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marmar

(76,976 posts)
Thu Aug 9, 2012, 01:09 PM Aug 2012

The Atlantic: Why the Reaction Is Different When the Terrorist Is White


Why the Reaction Is Different When the Terrorist Is White

By Conor Friedersdorf
Aug 8 2012, 7:30 AM ET 484


Atrocities like the attack on the Sikh congregation in Wisconsin introduce terrifying dissonance into America's post-9/11 mindset.


Observing that the Sunday attack on a Sikh temple in Wisconsin hasn't attracted nearly as much attention as other shooting sprees, including last week's rampage at an Aurora, Colorado movie theater, Robert Wright wonders if the disparity is due to the fact that most people who shape discourse in America "can imagine their friends and relatives -- and themselves -- being at a theater watching a Batman movie," but can't imagine themselves or their acquaintances in a Sikh temple. "This isn't meant as a scathing indictment; it's only natural to get freaked out by threats in proportion to how threatening they seem to you personally," Wright says, adding that the press ought to give much more coverage to the incident.

In a provocative essay in The Awl, Jay Caspian Kang goes different places with the same core insight. "Who, when first hearing of the news, didn't assume the killings were an act of racial hatred? Who didn't start to piece together the turbans, the brown skin, the epidemic of post-9/11 violence that is under-reported, or at least never has all its incidents connected?" he asked. That narrative "only implicates a small percentage of Americans," he continued, "the story of the massacre at Oak Creek will be, by definition, exclusionary. It will be 'tragic' and 'unthinkable' and 'horrific,' but it will not force millions of Americans to ask potentially unanswerable questions. It will not animate an angry public." It will seem different, he adds, to members of the several minority groups "who cannot limit themselves out of the victims of Oak Creek."

These observations ring largely true to me.

There is, however, another factor that likely explains some of the reticence of some Americans, including professional commentators, to focus very much attention on the Oak Creek massacre. .................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2012/08/why-the-reaction-is-different-when-the-terrorist-is-white/260849/



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leveymg

(36,418 posts)
1. Does this also explain the silence at the '08 massacre at the Knoxville Congregational Church?
Thu Aug 9, 2012, 01:22 PM
Aug 2012

Same circumstances, similar eerie silence by much of the MSM. Could it be that those who run the MSM also don't sufficiently identify with white liberals and brown-skinned Sikhs?

Knoxville Unitarian Universalist church shooting - Wikipedia...
en.wikipedia.org/.../Knoxville_Unitarian_Universalist_church...
Motivated by a desire to kill liberals and Democrats, gunman Jim David Adkisson fired a shotgun at members of the congregation during a youth performance of ...

Fumesucker

(45,851 posts)
3. Yes..
Thu Aug 9, 2012, 01:29 PM
Aug 2012

Not to mention that the congregation stopped the shooter without further gunplay..

Showing white liberals as both brave and capable is not something the M$M is going to willingly do..

leveymg

(36,418 posts)
4. I'm finding The Atlantic to be increasingly superficial and almost pig-headedly centrist
Thu Aug 9, 2012, 01:37 PM
Aug 2012

Used to be a regular reader. The neocon editorial line really reeks, now.

leveymg

(36,418 posts)
6. Megan's "on leave." (Hope she got over her stomach bug). What's Conor's excuse?
Thu Aug 9, 2012, 02:16 PM
Aug 2012

Has anyone checked the Health Department rating lately of the deli across the street from the editorial office?

 

YoungDemCA

(5,714 posts)
2. What if the victims are also white?
Thu Aug 9, 2012, 01:24 PM
Aug 2012

I'm thinking of the Columbine massacre.

"It wasn't supposed to happen here!"

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