The world is abuzz about what happened in Paris on Friday, November 13, after six public attacks were made by three groups of terrorists, leaving 120 dead and many more injured. Facebookers are showing their support around the world by filtering their profile pictures with a translucent French flag, and #PrayForParis is taking the idea of trending to a whole new level.

And rightfully so. This is absolutely something to be devastated about. The world has been generally unified and standing in solidarity for Paris since the attacks, but this has also been an open opportunity for people to politicize every aspect of the situation. In some context, that’s incredibly appropriate. There were issues such as gun rights, terrorism and foreign policy that politicizing would open a dialogue for worldwide. Millions have expressed an opinion on what caused the tragedy, and the appropriate way to react to it.

Many have juxtaposed last weekend’s events in Paris with the threats made at the University of Missouri just days before. Several posts on social media site Yik Yak, widely used by college students nationwide, indicated a threat of shooting people of color the next day on campus. One read: “I’m going to stand my ground tomorrow and shoot every black person I see.” Another: “We’re waiting for you at the parking lots. We will kill you.”

The student who posted was apprehended within the next day or two, and social media was becoming an outlet for voicing concern and opinions not only at Mizzou but for Twitter and Facebook users across America. After seeing some tweets that went viral, I found myself outraged at how some were comparing the two. Here are the most shared examples.

These tweets were compiled and went viral. I found them on Facebook.

It's understandable how people are outraged that some are comparing the two situations, but the fact of the matter is that in both situations, though incredibly different and incomparable, people felt legitimate fear for their lives. One was an issue of race, the other was terrorism. By no means are the situations similar, and certain parts of both are appropriate to politicize. However, they aren't politicizing the right things.

At the end of the day, human beings were concerned about losing their lives, whether it was at Mizzou and feeling unsafe on your own campus, which is actually a completely appropriate reason to feel threatened, or fearing for your life as you witness a massacre. These situations are in completely different ballparks, but instead of focusing on thinking other people are idiots for saying they're similar, shouldn't we be thinking of ways to move forward on issues of race in America and mourning for our friends in France?

Call it hypocrisy for criticizing the critics, the authors of those tweets, but I think there is a time and a place for politics, and de-legitimizing someone's oppression (yes, it's oppression in both situations) isn't the way to do it.