"The Innocence of White People"

I thought this was such a poignant perspective, a good reminder that the world is a complicated place. That even people we know casually might have radically different world views than us. That world events aren't always seen through the antiseptic and convenient lens of mainstream media.

I'm not looking to troll or to argue, only to broaden people's minds.

www.vice.com...

When asked to explain Muslim rage, I have an answer, but I already know the response to my answer. A defender of “Western civilization” will tell me, “Yeah, but we aren’t violent. They’re the ones who kill people over religion.” If numbers matter, however, the mythology of “America” kills many, many more people today than any myth of “Islam.” To sustain a pseudo-secular military cult, we have produced a nation of cheerleaders for blood and murder. We speak of the cult’s heroic work as “sacrifice” and say that it’s all for a divine cause of “freedom.”

That’s what we send out there, at them. This is not simply a world in which one side has a sense of humor and the other does not, or one side is “modern” and “enlightened” while the other side needs to catch up. The modern, enlightened side is burning people alive. Innocence is simply the playground bully calling your mother a slut after already breaking your jaw, and then wondering why you can’t take a joke...

...The reason for my silence on 9/11 is that I am not only Muslim. I am also American. I am also white. I am male and heterosexual. However, I am not asked, as an American, to reflect on the yearly anniversary of our atomic bombs falling upon Japan, or our countless military interventions throughout the world.

He's not wrong.

This in NO WAY justifies terrorism or violence in the ME, but certainly it should frame it, give it context.

By the end of this year there will likely be over 500 murders in Chicago. Where's the outrage?

Where's the outrage for banker's that have plundered and decimated this country?

Where's the outrage for arsenic in our rice?

Where's the outrage for genetically engineered corn that gives us tumors?

Where's the outrage for wanton police brutality in our streets?

Where's the outrage for a broken education system that robs generations of U.S. school children?

Where's the outrage for our own broken and corrupt political system - indeed our very own dictators and thugs?

It's okay for systemic dysfunction to handicap our own citizens or for corporations to exploit us for money but God forbid a foreign culture such as Afghanistan or Pakistan or Iran reject our way of life and basically signal to us three ways to Sunday for 30 plus years that they do - they must be insane and plowed under - assimilated, with righteous indignation and huge corporate profits. THEY are the barbarians, the hordes...

WTF!!!???

It just all seems so screwed.

We are selective with our indignation. We are in denial about our own culpability both in the Middle East and here. We are hypocrites.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not an apologist but I do have compassion and sympathy. If anything, I'm an isolationist. For humanity's sake, let's just let them be. I don't care about any of it any more. Not Oil. Not Israel. Not the so-called War on Terror.

Let's just live and let live. Let's look at ourselves. Let's BE the change....

(I had such a hard time trying to figure out where to put this so, my apologies if it's in the wrong place...)


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That is it lets run the streets in protest burn paper and stuff they can't say this about us that is a blasphemer

reply to post by Buddyweiser


With all due respect sir, it breaks my heart for both ATS and the world that yours was the first reply to this thread...

With everything that you read, that was all that you felt compelled to communicate? All that you were moved to say?

As I said, we are so screwed. Cue the tripods and Aliens for the Armageddon.

we are big hypocrites we murder more of our own people every 3 months right here in america than were killed on 9/11, where is the outrage over that? where are the memorials and moments of silence for these people.

In 2010 there were 12,996 murders committed in america,that`s over 1,000 murders a month, where is the outrage?

www.fbi.gov...

Does this guy count as white?



lol.

But it is true, if anyone is going to be all paranoid about terrorism in the USA they would be afraid of white males who are right wing, as they commit the highest rates of terrorism here.

Great points that people should think about more often, it puts things in perspective. over a year there are many things that kill more people than events that send us into wars, yet those things are largely ignored.

It seems that what matters the most to people is the body count from a single event, people don't really pay attention to multiple single events killing people when the body count is low in each event unless it effects them.

It means numerous people are killed daily in unrelated single events of the same cause and we ignore there is a problem and never ask why or call for something to be done about it. but as soon as a few hundred are killed in a freak accident or attack we scream to government etc to do something about it.

reply to post by Sergeant Stiletto


Great OP. We need to look harder at our own cockeyed religious fanatics before criticizing others.

Bible-Based Curriculum Says the Trail of Tears Was a Path to Christ

August 17, 2012

Read more:indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com...

Muslims are just Human, i know red neck Muslims
then there raticals every where just like the LA riot....
all its going to take is a spark to set off a riot anywhere

The way we gain kindness and local cooperation after we take a country....

1) Blameless people are killed by aggressive mob
2) Many times a whole ethnic or religious group is killed
3) Children are trampled, killed, or starved to death
4) Residents become homeless
5) Robbing
6)The whole family system breaks down; any female are treated inhumanly
7)Unkind and unusual methods of pain are inflicted on thousands.
8)Armed persons roam around the streets.all in the name of peace...
9)Every Dog has his Day

well put and i agree with all my heart.

reply to post by RealSpoke


uuuuh, say what? You sir are the problem being addressed by the op. You are 1 side of the dialectic that divides and ruins us at the core.
It isn't a blame game here, it's an accountabilty question. It's not about pointing a finger and saying, "see there, that guy is evil". It's about recognizing our shortcomings and making an effort to fix the macro by focusing on the micro. In other words, what are YOU doing to change things? You fire out a stereotype pretending to take a higher ground yet I cannot even see where you read and understood the op. I ask, say what? I see it as this. You are what the op is complaining about. You are merely attempting it in a reverse descrimination way about it.
It IS NOT about a black/white thing. It IS NOT about a Christian/Muslim thing. It IS NOT about a left/right thing.
Those are the means to the end. That is the dialectic.
This is about division among peoples doing EXACTLY what you are attempting now by pointing fingers and laying blame on imaginary people to whom you cannot appoint a name.

If you are left wing or right wing, you are part of the problem. Either side takes the warmonguering mantle to new extremes after each election cycle and they both demonize the other for doing it, but then when in power they maim and destroy in the name of freedom.
Your depiction of what a terrorist is is simply so simple minded considering how much you missed the mark after having the luxury of first reading the op.....of which I can hardly believe you did so.

Without even reading this thread beyond the rubric...

I WILL BEHEAD ALL THOSE WHO INSULT THE WHITE MAN (evolution be upon him)!!