DOUBLE
BY MIRA BOHANNAN KUMAR
FRIDAY, APRIL 6TH, 2018
ART BY OLIVIA LUSALA
A one-two punch on the definition of terrorism and unequal media coverage in America
I
n the beginning, terror meant one thing and one thing only: because of guns.” fear. By now, everyone in this country has probably heard at least one The word “terror” came into English in what is, when one student say they are scared of going to school because of the threat of considers the tortuous and complicated paths etymology often violence hanging over their head. Observing this widespread paranoia takes, a very direct manner: the word came from the common and trepidation in our nation’s children, it is difficult to see why we Latin verb terrere meaning “to frighten.” do not term mass shootings terrorism; if One might not guess that a word with terror at its core, at its most distilled, is such a simple meaning would exert such only fear, then of course mass shootings “IF TERROR AT ITS CORE, force over today’s America, or that it would are terrorism. be possessed of such specific connotations. There is one main reason that mass AT ITS MOST DISTILLED, In this country’s mainstream perspective, shootings are not generally called acts IS ONLY FEAR, THEN OF terror means Islamic extremism. It is an of terror, and that reason is their deCOURSE MASS SHOOTINGS amorphous entity. Except in rare cases like mographics. According to Newsweek, a ARE TERRORISM.” 9/11, it does not strike at home. It is not majority—54%—of mass shootings are made from people, but rather from some committed by white men. Calling them evil that justifies war. When Americans (esterrorist acts would be redefining white pecially white ones) think of terrorism, what they see may be many America’s conventional image of terrorism as something racially or things, but it is probably not white men. It is probably not white men religiously charged, as something other. Calling them terrorist acts with guns. would be exposing that the real threat to America is coming not from Yet according to CNN, “For every one American killed by an act foreign threats, not from people of color who can be ostracized and of terror in the United States or abroad in 2014, more than 1,049 died dehumanized, but from the very demographic constantly given the
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