I’ve reached the point where I’m no longer shocked by the story of another islamophobic attack.
On Twitter, I wrote:
“I’m still waiting for white people to denounce violent terrorist acts perpetrated by their kind. Where are the so-called “white moderates”? Why are they silent? Is it because they are complicit? Is it because they approve? #StopSpreadingCommonwealthLaw”
Because gallows humour keeps me from losing it. But I might have already lost it, because I was hardly surprised. “Western” media constantly demonizing Muslims, whether it’s movies (there are reasons I can’t watch Back To The Future, True Lies, and other of your favourites), TV shows (I’m thinking mostly of french-Canadian TV like Virginie), “news” outlets (Journal de Montréal, TVA, LCN, and any other place that keeps hiring ing Richard Martineau), talk shows (like Bill Maher), comedians (Ricky Gervais, and Jeff Dunham’s “Achmed the dead terrorist”), “thinkers” (like Richard Dawkins), video games (Oh, hello there, Call of Duty, and Battlefield amongst others), and comics and “graphic novels” (Habibi and Charlie Hebdo), and “true fact tales” (Not Without My Daughter).
And I’d like to claim that we’ve made Islamophobia acceptable in our own lands, but history has demonstrated that the only reason violent extremists have gained any power is because of outside influence by the “West”; that still hasn’t stopped (somewhat understandable) muslim-wary sentiments in other Arabs.
So, no, I’m not shocked. I’m numbed. Because the first time is a shock. The second is a tragedy. The third is saddening.
But when the constant reaction to these is “but who could have guessed it?” when the attackers would be publicly outlying their plans, whether it’s by sharing violent islamophobic imagery on their social media accounts, or by telling people that they want to kill Muslims. Both of which get the Charlie Hebdo defense of “it’s a joke”. Fucking Hitler wrote a book about what he wants to do and no one thought “yeah, we should probably stop him” until he started getting closer to the Brits. And even then, that didn’t stop the U.S. from selling weapons to him until the Japanese hit an island occupied by their colonizing forces.
Because, yeah, we’ve only been sharing this planet for a few millennia, but only one skin tone is important enough to be protected by a seemingly vocal minority.
So here I am: Waiting for white people to apologize for their complicit silence in the ongoing white supremacist genocide of all things not white enough for them.