Paris, Terrorism, and Race

Aftermath of Paris Bombings

I’m sure you were as saddened by the news from Paris last week as I was. So many lives, the disruption, the agony – and now the heightened fear of refugees and migrants among some.

I was relieved to see the Facebook post from my friend Dorcy who lives in Paris assuring us that she was safe.

A few of our U.S. politicians are exploiting the fear in hopes of converting voters to their cause. President Obama is resisting the pressure. France’s President Hollande is standing firm but even before the Paris bombings many far-right leaders in Europe have been asking for a halt to immigration.

“Far-right politicians in the Netherlands, Britain, Belgium and other nations added to the rhetoric this week, conflating the migration crisis with threats to security, says The Huffington Post’s Nick Robins-Early.

Meanwhile Nicolas Kristof reminds us that in 1939 the U.S. rejected Jewish refugees fleeing Nazi terror. “That year, the United States turned away a ship, the St. Louis, with Jewish refugee children; the St. Louis returned to Europe, where some of its passengers were murdered by the Nazis.” He calls this, “a stain on our conscience.” I agree.

What do you think about the U.S. accepting 10,000 additional refugees after a thorough vetting process, as Obama wants?

“The Talk” for Whites

Wouldn’t you like to find a way to help our country get over racism?

I think we agree that electing President Obama was not the ultimate solution, though many hoped it would be. No, it’s a lot harder than that, and will take many years of effort.

The writer John Metta gave a powerful sermon to an all-white congregation in Washington State that addresses the extreme difficulty of the work. My friend Coleen sent it to me. It’s called “Why I Don’t Discuss Racism with White People.”

He says, “the sermon was begun with a reading of The Good Samaritan story, and this wonderful quote from Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Americanah.” Part of Chimamanda’s quote says, “I came from a country [Nigeria] where race was not an issue; I did not think of myself as black and I only became black when I came to America.”

Like John Metta, she explains why she does not say what she thinks about race to her white friends – they are not able to understand.

Metta says, “I don’t talk about race with white people because I have so often seen it go nowhere. When I was younger, I thought it was because all white people are racist. Recently, I’ve begun to understand that it’s more nuanced than that.

“To understand, you have to know that black people think in terms of black people. We don’t see a shooting of an innocent black child in another state as something separate from us because we know viscerally that it could be our child, our parent, or us, that is shot.”

One illustration struck me most powerfully. He says, “There’s a headline from The Independent that sums up [the difference between how we describe blacks and whites] quite nicely: “Charleston shooting: Black and Muslim killers are ‘terrorists’ and ‘thugs’. Why are white shooters called ‘mentally ill’?”

“I’m gonna read that again: ‘Black and Muslim killers are ‘terrorists’ and ‘thugs’. Why are white shooters called ‘mentally ill’?’

“Did you catch that? It’s beautifully subtle. This is an article talking specifically about the different way we treat people of color in this nation and even in this article’s headline, the white people are “shooters” and the Black and Muslim people are “killers.” Wow.

He describes “The Talk” that black parents give to their children around the age of 5, to prepare them for the world.

What he says made me reflect on whether we white people need to develop “The Talk” we can give to our children and grandchildren.

It would be something like this: “You and I are white. White people like us can do things that people who aren’t white can’t do, like live in a place with many other people who look like us. A person who isn’t white can’t always have people that look like him or her around, but you can.”

Of course you would modify “The Talk” to suit your situation.

I’m working on more of “The Talk” for white parents who want their children to understand their white privilege and use it well. I would welcome your suggestions for what to say.

Boko Haram vs. Isis

Professor Ferraro’s post of the 18th highlights a surprising fact from the Global Terrorism Index. “The research found that ‘Boko Haram, the Nigerian jihadist group, was responsible for 6,644 deaths in 2014, compared with 6,073 at the hands of ISIS’.  Although Boko Haram is the deadlier organization, its profile in the West is much lower, an unfortunate manifestation of the relative disregard for events in Africa,” Ferraro says.

So unfortunate. And this week there were two more attacks by Boko Haram, one in Yola and the other in Kano.

An article in The New York Times about the same report says, “Security experts, regional authorities and Western military officials . . say the string of recent attacks on various public places is evidence that the group is grasping to gain real ground and is no longer as capable of holding territory.” So there is hope.

And then Mali today. Not Boko Haram and not ISIS! So the profile of Africa is raised with more deaths. And it’s in the news because it’s Africa? No, it’s in the news because foreigners were in the hotel and among the dead.