Makeup Assignment - Paris attacks

                After the events in Paris, the world is at a loss for words. Actually, that's a lie, the world seems to have more to say than ever, and what they say has often been racist, Islamaphobic, and Xenophobic. These words almost always come from a place of privilege from people who have never been ridiculed for things outside of their control. The people saying these things lack humanity, there really is no other way to say it. These people are quick to say that out of the billions of Muslims in the world, a teeny tiny portion of so called Muslims, who really aren't even Muslims, is a representative portion and provide reason to hate billions of people because they believe in a slightly different God.

                It's hard to organize one's thoughts in a time like this, a time where fear and hatred are running rampant.  But, it's important to not let fear cloud one's thinking. If I let fear cloud my daily thinking, I would get scared every time a young white man walked into a move theater or a school, and you can't live like that. You can't let the actions of a small group affect how you view everyone. Education is important, and people of privilege often don't want to open their eyes to the reality around them. The vast majority of Muslims are regular people who want to live their lives, raise their families, have their jobs, and live in peace. My heart breaks for these Muslims who are unjustly targeted. People have to learn that these radical Islamists do not follow the rules of an incredibly peaceful and old religion, that ISIS is almost making up their rules as they go, altering very old rules to fit their new agenda. Actually, the number one victims of ISIS are Muslims, often because they're assimilating to more modern culture. Blaming all Muslims for the actions of ISIS is like saying that all Christians are like the Westboro Baptist Church; they're Christian I guess, they just kind of alter the Bible and pick and choose sections to fuel their hate powered agenda.

                People of privilege don't know what it's like to live in fear every day. Every day since 9/11 Muslim Americans have had to live in fear. Muslim women have had to forgo wearing their head coverings because of verbal harassment and even physical assault. Mosques have been targeted by bombing and have been defaced by ignorant and fearful people. Hate crimes are a daily part of Muslim and other minority lives, and people of privilege don't want to admit that. It's easier for people of privilege to clump people together, putting the dangerous with the peaceful.

                The outwithgeorge.com article said it best: "People of Christian Faith are rushing to condemn and antagonize innocent people who had nothing to do with the attacks, as if Christianity has not often been the sword that has left rivers of blood in the street." Christians are so quick to denounce the act of radical Islamists and blame all Muslims, but are just as quick to denounce that their beliefs led to the death of millions throughout history.

                If you want to talk about white privilege, a lot of white people don't, but it's important if you want to understand the way our media works. A lot of things happened this past week, not only the terrorist attacks in Paris. There were terrorist attacks in other countries that weren't well publicized until after the Paris attacks. This shows white privilege because we only care when other people die, not brown people. White people are the priority to other white people, as it brown people aren't people because their skin is different and they worship a different god. People are so quick to stand with Paris and change their profile picture to a French flag or a picture in Paris, but they won't even acknowledge the terrorist attacks in Beirut where tens of Muslims were murdered by ISIS. I understand that America emphasizes with France because of our shared history and alliances, but we cannot forget about other people in the world that are victims from the same causes. We cannot forget the Syrian refugees dying trying to escape their home country, overrun by ISIS, trying to find a safe place to live without fear. We're now turning these refugees away because our fear is stronger than our humanity to help those desperately in need. Outwithgeorge.com yet again said it best: "as if anyone blamed German Jews for the Nazi occupation, though they were all German by nationality."