of White Christians. After all, White Christians look like us, so it’s easier to feel impacted by a terrorist attack targeting those we can relate to. This should in no way be taken to mean that terrorism directed at Muslims is less terrible or horrific because…well, because we’re talking about human beings who just happen to be Muslims.
Unfortunately, the result is that the deaths of Muslims aren’t greeted with the same anger and revulsion as the deaths of White Christians. That may not be conscious, overt racism…but it’s still racism. And it needs to stop, because the message it sends to Muslims is that their lives are considered to be of less value, making their deaths less tragic.
When outlets like CNN consider a story especially important, they tend to bring out their top anchors. For Brussels, there was extensive coverage, some anchored by Anderson Cooper, showing the gravity of the situation. “Good Morning America” featured a special edition on the attacks as well. But Istanbul wasn’t afforded the same treatment. Yes, there was widespread coverage Tuesday night on cable news channels in the hours after the incident. But come Wednesday, there appeared to be little to no anchors there from major American media outlets on the streets of Turkey. We didn’t witness an outpouring of touching stories about those lost or detailed profiles about the heroism of the several Turkish police officers killed in the attack. And as the day wore on, Istanbul became just one of many big stories covered in the news.
The message sent by the American media, intentionally or not, is that when there’s an attack on a nation like Turkey that is 99 percent Muslim and the victims are primarily Muslim, it simply isn’t that important.
Even worse is when the media ignores plots undertaken by far Right-wing White Christian terrorists in this country to kill Muslims. Ah, but White Christians by definition CAN’T be terrorists, remember? They may have “anger control issues,” but terrorism is the exclusive domain of Muslims. Any REAL American patriot knows that, right??
Remember when a White man tried to assassinate Donald Trump recently? No? That’s not surprising…but just imagine the weeping and gnashing of teeth that would have resulted had The Donald’s would be assassin been a Muslim.
There’s Glendon Scott Crawford, a Klan member, who was convicted last August in federal court for trying to “acquire a radiation weapon for mass destruction” to kill Muslim Americans in New York State. He was convicted and facing a sentence of 25 years to life in August 2015, but we didn’t see many national headlines for this story.
Does the name Robert Doggart ring a bell? It should but it’s unlikely you heard about him. Doggart, a Christian minister who wanted to carry out a mission for God, was arrested for planning to murder Muslims in Islamberg, New York, a primarily African American Muslim community. Doggart had hoped to kill the Muslims there using explosives, guns, and even a machete to cut the people “to shreds.”
If the perpetrators of these plots had been Muslims and their intended victims White Christians, you can bet the coverage would have been very, very different. For one thing, there would’ve actually been media coverage- without a doubt extensive and focused with laser-like intensity on the “Muslims are terrorists” angle.
Call this “White privilege” if you want, but it’s racism, pure and simple. Sure, it may not be overt or conscious in its application, but it’s racism nonetheless. Until we demand that skin color and religion not be used to determine the degree and intensity with which an event is covered, nothing will change. The attack on the Istanbul airport was every bit the tragedy that the attack on the Brussels airport was. That the media chose not to cover Istanbul as they did Brussels is disturbing, because it sends the clear and undeniable (if perhaps unintentional) message that Muslim lives matter less than White Christian lives, and therefore their deaths are less tragic.
We can’t hope to find common ground with those Not Like Us © until and unless we can see our way clear to value their lives as much as we do those who look, think, and believe as we do. If we continue to treat them as less valuable and worthy, we can’t claim to be surprised when they push back.
We should be better than this, don’tchathink???
