I do not support the actions of today's gunmen who shot and killed staff members of the notorious magazine Charlie Hebdo.* But I am virulently against the ways in which this incident, much like many related incidents, has been immediately taken up by Western states and mainstream media outlets as evidence of the superiority and preciousness of Western democracies and freedoms and furthermore, as reason to heighten the suspicion of and violence towards not only Muslims but any person with a complexion that could be confused as Muslim-ish/Arabic/Middle Eastern/ etc etc etc. Very quickly- with the help of our new means of communicating mass and at times unthinking solidarity- the hashtag #jesuischarlie went viral, linking African Americans struggle against racist cops and the racism of the American state and judicial system that upholds their authority, with the bigoted "drawings" of a French magazine. It was tragic what happened to the staff members whose lives were viciously ended by - what has been reported to be- the actions of Islamic fundamentalists. But what is perhaps more tragic is the rapid consumption of progressive activist tactics opposing state violence against historically oppressed people in the name of supporting a racist media institution and the racist state whose "democratic" policies have failed and continue to fail those citizens not deemed worthy of their liberte, egalite, fraternite.
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| typical french racism |
Thus far, the only decent article to discuss the broader implications of the attack on Charlie Hebdo can be found
here.
*I've looked at a bunch of the work published in Charlie Hebdo and it is terrible (terribly drawn, not funny in the slightest and also racist). I won't associate it with the press or art.
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