These days, it seems as though you can’t log onto your computer without seeing a new tragedy done with a discriminatory motive. We’ve all seen the videos of police officers acting more like hazards than heroes. We’ve all read the articles in which a minority becomes the target of a violent injustice. Life for those living outside of the privilege bubble is being shown with a new transparency. Incidents go viral, outrages become hashtags, and celebrities take time away from their own methods of self-promotion to talk about the race issue.
Less than two weeks ago, fourteen-year-old Ahmed Mohamed was escorted out of his school in handcuffs after presenting a homemade digital clock to his teacher. Mohamed’s teacher quickly contacted Dallas authorities, fearing that her Muslim student had constructed a bomb and brought it to class. Mohamed was put into the back of a cop car shortly after the call was made.
Since news of Ahmed’s arrest went viral, social media has erupted with support. The many well-knowns that have reached out to Mohamed since his arrest include Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, comedian Aziz Ansari, and President Barack Obama. The hashtag #IStandWithAhmed dominated social media outlets Facebook and Twitter, being used by the thousands in order to show encouragement for the young engineer.
The wave of online attention not only gave Mohamed his fifteen minutes of fame, but it also presented the student with several exciting opportunities in electronics and engineering. So far today, Mohamed has been offered an invitation to The White House Astronomy Night, a lifetime membership to the Dallas electronics club, a scholarship for the NASA Space Camp, and many other experience that may never have been thought possible for the young, aspiring engineer.
Without the Internet’s rallying support, Ahmed Mohamed’s story may have been swept under the rug with the other recent accounts of racial injustices. By not sitting idly by, the entire social media community provided Mohamed with justice when he was denied such. The happy ending to Mohamed’s story leaves us internet-dwellers with a newfound sense of purpose. What if the we reacted the same way for every victim of racial prejudice? Who, then, could we provide with justice when they were denied theirs?
