Before we get into the content of the issue before us, it is important that we must first define terrorism. While many view terrorism as a crime committed by a brown man who has pledged his allegiance to an organization, Webster’s dictionary defines it as “the systematic use of terror especially as a means of coercion”. Webster also defines a terrorist as “an advocate or practioner of terrorism”.
While these definitions seem blatantly obvious to the forward-thinking population of Americans, it does not come so easily to all—one of them being our president. Through both our president’s recent words and actions we have seen inconsistencies with the way he has treated white terrorists and brown terrorists.
Hours after a terrorist attack Trump tweets “I have just ordered homeland security to step our already extreme vetting program. Being politically correct is fine, but not for this!” Stating that he was working with congress to immediately terminate the diversity lottery program that the individual responsible for the attack was in the United States on. Trump goes on to say that this man is an “animal” and he deserves the death penalty.
This directly contradicts Trump’s actions when the Neo Nazi drove a car into the group of protestors. When Trump was asked why it took him so long to comment, he stated that knowing the facts are very important to him and he did not want to make a statement without knowing all of the facts before hand.
This is also in contrast to Trump’s actions preceding the Las Vegas shooting. Trump stated that it was too soon to talk about gun control policy, that we needed to mourn the immense tragedy that just occurred. Actually, his exact statement was “Well, we’re not going to talk about that today. We won’t talk about that. We’ll be talking about gun laws as time goes by.”
Does it not matter to get all the facts about the situation when the individual is a brown Muslim? Or is being a brown Muslim the only facts that matter to him? Does it not matter to talk policy when it’s a white terrorist? Or is it because that agenda aligns with the chosen narrative for guns?
It is clear that we do not have the answers to these questions. However, in this case the answers are not what are important. Regardless on the president’s agenda or reasons, the country should never feel that the rights of an individual are altered because of the color of their skin or that the president’s personal ideas are put before the necessary policy for our nation.