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Annika Young

Erin Rogers

Writing 1010

14 October 2017

Associating Terrorism with Skin Color, Nationality, and Religion

The first mass shooting I can remember was the Trolley Square shooting in downtown

Salt Lake City, just over 12 miles from my home. Although I wasn’t really aware of the

casualties or the impact of the casualties at the time, it was the first mass shooting that I really

remember. Five years later, a movie theater in Aurora, Colorado; which was no more than 5-10

miles away from where my Aunt and Uncle lived, was attacked. Later that year when I had just

entered middle school, many students and teachers of Sandy Hook Elementary school were

killed, and for days our teachers lectured us on how to stay safe. After this incident, we began

having hard and soft lockdown drills, when we had only ever practiced earthquake and fire drills

previously. Then the Orlando Nightclub was attacked in 2016. A little under a year and a half

later on the Vegas Strip, Mandalay Bay was attacked about 12 miles away from my Aunt and

Uncle’s home in Summerlin: a suburb of Las Vegas, Nevada.

These attacks became a part of the evening news routine, and it became exponentially

overwhelming with each attack. So, I stopped watching the evening news. But even so, the news

got to me, and with the news so did the stereotyping, assumptions, and conflicts that come after

mass shootings. Recent mass shootings associated with ISIS, incendiary comments about Islam

that followed, and especially the attack on counter protestors who were protesting against white

supremacists in Charlottesville, Virginia caused me to become frustrated and hyperaware of a

trend I was seeing. If someone of color, someone from the Middle East, or someone who was
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Muslim was perpetrating an attack, it was automatically referred to as terrorism; and if someone

who was white was perpetrating an attack, it was not referred to as terrorism until there was

some sort of link to a terrorist organization. And along with this trend, there have been increasing

numbers of people referring to people from the Middle East, or people who are Muslim as

terrorists, solely due to their ethnicity or faith. Even those who are Sikh have been grouped into

this stereotype, and with this we see people who, in ignorance, call someone of the Sikh faith

terrorists because of their skin tone or perceived religion.

Terrorism is not defined by skin color, ethnicity, or religion, nor is it solely committing

violence associated with a terrorist group. Rather, it is the use of terror to influence politics and

civilian life. The Collins Gem English dictionary defines terrorism as the “use of violence and

intimidation to achieve political ends,”1 and United States law defines terrorism as violent or

dangerous acts that are illegal under US laws, which seem to be intended to intimidate or coerce

civilians, policy, or government conduct.2 Terrorism is not something related to skin color or

religion, but rather to the acts of the attacker. We as a society must begin referring to acts of

terrorism as acts of terrorism, even if they are perpetrated by someone with no affiliations to a

terrorist organization, or who don’t fit our “standard” of a terrorist, as well as realize that

terrorism doesn’t solely sprout from the intentions of an attacker, but rather the actions and the

effects of those actions. An act shouldn’t be classified as terrorism based on the color of

someone’s skin or their faith, but it should be classified as terrorism if the act somehow inspires

terror, or intimidates or coerces civilians, policy, or government conduct.

1
“Terrorism.” Collins Gem English Dictionary. 9th ed., 1994.
2
18 USC. Sec 2331. 1992. Cornell Law School LII. Wed. 9 October 2017.
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America is under much more threat by far-right extremists than they are radical Islamist

extremists, and yet we refuse to call far-right extremists and mass shooters terrorists. Indira

Lakshmanan, who is a part of a journalism think-tank in Florida, the Poytner Institute, concludes

that despite feelings of terror after an attack, white mass shooters are more likely to be called a

“lone wolf” or “mass murderer,” while someone of a brown skin tone could perpetrate a similar

attack, and they would quickly be called a terrorist by the media.3 An example of this is Dylann

Roof, a “mass shooter” who wrote a manifesto declaring his hatred for African-American people,

and shot people of the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church. Roof later confessed to

investigators that he committed the crime because “black people are killing white people every

day,” according to a CNN report on Roof’s guilty plea.4 This example is just one of many where

someone who isn’t a person of color, or not Muslim, is not labeled a terrorist when that is exactly

what they are. To my interpretation of the definition of terrorism, any shooting which may, by

any means, coerce civilians to act a certain way would be considered terrorism. My interpretation

extends beyond Dylann Roof, who is obviously a terrorist, but not labeled as one. To me, the

attackers of Sandy Hook and the Aurora Movie theatre are terrorists because of the terror they

instill in people, and the influence they have on their lives. It doesn’t matter if there was a

manifesto or political motivation; the attacks inspire terror, cause people to profile others based

on race, religion, or even mental illness; and even cause citizens to carry dangerous arms to

protect themselves. Adam Lanza and James Holmes may not have written manifestos, and their

intention may have been influenced by mental illness; but what, to me, would classify them as

terrorists is their use of fear and violence, and how this effected a population to act a certain way.

