A terrorist is someone who uses unlawful violence and intimidation against civilians. Unlawful violence includes, but it not limited to, mass shootings. Twenty-eight of the deadliest mass shootings in the U.S. were committed by white men. Almost none of those shootings were called what they were: domestic terrorist attacks.
When America thinks of terrorism, they think of Middle Eastern men wearing head scarves, crashing planes into the World Trade Center. America is correct that this was a terrorist attack, but they fail to recognize almost every domestic terrorist attack since then has been by a white American citizen.
After 9/11 happened, the country was rightly devastated and took precautions immediately. Airport security was drastically changed with metal detectors, luggage scans and full-body scans.
What happened to Muslim Americans after 9/11 was not the right way to handle the situation. Movies were made portraying all Muslims as dangerous terrorists. Americans looked down on them and assumed they were all extremists. Why isn’t America reacting the same way to the recent mass shootings?
All white men aren’t looked at the same. The men who performed those shootings are portrayed as “mentally ill” or victims of a “bad childhood.” The entire population of white men don’t have to take the blame for the shooter’s actions. Anyone who walks into a public space with an assault rifle and shoots 17 children should be called a terrorist.
I am not downplaying any terrorism, I just want all terrorism to be met with the same amount of repercussions. Walls are talked about being built if violence occurs from the Hispanic community. Travel bans are put into place against Middle Eastern countries. Black men are shot and killed in the street. All of these populations are being grouped together by their skin tone, but not white people.
White people get a pass because they have the privilege of not being affected by racism. Privilege allows white people to automatically be seen as good and pure. Racism groups people together by their skin tone and makes it so no one is seen as an individual.
Minorities are seen as dangerous, but white people are the ones committing the mass shootings. The face of terrorism today is a young, white American citizen.
The first mass shooting in the U.S. was on September 6, 1949. Howard Unruh walked down the streets of his neighborhood and killed 13 people. Since then, hundreds of shootings have occurred and hardly anything has been changed to protect the people of America. America forgets that everyone deserves safety, not just white people.
Ashlon Lusk is a 19-year-old mass communication freshman from Houston, Texas.