We bring back this monologue from comedian Trevor Noah, sadly still trendy, in which he reflects on the distinctions commonly made by the media (and the whole of society) in terrorist attacks, depending on the origins or religion of the attacker.
As Noah claims, there is a widespread tendency to generalize and to fall into prejudices and intolerance when the attacks can be attributed to a minority group. Thus, the Middle East is a synonym to terrorism, and all black people are thugs. However, the media coverage treats the subject differently when the attacker is white. Suddenly, society is reluctant to name it terrorism, and the image depicted is that of a “lonely wolve” o a “mentally unstable person”.
That logic is racist. Terrorism is an act, not a face, and all who commit the act should be called terrorists. As the monologue points out, the link commonly established between Muslims and terrorism is unfounded, “it sounds really smart, but it’s not. It’s stupid and it’s hate speech”.
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