Charleston Church Shooting

American cable network Comedy Central’s "The Daily Show" has long offered an insight reflection on US current events, presenting and analysing them in a comic way that often leaves you thinking; “what the f**k is wrong with the world?”, especially when it comes to racial matters. 

Ex host Jon Stewart in particular had a knack of doing this, which can be seen in his August 2014 report on the Michael Brown shooting in Ferguson, Missouri. But when it came to discussing the Charleston Church Shooting of July 2015, Stewart appeared defeated, saying “I have nothing”. He admitted he was unable to joke about the killing of 9 African Americans by a white gunman hoping to incite a race war, and went on to describe the racism within America as a “gaping racial wound that will not heal, yet we pretend doesn't exist”. He said his mind was blown by the fact America is willing to invest so much time and money, not to mention lives, into invading multiple countries to keep Americans safe from Islamic terrorism, yet is able to turn a blind eye to the terrorism that is happening right under its nose. He despaired of the fact that events like Charleston were being discounted and labelled as ‘terrible tragedies’  instead of being recognised for what they really are, terrorist acts.

It seems as if ‘The Land of The Free” has become so focused on preventing violent attacks from the outside world, that it has become blind to the fact that it is destroying itself from within by neglecting to address the racial terrorism its own people are inflicting on each other. Stewart described it as a “Disparity of response” between these two types of events, and was baffled by the way it is being swept under the carpet by so many. The word ‘terrorism’ is thrown around so frequently in the US media when it comes to describing threats and attacks from other cultures, races and religions, yet after watching Stewart’s emotional piece, I agree with him that America needs to take a step back and decide what makes these things any worse then a civilian walking into a church and killing nine people due to the colour of their skin.

Ferguson Shooting - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T_98ojjIZDI

Charleston Church Shooting - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mjzrvRKv6Ks