Terry*

You’d think they’d have learned by now. After all, it is 2012. Yet we still receive our information about current events via biased, privilege-sodden media outlets that engage in producing hegemonic discourse.

Last night, the screening of ‘Dark Knight’, in Aurora, Colorado, was met with a tragic shooting incident that threatened the lives of 71 people and killed 12. The man responsible? James Holmes.

Mainstream media sources like Reuters (http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/07/20/usa-shooting-denver-profile-idINDEE86J0JC20120720) are responsible for disseminating the ‘lone wolf’ rhetoric surrounding this incident. That this is an isolated incident, simply a white man who is mentally unstable, a psychopath. They wouldn’t be painting him as a ‘doctoral student’ or a ‘non-violent individual’ if the killer had been a visible minority.

Mehreen Kasana (@mehreenkasana: https://twitter.com/mehreenkasana), a prominent cyber public figure on all things social justice, global issues, and current affairs, has an insightful reaction:

El Oh El at this description. Imagine if the guy was a brown dude from, let’s say, the Middle East or South Asia, I bet no one in the f*cking media would spend time explaining the contours of his face. But this fellow here is a white dude. So he gets special treatment even if he did indeed kill innocent people in a crowded theater.

Because deliberate racializing has remained a tenant of American media.

It’s also interesting to note how

…tragedies are twisted into political arguments by all sides. My thoughts are with those who witnessed such horror. – @kitabikeeri

Because this has of course sparked the arms control debate.

And has had Republican congressmen relating the incident to “attacks on Judeo-Christian beliefs”: http://www.mediaite.com/online/rep-louie-gohmert-suggests-aurora-theater-shooting-result-of-ongoing-attacks-on-judeo-christan-beliefs/

…

May the victims & their ‘bases of unity’ be able to seek & find peace & justice.

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Urooba Jamal (@uroobajamal) is a 3rd-year International Relations student who takes a lot of pride in having made Orientalists sob uncontrollably since 1992. On campus, she's a Residence Advisor & a Research Assistant at the Institute of Asian Research. Off campus, she's flaunting her neo-marxist-sometimes-liberal-seldom-realist-definitely-feminist-post-modern-constructivist & 'xenophilic' self. She tweets (a lot) & blogs (a little): http://underuroobasumbrella.blogspot.ca/

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