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LYMLIFE: Boston, Bombs, and Bigotry
Something I wrote regarding the Fall out of the Boston Marathon Bombings
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Boston, Bombs, and Bigotry
When tragedy strikes in our country, it has an uncanny ability to bring us all together in a moment where we tear down any politically or socially constructed divisions and grieve together as a nation. During that rare moment, we are all the same people, sharing the same pain. There is no Black, White, Hispanic, Gay, Straight, Conservative, or Liberal. There are only Americans… unless of course you are an Arab or Muslim or anything else that might “look it”.
When tragedy strikes in our country, the immediate reaction for most of us is to send our thoughts and prayers to those who are affected. We try to bear the burden with those directly affected so we may help our nation heal and move past it. For the rest of us however, we become immediately overwhelmed by a relentless anxiety brought on by the fear that whoever caused this tragedy might look like us, have a similar name as us, speak a similar language as us, eat the same foods as us, or pray in the same manner as us.
When tragedy strikes in our country, our immediate reaction is to pray to God in the name of all that is holy and heavenly that whoever did this unspeakable act does not bear even the slightest resemblance to us in any way.
“Please God do not let the guy be an Arab”
“Please God, just please do not let him be Muslim”
“Please, Please, PLEASE don’t let him look like me or my brother or my son”
We aren’t given the privilege of grieving with our fellow Americans; rather we must first grapple with the fact that we are automatic suspects by virtue of the B’s that our parents use in place of their P’s, or the ever-present trifecta of hummus, pita, and olive oil in our kitchens, or inability of our names to be properly transliterated into Latin script. Our first reaction is to become flooded with fear that some misguided soul might blame the tragedy on “our people” and attack us in retaliation. Our first reaction is come to terms with the fact that there is no reason for us not to be a suspect and be detained for no reason. Only after that, if the rest of the nation allows it, can we join in the grieving.
This week’s horrific events in Boston were no different. As the whole nation got together to grieve, many Arabs, Muslims, Sikhs, Indians, Pakistanis, and anyone else who might fit into the carefully constructed stereotype of what a terrorist might look like first had to ready ourselves to become a place for America to rest its cross hairs upon. A process only made more frustrating by the initial reluctance to label the attack as an act of terror due to the lack of a suspect who might fit the bill. This of course is not anything we aren’t used. Yet, we who are all too familiar with the “random” search at the airport know that this discomfort, like the kind brought on by the touch of a TSA agent’s blue rubber gloves, is one that we can never get accustomed to. But it is important to understand where these expectations of what the terrorist will look like come from.
See, in America we are deliberately selective when throwing the “T” word around for any random attack on the public meant to instill fear or terror. There seems to be a set of guidelines that dictate the how this label of terrorism is used in the media and by politicians.
If we take a look at the past and compare two seemingly similar attacks that occurred with the purpose of spreading terror and taking lives. We can see just how different the two cases are and how they are perceived accordingly:
1) If we take the case of the Columbine High shootings in 1999, we can see that a pair of students at columbine high school carried out an attack that killed 13 people.
2) On the other hand, about a decade later in a Fort Hood, Texas military base, a member of the army carried out an attack that killed 13 people.
In the case of the Columbine shootings, we received a narrative of two mentally unstable kids pushed to the edge by constant bullying and ridicule; for all intents and purposes they were victims as well. In the case of the Fort Hood shooting we received the narrative of a deranged bloodthirsty terrorist, nothing more.
So we are left to wonder what made one shooter a terrorist and the others just your run-of-the-mill criminals. The difference is that one shooter was a Muslim, Palestinian Arab whose name was Nidal Malik Hassan while the others were white teenagers from American Suburbia named Dylan and Eric.
When it comes to the labeling a horrendous attack on civilians, our own government plays this game as well. The day after the attack, President Obama bravely declared that any time bombs are used to kill civilians, it is terrorism. But when we apply his own logic to his foreign policy in Afghanistan and Pakistan, it doesn’t quite add up. In what is a rare case of true journalism these days, one reporter spoke truth to power by asking White House Press Secretary Jay Carney if the US Drone strike that left 11 Afghani children dead earlier this month constitutes terrorism. It seems a logical association if we use the Presidents own words. Of course the only difference is that the loss of life was caused by our government, in the name of national security making the drone operator who pulled trigger while tucked away safely in a Syracuse military base a national hero, destinction that didn’t give Mr. Carney the confidence not to dodge the question. So it really begs the question: of what a terrorist actually looks like?
