The deadly and tragic attacks on Paris, France this month were devastating, terrible losses that we as a world could not comprehend or understand. ISIS, claiming responsibility for the attacks and threatening more, inflicted irreparable damage on more than one hundred innocent people gathered in various parts of the city to enjoy a night out. These atrocious acts committed by senseless executioners were not forgiven by France and the rest of the world as we looked upon such a gruesome scene.
Yet in the wake of these reeling events, people around the world criticized Facebook, the social media platform that allowed users to change their profile pictures to have an overlay of the French flag. There were options to use the overlay for various amounts of time, but no other flags were available to use. People complained because Facebook did not have flags for other places in need such as Beirut, another place where the tragedy of terrorism took hold earlier this month.
The individuals that were upset with Facebook's apparent lack of support for other tragedies said it was another display of the Western perception of loss and the apparent insensitivity by those users that changed their photos to the French flag overlay. They argued that perhaps the French flag was the only option on Facebook because France is a predominantly white country and this tragedy was being publicized and discussed because of the racial demographic and the country’s standing in the world.
To those people, I beg the question, what are you trying to prove? I changed my Facebook profile almost immediately to the French flag overlay for several reasons. I had been following the news updates all afternoon and evening through Twitter and news on TV. I was in touch with one of my friends throughout the afternoon as well, discussing the events as they happened and we were updating each other with any new things we heard. I felt saddened and angry when I first heard about what had happened in Paris, and grew even angrier throughout the day and week when I learned ISIS had planned these attacks thoroughly and watched the death toll rise.
I changed my Facebook profile picture firstly because I stand with France, the victims, and the families and friends of all those affected by this tragedy. Changing my profile picture was a way for me to express my sincere apologies and sadness to the victims and their families, but also to show that I stand with France and the rest of humanity against ISIS and all forms of terrorism. I changed my profile picture because I have traveled to France and walked the same streets that these Parisian victims have walked, and I have seen the beauty of their home country. There is no place for violence in such a magical, captivating, absolutely stunning city such as Paris, France. There is no place for violence in Beirut, in New York City, in the Middle East, or anywhere in the world for that matter. Although I couldn’t change my Facebook profile picture to honor those victims from my home state of Massachusetts when a terrorist took the lives of children and family members in the Boston Marathon, I still remember them often through my words and actions.
The point here is that the option to change a photo to the overlaid French flag is not even remotely about discriminating against other tragedies or choosing which attacks get priority over others. On the contrary, this was a quick and real-time way for Facebook to allow users to express sorrow and unity in the wake of a highly publicized attack on a major city in the world, regardless of the racial makeup or the socioeconomic demographic of Paris.
This is not a time to point fingers and fight over Facebook pictures, it’s a time to honor those victims of the Paris attacks, the Beirut attacks, and all other victims of terrorism around the world. I applaud those who wanted to get the conversation going about why we didn’t hear as much about the Beirut attacks as we did about Paris, but this was not the right way to go about starting this discussion. Tearing down and minimizing one tragedy just because it was highly publicized is not going to change the tragedy around the world that has already happened.
There is simply no time to argue over the flag overlay of Facebook photos in the wake of tragedies such as this. Plain and simple, I changed my profile picture because I feel a personal connection to Paris having traveled there and having seen the breathtaking parts of the city. I changed my picture because I stand united with the people of France, the people of Europe, Asia, Africa, South America, Australia, North America, even the poles for Pete’s sake. I stand united with all innocent and good people against a group of spineless terrorists who attack beautiful places and think they will prevail, because they will not. Je suis Paris, I stand with Beirut, I stand with the world.
