The recent attacks in Norway that killed almost 80 people are one such example of this.
At first glance, before anything had been reported on the attacks and there was no real knowledge of who was responsible, the violence seemed like a rhetorical boon for those in the U.S. who see Islam or Muslims as threats to global peace. These are people who argue that increasing populations of Muslims in Europe or the building of mosques in the U.S. are reasons to increase military budgets, stop the spread of multiculturalism, argue liberalism and tolerance, and weaken nations instead of strengthening them. Within this ideological universe, for an attack to happen in one of those crazy countries like Norway — sometimes cited as a place the U.S. should look to for ways to improve itself — it seems almost too perfect. Conservatives warn about the dangers of not making people assimilate and cracking down on Islamic fundamentalism, so at first it seemed like Norway had reaped the tragic rewards of its liberal folly.
The people at Fox News might have been ecstatic at first hearing about the attack, since it could be the means through which an entire universe of racially charged and otherwise insane notions could now be given new ideological life and be accepted as normal or rational speech. Once it was confirmed that the attackers were radical Muslims, Fox News would have plenty of red meat for several news cycles and a cavalcade of people with talking points that don’t belong in polite conversations trotted out as experts. For example, if the attackers had been Muslim, there was a good chance Republican presidential contender Herman Cain wouldn’t have had to apologize for his comments that Americans should have the right to ban mosques in their communities. And if the attackers had been Muslim, we definitely would have seen more on Fox News of rarely coherent Texas Congressman Louie Gohmert, who last year tried desperately to warn people about the gathering threat of terror babies. For those of you who don’t know conservatives’ memes; terror babies are part of an intricate 30-year plan to have pregnant women terrorists give birth in the U.S., thereby raising radical terrorist children with U.S. citizenship.
The assumption of an Islamic assault on the West was so certain in the minds of some that conservative websites, newspapers and television shows began to argue that Islamic jihadists were at fault before anything had been confirmed. Eventually, the identity of the suspected lone attacker was revealed as a white conservative culture warrior who hates Muslims and multiculturalism. Far from being the rhetorical dream of conservatives, he was their disavowed nightmare, the hateful rotting core of their own ideological position.
This example is instructive in helping us understand how racism works as a sort of magnet of negativity. It is a force that pushes things such as blame or fear towards certain people who share certain characteristics, and it does so in an irrational and ultimately self-serving way. Racism becomes a way of blaming a group of people for the failures or breakdowns of a society. It has a way of absolving some and incriminating others and conveniently blinding people to the truth of the situation.
The racist dimension to the response to the Norway attacks is not solely the assumption, without evidence, that it had to have been Muslim culprits, but the way people remain blinded to similar but racially different dangers. Despite all the fear and concern over Islamic threats to the U.S. and other Western countries, a terrorist attack in any of these countries is just as likely to come from a white Christian who feels like immigrants and liberals are stealing his country from him. Recent years have seen a huge increase in white power and extremist conservative groups throughout the United States and Europe, in particular since the election of Barack Obama as president. They are a clear and present domestic danger to Western countries, yet why are they not treated with the same fear?
But when a terrorist attack of this nature occurs, one manifesting from white anger at no longer being in charge of the world, it is as if he or she is not connected to any larger community or larger threat, but simply isolated and “lone.” When Muslims commit attacks, there are regular calls upon followers of Islam to control themselves and take stock of the radicals in their culture. Yet we see no such symmetry when a white conservative does the same thing. After Norway, where were the calls from Fox News for white Christian males around the world to control their own dangerous culture?
MICHAEL LUJAN BEVACQUA
Mangilao, Guam