The fact is there is no answer. You might ask any anyone in, lets say, Ocala, Florida, what a terrorist looks like and they’ll probably give you the answer that fits in with the media’s masterful proliferation of the the bearded man with a head wrap and explosives strapped to his chest. But ask any child in Pakistan what a Terrorist might look like and he is likely to describe a middle-aged man with a charismatic smile, wearing a crisp blue suit, brandishing a eagle pinned to his lapel.
When we take a second to look back, we see that there have been a large number of terrorist attacks in this country over the past few decades. A closer look at these attacks shows us that the vast majority of these attacks were carried out by people with names such as McVeigh, Rudolph, Kaczynski, Mathews, Hughes, Crocker, Dillard, and many more that look like they might have been pulled out of a Nebraska phone book. But we forget these Terrorist attacks because we write off the terrorists as anomalous cases that are unrepresentative of the entirety of White America, people who were likely thoroughly unstable as far as sanity is concerned, unlike the Arabs and Muslims of course who are just naturally predisposed to violence.
These stereotypes are further placed in our collective mind when either the FBI or the NYPD fabricate a terror plot by pushing a young, unstable person who “fits the bill” to develop enough aggression to plot an attack on a public space. They then foil their manufactured terror plot just in time to save the day and justify the unending abuses to our civil liberties done in the name of maintaining our security.
It is all of this and more that has its hand in creating the environment that makes us guilty by enculturation when Tragedy strikes. It is these practices used in the media that make it possible for a victim injured in the Boston Terrorist attack to be considered an instant suspect simply because he was running away (like everyone else who was in the vicinity of an explosion), but more so because he was Saudi Arabian and thus suspicious enough to be tackled as he ran (much like a young Black or Latino male walking down a street in Brooklyn is suspicious enough to warrant a his eighth Stop-and-Frisk search in the span of 3 weeks). This carefully constructed imagery of terrorists, acts a barrier in allowing our country to truly unite in the face of tragedies such as that which occurred in Boston. It creates a second set of potential victims who could fall prey to bigoted attacks made in retaliation to terror attacks, and further opens the wounds we’ve already sustained. These preconceived notions of what a terrorist looks like should be put to rest so that when tragedy strikes in our country, we all can join together to support one another as a nation, rather than having some of us have worry about becoming targets ourselves, or if any one of us happen to fall victim to an attack like this, we can receive the same condolences, thoughts, and prayers as the rest of the victims instead of suspicious looks and implications of guilt.
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Wisdom Wednesdays w/ Momma LYM
(Source: savagelym)
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Guest piece I wrote for the Rogue Scholar Society
Shooting the Dove before it Flys: The fleeting hope of Israeli/Palestine Peace:
http://roguescholarsociety.blogspot.com/2012/12/shooting-dove-before-it-flies-fleeting.html
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(Source: zivlajamil, via resistapathy)
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POEM: …between the Civilized Man and the Savage…
i am a Savage
…wild and uncultivated
clay skin scarred
by tears trailing
down cheeks now eroded
like the language
of my ancestors.
culture worn away
by the winds of Civility.
a colorless wind.
gusting disease and death
upon us with no reservation
except the kind
we were forced upon.
wind took my sun dance,
interrupted vision quest,
force fed the Son’s blood and flesh.
i swallowed as my sins
cleansed from soul
by sins that cleansed us
from these lands.
i walk with father, son,
holes in spirit.
granted salvation
from Savagery
but who will save us
from Civility
i am a Savage
…untamed and untrained
in shotgun matrimony,
wrist and shackle,
jump broom.
and honeymoon in chains
that dig deep into flesh
the color of the heart
belonging to him performing
this Civil union.
stole us from home
to build him a home
over graves of those who home
he stole. Civil man
need not the high road,
rather drag us through
the middle passage
lash us till this earth
we toil over saturates
with this foreign blood
it has come to know so well,
a fertilizer to an empire
whose roots thrive upon it.
blood rich in histories
long forgotten,
pumped by iron hearts
beating to the rhythm
of distant drums, echoing
from shores we
were snatched from.
delivered from Savagery
to Civility’s firm embrace.
i am a Savage
…fierce, violent, & uncontrollable
clenched fist clutching
onto remanants of a home
that exists only in memories
of my father; born a Savage
in a land drowned
out by the crimson floods
of Civility that made this
desolate Savageland bloom
into lush fields of despair.
lives uprooted like
olive trees my grandfather
picked his livelihood from,
cast out as david-turned-goliath
slings shots fired from tanks
in response to stones
he once threw.
punished for each gasp
made while treading
to keep our heads above
the rising crimson that
has washed away footprints
left in these burning sands
by those God spoke through.
back against concrete
slab separating us from
a Civilization built upon
bones of our Savage
fathers sacrificed in
name of Civility.
he called it God’s will,
a promise kept only when
holy land is wholey
cleansed of our Savagery
will the depths of Civility rise.
we are Savages
…united in gratitude
for opportunity to build
Civilized man’s legacy.
eternally indebted to he
who freed us from Savage ways.
no longer wild and uncultivated,
he tamed us and trained us,
washed away our uncontrollable
ferocity and violence
so we may join him
in struggle to spread Civility to
our ignorant brothers
we are Savages
in war between
Civilized man and Savage,
reassess the makings of both
SUPPORT THE SAVAGE.
