[Espy]

...that list is already too long. And that's not even the entire list.

This thread will be open to discussions about the terrorist bombings, especially the Ankara car bombing that occurred on Sunday. There may be really strong opinions on events, so if you have issues with that, this might not be the thread for you.

(Hopefully this is the proper place to post it; I see no other option.)

I don't have much to say to start off; I'm reeling a bit from the shock compounded onto college stress. I'm tremendously sad about the lack of news coverage and empathy for the Beirut and Ankara bombings, considering how much global attention the Paris terrorist attacks garnered.

Of course, I'm not claiming that Paris receiving attention is a bad thing -- on the contrary, it was eye-opening for many people in realizing what we should be working against.

Unfortunately, while the humanitarian response in the wake of Paris brought Daesh into the "spotlight", it did little to increase empathy towards non-white, non-European peoples, especially those living near or in the Middle East, and/or have what is thought to be a "Middle Eastern skintone" or appearance.

In my opinion, it perhaps actually made things worse -- playing out as a Muslim-vs-whites scenario, it became a huge contributor to the "all Muslims are/could potentially be evil", "us vs. them" mindset. Many of, for example, Donald Trump's supporters support the deportation of all Muslims from the US, because they "could" be a terrorist. And many more assume that all people wearing turbans and any sort of headwrap to be Muslim.

Today, anti-Islamic sentiment is, IMO, on a worse scale than the anti-Irish, anti-Chinese, and anti-Japanese sentiment in US history. You don't even have to be Muslim to be subjected to anti-Islamic hatred -- Indian, Sikh, non-Muslim people of Middle Eastern descent, and Southeast Asians, among many, many other groups, have all been targeted by hate crimes and harassment. We have a presidential candidate actively promoting mob violence against Muslims and any who oppose him. We have children who started packing their own bags, scared for their lives, ready to run and hide if the police appear on their doorsteps, because they're afraid of getting sent to the Middle East, beaten, or killed.

Where is Facebook's Lebanon flag overlay? Where is its Turkey flag overlay? Where's all the new reports, the media coverage, the banding together?

Why do attacks on non-white populations seem less important, the people involved somehow less human, yet more militant and aggressive? Why do people skim the news and cast only a cursory glance at "Ankara car bomb explosion kills 34; Turkey condemns 'terror attack'", feeling no pain at the human lives lost?

[Coda]

The way I look at it, it's an ugly, difficult matter to deal with.

People are hurting and need someone to blame. There's no excuse for how innocent, unrelated people are being treated as a result of all of this -- this is in fact how the terrorists get recruits; they WANT people to freak out and act prejudiced. But even so, people want there to be a way to fight back. People want there to be a plan for how to address it. But these attacks are unpredictable and spread out all over the world, so... well, it's terror, working exactly as planned.

And the response is difficult. These terrorists AREN'T new. They've been around for centuries. But it's only the instant-news always-connected global culture that's come up in the last 15 years that's allowed them to be so effective. The coverage makes their ability to cause terror that much more potent, with that much broader reach.

It makes them a lot like grade school bullies -- they want attention, and the response just makes them go further.

So what IS the right response?

It's really hard to say, because we also don't want to cover up these awful things.