It seems like practically every week we hear about a new school shooting in the United States. In fact, they’re have been 144 school shootings since the tragedy at Sandy Hook in December of 2012. Adam Lanza, the WHITE male who murdered 26 people (20 of them children), was not labelled a terrorist. Dylan Roof, the WHITE male who murdered nine African Americans in a South Carolina church, was not labelled a terrorist. This label hasn’t fallen on the hundreds of white Americans who have committed similar acts to Roof and Lanza. However, it has practically become synonymous with Muslim people in American society.
Post 9/11, Islamophobia has become engrained in our society. Children born in the 21st century have been socialized by the thousands of negative images of Muslim people that circulate through American culture. Muslim people have been stamped as terrorists and African Americans who commit similar crimes are labelled as thugs. However, the first descriptor of a White shooter is mentally ill. This is damaging in so many different ways.
First off, millions of Americans, including myself, suffer from mental health issues on a daily basis. However, it is taboo, and seen by many as a mark of disgrace. Labelling people like Roof and Lanza as mentally ill adds fuel to the flaming fire composed of stigma surrounding mental health in this country. Secondly, white terror is placed on “one hateful person.” White shooters are seen as mentally disturbed ‘lone wolves, while violence committed by Muslim and Black “terrorists” and “thugs” demands “response and action from all who share race or religion.” In fact, it seems that the only time mental illness is discussed it is in relation with mass shootings, committed by WHITE males.
It is important to realize the historical significance of the Roof’s mass shooting at the first African Methodist Episcopal church in the South. In 1822, the Charleston church was burned to the ground by whites “fearful” of a slave revolt. Roof’s act of violence mirrors a history of white terrorism against “black institutions involved in promoting civil and human rights.” The church bombing in 1963 in Birmingham, Alabama is another perfect example. The targeting of Mosques is also incredibly present in the United States. Opponents of Mosques in the U.S. justify their objections citing “noise levels” and “traffic parking” as their concerns. However, this is clearly masking the racial hated and Islamophobia involved in the opposition.
The United States drone program comes to mind when thinking about who is and isn't seen as a terrorist. The drone program is particularly important to me because one of my good friends father is the Head of the Department of Homeland Security. When drone strikes are put into action, the justification behind it is that the people being attacked (Middle Easterners and Muslism) fit a “particular description or patter of behavior—not because they are known terrorists.” In the past six years, approximately 2500 people have been killed by US drone strikes. The government has done its best to keep the hundreds of air strikes, in the past decade, out of the spotlight.
The power and privilege involved in being a white American explains the label of “terrorist” falling on people of color. American culture is synonymous with white culture. This is important to realize because Islamophobia plagues the minds of white Americans, while right wing extremists account for a far larger percentage of attacks on American soil than Muslims or people of color. On top of that, for every American killed by a Muslim extremist, there have been “4300 homicides from other threats.”
Debates regarding terrorism in the US continues to focus on Muslims. However, it is evident that there needs to be a shift in focus. Right wing extremists and anti government extremists are the “leading source of ideological violence in America.” It is time for citizens of the United States to recognize the radical difference in terms used to describe Muslims and people of color who commit acts of violence, compared to white Americans who commit similar acts. White people continue to be ignorant to the facts of who is and isn't a terrorist. Terrorism has become a racialized term that has fallen on the religion of Islam and People of color. This ignorance continues to perpetuate Islamophobia and the stigma surrounding mental health in the United States.
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http://www.wctv.tv/home/headlines/9-Killed-in-Shooting-at-South-Carolina-Church-308112031.html?ref=031 “One Hateful Person” was the way in which Charleston Mayor Joseph Riley described Dylan Roof.
One thing that really stuck out to me that you said, Gabe, was the part about naming people as "mentally ill" just adds stigma to an already stigmatized identity. Creating an idea that someone who suffers from mental health are more likely to be murderers, is definitely not a healthy and sustainable solution to this mess. However, it also isn't fair to call some people terrorists when they are Muslim and some people mentally ill when they are White (as you stated). What is the solution? I'm not sure. The article about just calling people in general terrorist less often was an interesting argument, and I am excited to hear what other people think about that. One thing that sticks with me is on Fox News, they were covering the church shooting in South Carolina and the headline on the TV clearly stated "An attack against Christianity". I could hardly believe it. Lastly, Islamophobia is something that is soooo creepy to me in how much it is engrained in our society (sometimes even for myself). I think this is largely due to how TV shows like 24, Scandal, and other dramas portray who the "bad people" and terrorists are.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Ashley in that the primary descriptor of white shooters is "mentally ill" while black shooters are labeled "thugs" and Arab shooters are "terrorists." This reminds me of many of the statements written in the web of oppression activity, such as that when African Americans smoke pot they are labeled drug dealers, and when white people smoke pot they are labeled hippies, etc. I agree that labeling white shooters as first and foremost mentally ill not only perpetuates the negative stigma of mental illness, but also somewhat justifies their actions in a way that the label "thug" and "terrorist" does not do. Its really frustrating to see how these double standards exist in so many ways pertaining to race.
ReplyDeleteGabe, your statement, “for every American killed by a Muslim extremist, there have been 4300 homicides from other threats,” really stuck out to me. This can be related to the availability heuristic, a mental shortcut that relies on immediate examples that come to a person's mind when estimating the frequency or probability of an event occurring. Due to Islamophobia, a person can recall an American death caused by a Muslim extremist much faster than prior 9/11. Also, I found it interesting that when a white person commits a heinous act, it can be blamed on mental illness, but when a person of color commits such an act, the whole people group is to blame and must therefore apologize on behalf of the group as a whole. I have heard several stories from my friends who are Muslim about the numerous explicit and implicit racist acts every day since 9/11. This can be related to the phenomenon of outgroup homogeneity, the idea that the people in the group a person identifies with are diverse (the white man who murdered a number of people is a unique case) while the people in the other group are all the same (because one extremist of this people group did this, all of the people in this group are the same way).
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