It was on Monday night, where after hundreds attended an Ariana Grande concert at Manchester Arena, terror erupted within the city. A bombing occurred soon after Grande's concert came to a close. After hours of investigating, it's been announced that the alleged bomber was done by Salman Abedi. His actions killed at least 22 victims and left a staggering number wounded.
Soon after the attack occurred, many friends and family members of the concert goers went to social media, specifically Twitter, where it sparked attention to those who have not yet been in contact with their loved ones. Slowly but surely, the media has released names of the fallen victims. No one was prepared for this, yet again is anyone ever prepared when it comes to attacks?
What's most haunting about this situation, is that it could've easily happened to anyone, including myself. Everyone loves music and if your favorite artist is performing somewhere, it's most likely you'll attend their concert, like myself. That being said, it easily could've been any one of us and that's the most terrifying part. The most devastating part of this whole attack is that many of the fallen victims most likely may have been young kids who attended the concert they were probably looking forward to for a long time. It pains me to think that people who commit these acts of terror don't think about the lives of civilians that they're going to harm. It's like wherever anyone goes, you can never expect things like this to happen, they just do and I wish I knew why.
From this attack and the previous one that has occurred, I still find it frustrating that people continue to believe or make assumptions that those committing these terrorist attacks are all Muslim, which is incorrect. Individuals continue to make the wrong connection that terrorist attacks are committed by those who are Muslim.
However, they seem to leave out people like Dylann Roof, a white man who killed nine black Americans in a Charleston church. Let's not forget, James Holmes, another white man, who caused the Aurora shooting at a movie theater in Colorado, back in 2012 that left 12 people dead and injured 70 more. Lastly, Adam Lanza, yet another white man, who back in 2012, fatally shot, 20 children between the ages of six and seven years old, including six adult staff members at Sandy Hook Elementary.
Those three white individuals are just out of the many perpetrators that have committed these attacks of terror within the country. It brings me to great frustration that terrorists like Dylann Roof, continue to get disregarded as a terrorist simply because of the color of his skin. Media partakes within the problem by making headlines that these individuals are mentally troubled, which is so tiring to hear. I'm really sick and tired of people finding and making accuses for these individuals for what their actions have done simply because they're white. White privilege is a real thing, it always has been and it's more often seen in situations like these, where the perpetrators try to be seen in a different light. But if it were a person of color, people would immediately have no sympathy.
Terrorism isn't driven by religion. Terrorism exists and can be done by anyone. It's up to individuals to acknowledge that it doesn't just happen by one race.