3
Swain, Diana. “Mass murder or terrorism? Who decides what to call it?” CBC News, 7 October 2017,
http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/mass-murder-vs-terrorism-1.4344766. Accessed 16 October 2017.
4
Croft, Jay & Smith, Tristan. “Dylann Roof pleads guilty to state charges in church massacre.” CNN, 10 April,
2017, http://www.cnn.com/2017/04/10/us/dylann-roof-guilty-plea-state-trial/index.html. Accessed 28 October 2017.
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Looking at just how many mass shootings there have been in the United States, it is hard

to ignore the fact that mass shootings are in fact acts of terror. According to a report by Mother

Jones, there have been 91 mass shootings from 1982 until the recent Las Vegas shooting, and

according to the Gun Violence Archive, there have been 283 mass shootings in 2017 alone.5,6

Time magazine accounts for this discrepancy in the fact that mass shooting is defined differently:

Mother Jones uses the traditional definition of four people being killed in a public space, not

including the gunman, although a 2013 federal mandate lowered it to three deaths; while the Gun

Violence Archive considers any shooting in which four people are shot to be a mass shooting,

not requiring 4 fatalities.7 Certainly these numbers must inspire some sort of terror, but yet we

only refer to the attacks that are related to ISIS, the Islamic faith, or perpetrated by a person of

color to be terrorist attacks. People arm themselves, become bigoted, and even attack others after

mass shootings, and yet they are not considered terrorist attacks, something that dumbfounds me.

Despite all this, I became especially bothered by this trend after the Charlottesville attack.

According to Vox news, about three hours after reports of the attacks in Barcelona, Spain

began to arise on social media, Trump had already commented on the situation, adding

comments about “Radical Islamic Terror.” Yet, there had been no reports of terrorism at the time

of Trumps remarks. Vox then proceeds to compare Trumps actions around the Barcelona attack

to his response after the Charlottesville attack, which happened 5 days prior. Approximately an

hour and a half after the attack in Charlottesville, Trump blamed both sides of the protest, but

5
Follman, Aronsen, & Pan. “US Mass Shootings, 1982-2017: Data from Mother Jones’ Investigation.” Mother
Jones, 6 October 2017, http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2012/12/mass-shootings-mother-jones-full-data/.
Accessed 15 October 2017.
6
“Gun Violence Archive- Home Page.” Gun Violence Archive, 16 October 2017,
http://www.gunviolencearchive.org/. Accessed 15 October 2017.
7
Wilson, Chris. “34 Years of Mass Shootings in One Chart.” Time, 8 July 2016, http://time.com/4368615/orlando-
mass-shootings-chart/. Accessed 12 October 2017.
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mentioned no attack in his press conference. It took him until 7:25 p.m. the day of the attack to

tweet condolences to the family of the woman killed in the protest, but Trump had still not called

it a terrorist attack.8 This is an example of the terrifying trend that I saw in mass shootings being

carried out when referring to all types of terrorism. This case could not be a more cut and dry

example of terrorism. A man who disagreed with counter protestors at a white supremacist rally

rammed is car into the crowd of counter protestors. The only difference between this terrorist and

a terrorist of color, or a radical Islamist terrorist is their classification by the media or general

public. Someone like the Charlottesville attacker or a mass shooter will be referred to by a

mental illness or a title such as “lone wolf,” even when they are obviously terrorists. If these

attackers were people of color, or Muslim, I have no doubt that some of the first broadcasts I

would see would reference terrorism, and possibly some offensive comments about “radical

Islamic terrorism.” It is obvious to me that there is some sort of gap, and it is not just me that has

noticed.

This trend I have noticed, and more, is pointed out by Christian Piccolini, a former neo-

Nazi who now advocates for eradicating racism. In a video from Vox, featuring Piccolini, he

sends the message that far right extremism, especially when it comes to white supremacy, is in

fact terrorism. He cites that mass shooters like Dylann Roof, who wrote a manifesto about his

agenda are, in all reality, terrorists. Piccolini makes a point that focus is being taken away from

white extremism when it comes to countering violent extremism.9 One of the biggest issues with

this increasing trend of ignoring white extremism, or not referring to mass shooting as terrorism,

8
Lopez, German. “Trump sure seems slower to call out terrorism when a white supremacist is behind it.” Vox, 17
August 2017, https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/8/17/16163500/trump-barcelona-charlottesville-
terrorism. Accessed 9 October 2017.
9
“I was a prominent neo-Nazi. Ignoring white extremists is a mistake.” Youtube, uploaded by Vox, 14 April 2017,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jwZhFUZFGGE&index=46&list=PLJeavuu9c5ZVgg8ne6VBosRgcTx5Ynrsu.
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is that we begin to stop seeing the dangerous effect of these actions and behaviors, and we treat

this as every day life. We begin to allow people to spread lies, and have those lies take root, and

this further perpetuates our bias in classifying terrorism to revolve around race, ethnicity, and

religion.

When we talk about mass shootings or white extremist attacks or attacks by radical

Islamist groups, these are all examples of terrorism. As a child who grew up seeing the aftermath

of shootings be plastered on the TV for almost the entire duration of the 5 o’clock news, or who

saw video of the Charlottesville attacker plowing through a crowd of peaceful protestors, I

classify these acts, and all acts of mass violence, as terrorism. Someone who shoots large

numbers of people, even with or without some ulterior motive, is somehow coercing the public

through this violence, and this in and of itself is terrorism. I have always had the belief that

intention does not matter, but rather your actions and how they are perceived and affect others is

what matters. It is not important if a mass shooter is intending to commit an act of terror, they

have committed an act of coercion via violence through means of mass shooting or other terrorist

attacks. It is time to begin defining terrorism as more than just the color of someone’s skin or

belief in a certain religion. Terrorism must be defined based on the acts committed.