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august again
did not expect mercy
wall swallows what once was hope
language in double talk wa half speak
law of hearts dashed against rock
did not expect compassion
nor retribution for life
nor redemption for love
of women’s hands reaching shook earth
of women wailing into lasting sky
expected less than before
swallowed a wall built nightly still
expected more than history
suheir hammad
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Hello Tumblr Followers!
i just entered a video competition through the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute (CHCI), I made this video below on what the meaning of being Latino …the video with the most votes get tickets to CHCI’s 35th anniversary Gala in DC… please take a look at the video and please vote for it when the voting opens up! :D
you can vote once every day till Aug 31!
VOTE —-»> http://apps.facebook.com/contestshq/contests/279439/voteable_entries/56277870
VOTE —-»> http://apps.facebook.com/contestshq/contests/279439/voteable_entries/56277870
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POEM: My Superhero - Spoken Word Poem by LeroyJ (Music by Alicia Keys)
Happy Mother’s Day!
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In Justice…
In Justice, we are blind
blind to the pigments of skin
blind to the symbols of faith
blind to the colors of flags
seeing only truthInjustice, the opposite is true
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The image of the Statue of Liberty in this piece is created using only the Arabic translation of the James Madison quote “If Tyranny and Oppression come to this land, it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy. The loss of liberty at home is to be charged to the provisions against danger, real or imagined, from abroad.” The text is written in the Diwani Jali script. Every word in the poem is written exactly once in the body of the statue, and once on her pedestal.
(Source: theamericanmuslim, via girafica)
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Out of the shadows and into the streets!On March 14 2012, Tania Chairez and Jessica Hyejin Lee, openly undocumented and unafraid mujeres, blocked traffic in an act of civil disobedience in front of ICE headquarters in Philadelphia. They risked deportation to free Miguel, another undocumented youth who has been in ICE detention for more than 8 months, separated from his wife and U.S. citizen son.
Photo Credit: Jessica Hyejin Lee
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Please do not forget Trayvon Martin. His killer, George Zimmerman, still has not been arrested.
What you can do: Call, fax, or email the District Attorney’s office, Sanford Police, and political representatives to ask them why Trayvon Martin’s killer has not been arrested.
1. State Attorney’s Office - Sanford
Attn: Florida District Attorney Norman Wolfinger
State Attorney’s Office
Criminal Justice Center
101 Bush Boulevard
PO Box 8006
Sanford, Florida 32772-8006
Telephone: (407) 665-60002. Sanford Police Department
Sanford Police Department, Attn: Police Chief Bill Lee, 815 West 13th Street, Sanford, FL 32771
Telephone: (407) 688-5070
3. Florida Governor
Office of Governor Rick Scott, State of Florida, The Capitol, 400 S. Monroe St., Tallahassee, FL 32399-0001
Governor’s office Telephone: (850) 488-7146
4. Florida legislators
http://www.flsenate.gov/senators/find
(a) The Florida state senator for Sanford, Florida is David Simmons.
David Simmons, 251 Maitland Avenue, Suite 304,Altamonte Springs, FL 32701
Telephone: (407) 262-7578(b) The Florida state representative for Sanford, Florida is Jason Brodheur.
Jason Brodheur, District Office, 114 West First Street, Suite 208, Sanford, FL 32771-1273
Telephone: (407) 302-4800
(c) The US representative for Sanford, Florida is Corrine Brown.
Representative Corrine Brown, 2336 Rayburn HOB, Washington, D.C. 20515
Telephone: (202) 225-0123, Fax: (202) 225-2256
(d) The US senators for Florida are Marc Rubio and Bill Nelson.
Senator Marc Rubio, 317 Hart Senate Office Building, Washington DC, 20510
Telephone: (202) 224-3041
Senator Bill Nelson, 716 Senate Hart Office Building, Washington, DC 20510
Telephone: (202) 224-5274
(Source: rubyshimmer, via girafica)
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(via lymlife)
