During a discussion earlier this week, Mr. Bolos brought up the shooting at the Sikh temple. I recalledan article from The Atlantic about reactions to this shooting.
Last month, Wade Page walked into a Sikh temple in Wisconsin and opened fire on those inside. While this shooting happened a bit after the Colorado theater shooting, the general public's reception to this was very different. While many people where outraged at the Colorado shooting, not many people seemed to show acknowledge the tragedy.
The article points to one very specific reason that people reacted less to this shooting: " The key factor isn't that they're Sikhs; it's that the apparent homegrown terrorist." While that author says that the identity of the shooter as the reason for the lack of response, I don't believe this is the case. I think the reason people seemed to ignore this tragedy is that this shooting appeared to reverse the roles of the shooter and victim. While it's no where near politically correct, many people associate terrorists with Muslims. Sikh's are probably lumped in with that group, even though they are much different.
When people have their idea of terrorism, no matter how flawed, ingrained so deeply in their head, they don't know how to react if the opposite happens. Because of this, a terrible incident of an white American being the attacker is ignored. People refuse to consider that terrorists don't come from one place: they are extremists who can derive form anywhere.
How do you think people's ideas of terrorism affect their views towards this attack and others? Post your thoughts in the comments.
When people have their idea of terrorism, no matter how flawed, ingrained so deeply in their head, they don't know how to react if the opposite happens. Because of this, a terrible incident of an white American being the attacker is ignored. People refuse to consider that terrorists don't come from one place: they are extremists who can derive form anywhere.
How do you think people's ideas of terrorism affect their views towards this attack and others? Post your thoughts in the comments.
I think that the article is spot on about one main reason the public didn't react as much to this instance of a shooting. I also think the reason that people didn't react to this was also because it was not as relate-able - almost everyone goes to see a movie, especially an opening night premiere, but not everyone goes to church or temple, or wherever they go to worship. To answer your question, I really hope that this terrible shooting was a wake-up call to Americans - yes, those in the Sikh temple do fit the extremely incorrect and offensive generalization of what a terrorist is "supposed" to look like, but in this case, the white male was the terrorist. This should open their eyes and help them acknowledge that their stereotypes are unnecessary, incorrect, and offensive
ReplyDelete