Je Suis White People

Again the recent terror plot arrests, increased in airport and national security in the wake of Charlie Hebdo attack has raised the same reoccurring questions about the value of human lives in the world. Why the unanimous, universal condemnation of the 17 deaths in Paris nearly two weeks ago and insistence that billions of Muslims apologize outright for Charlie Hebdo? The Western countries are mostly numb to the thousands of deaths of innocent women, children and men from Baga, Maiduguri to Palestine, Syria and Yemen. When death comes to people in the Global South from terrorism, the journalists and pundits treat it as a footnote as a "normal" occurrence in African and Asian countries struggling with war and sectarianism pushed by Western backed allies or rebel groups. Terrorism and deaths is not synonymous with countries in the Global South who have a longer history of being peaceful and diverse countries ie Syria and Iraq prior to the War on Terror. Western hypocrisy in defending freedom and human lives when terrorism harms the lives and interests of Global North or developed World is well known around the world. Children in Syria and Nigeria know full well the justice denied to them each time ISIS and Boko Haram bombards their homes and destroy their livelihoods without a thunderous, resounding universal condemnation of terrorism and a call to protect their lives via political solution instead of drone attacks or military force. The children in Palestine sees how every time Israeli Jews are hurt the whole world briefly revolves around Israel's needs (emotional or security wise) while pointing an accusing finger at Palestinian children and their parents condemning them universally as terrorists. The use of terrorism by ISIS and Boko Haram makes it easier for Western media and politicians to overlook the deaths of innocent people caught in the violence of Nigeria, Palestine, Syria, Iraq and elsewhere. The gruesome logic as espoused by journalists and supporters of defensive military industrial complex is that fighting the terrorists over there saves lives over here.


The article below was written by Margaret Kimberly, writer for Freedom Rider at Black Agenda Report 

Charlie Hebdo: “Je Suis White People"

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