You don’t really care; stop acting like you do
News travels fast, particularly bad news. People have the ability to share their responses as soon as the news is reported. Social media is leveraged as a way of showing sympathy and support for those involved in these tragedies. Recently, a synchronized assault was carried out in France and over 100 people lost their lives. Facebook provided the ability to overlay the French flag over your profile picture to show support. In a matter of 24 hours, timelines were filled with images of the French flag, with millions standing in solidarity with France. In this same 24 hours something else happened, pictures of the massacre in Kenya that happened earlier this year began to resurface. In April of this year, 147 Kenyan students were killed by Somali militants. Pictures of the massacre carried out by Boko Haram in Nigeria where it has been reported that 2,000 people were massacred in January of this year also resurfaced. In the face of all this death and destruction, prayer wars are raging on the internet.
Every single drop of blood that is spilled as a result of an act of injustice against any group of people should be widely reported and memorialized. We should pray for their families and well-being. If we have the means, we should actually provide financial assistance when possible. I’m sure most people feel this way, but now people are gangbanging for compassion.
If we are honest with ourselves, we would admit that many of us did not know or had limited information about the massacres that happened in Kenya and Nigeria. This is because of lack of coverage and exposure, and one of the main things that is essentially wrong with mainstream media and their reports having to do with people of color around the world. People of color are upset about this lack of coverage and feel a personal affront when a tragedy happens on the same scale in a predominantly White country and the coverage seems endless and prominent.
People genuinely take issue with this for good reason, however, to diminish the loss of life because they are not of your race and culture is not acceptable. There are these groups of people who latch on to a tragedy and shame others who are not supporting what they are supporting. These types of individuals are reactionary sheep and post information without research or any context. These are the most irresponsible people. They present this façade as if they care and are concerned with what is going on, but really have no clue.
The energy that we use tripping over tragedies should be redirected to create an energy that is conducive to changing the world as a whole. It is time to heal, truly a time to pray for the end of war. If you really care, then do something about it. Changing your profile picture is like wearing a bracelet for a cause that interests you. It looks cool, but what does it really change?
