Why "terrorist" is an inherently racist word

Submitted by Eternity on Wed, 11/25/2009 - 13:40.

Max Eternity - Ever notice that we don't call white people terrorist?  Think about it, whenver a white man goes on a rampage with a gun, we call it "shootings" or something like that.  Yet when an Arab [non-white] does the same exact thing, it gets classified as terrorism.  Which is kinda like how during the New Orleans floods (after Katrina) white people who were struggling to stay alive were said to be "finding food" while black people were called "looters."

In the course of making some mind-numbing, revisionist claim that no terrorist attacks happened while Bush was in the White House (ummm, what about Operation 911?) Dana Perino, former spokesperson for Bush, said on Fox News that President Obama should call the recent violent attack at Fort Hood a "terrorist attack."  Why is she saying this?  The person doing the shooting was an American, an Arab-American.  So one has to wonder if Perino would be making such statements if the shooter were White. 

Would Republican Perino be saying the same thing, by default accusing Obama of covering-up a terrorist attack?

Interestingly, this political slight to Obama comes on the heels of his recent nomination of Perino to the Broadcasting Board of Governors, also begging the question: why is Obama so eagar to please the very people who vilify his authority--slandering him and seeking his ruin:

The Huffington Post - Dana Perino, recently nominated by President Obama to the Broadcasting Board of Governors, made an odd claim Tuesday night.

On Fox News, the former press secretary suggested President Obama was playing politics by refusing to describe the massacre at Fort Hood as a terrorist attack.  Read more (includes video).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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A tradgey, not terrorism ...

Submitted by Evelyn Kiefer on Thu, 11/26/2009 - 01:10.

Although I essentially agree with your post (that the term terrorist has increasingly come to have racist associations) the term has been used in the past to describe whites that incite fear by inflicting harm on Americans i.e. Timothy McVeigh, the Oklahoma City Bomber, and Ted Kaczinski, the Unabomber.

In the case of the Fort Hood shooting, I can't stand hearing the use of the word "terrorism" to describe what I feel is better simply called a tradgey. Using the word terrorism sensationalizes the incident and dehumanizes the shooter and the victims. It distracts the public from the most serious issue -- that our military is broken and far too many men and women are being pushed to the breaking point.

Actually, I consider the shooter and those he shot all victims. Was the shooter's religion and nationality the problem or was it the 11 years of service he still owed the military to pay for his education? Was the it the words of the Koran or the words of his patients suffering from post taumatic stress disorder that most haunted him in the days before  he turned his gun on his co-workers? We may never really know the shooter's motive but using the term "terrorism"  in the media to arrouse public outrage, anger and fear for a cultural/racial "other"  does nothing to prevent such incidents in the future.