F the Media (and a Few Other Reflections on the Tragic ‘Dark Knight Shooting’)

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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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/