Beginning at 9:20 p.m. Friday and ending at roughly 12:20 a.m. early Saturday morning, three groups of ISIS attackers carried out suicide bombings that left 129 dead and over 350 Parisians wounded. While the nation continues to be under a state of emergency, the world mourns. Statuses and profile photos abound on Facebook, leaving very few of us unaware of the horrific deaths that came from Friday's attacks.
However, a few people have pointed out the flaws in our media's system. Why, when Parisians are killed, do we spiral into a worldwide session of mourning, yet attacks that occurred the days before in Beirut and Baghdad warranted little to no media attention? I will be the first to admit I did not even know that attacks occurred in Beirut and Baghdad. This is likely my own fault. Despite infrequent media coverage, I peruse Twitter at least once an hour, and I could have easily scrolled by CNN or Wall Street Journal updates that attacks had been carried out. The truth of the matter is we, as westerners, are so used to bombings and mass casualties in the Middle East, that we scroll by announcements on our Twitter feeds without a second thought.
How do we change this? How do we address our assessments of media to recognize that casualties happen everywhere? First, I think it's essential to recognize the way we evaluate the terrorist groups as separate entities from the citizens of their respective nations. Citizens of Beirut are not members of ISIS. The people of Baghdad are not terrorists. Yet we often associate these people with the terrorist groups that have pervaded their countries. Just as we citizens of the United States are not members of the KKK, citizens of Middle Eastern countries are not members of terrorist groups, nor are those terrorist groups widely supported.
Take these ideas into consideration the next time you find yourself scrolling past news of attacks in the Middle East. While Paris death tolls were higher than those in Baghdad and Beirut, tragedies still occurred. And had it not been for the attacks in Paris only a day after attacks in the Middle East, we may not have even recognized that deadly attacks had occurred anywhere else. So before you change your profile photo or update your status mourning the lives of those lost in Paris, consider including the lives of those lost in Baghdad and Beirut as well.
