When Terrorism Strikes, Black Lives Don’t Seem to Matter as Much

Earlier this year, more than 2,000 Nigerian civilians were slaughtered in one day of unmitigated violence in the border town of Baga by a franchise of the same terror group that attacked Paris

BY: CHARLES D. ELLISON

Nigerian children  Jan. 27, 2015
SIA KAMBOU/AFP/GETTY IMAGES

Posted: Nov. 17 2015 1:25 PM

Of terrorism’s many destructive traits, none is more horrifying than its ability to unexpectedly snatch our normalcy from us. Recent attacks in Paris force us into somber, hug-your-loved-ones reflections: imagining the romantic, joyful energy of that city and its inhabitants suddenly shattered by the wholesale violence of others. That cruelty always unwraps the pure evil of such acts, since innocents have nothing to do with the political agendas of combatants. We’re saddened by the senseless loss of life in Paris, but we’re also angered by the intentional, vicious robbing of human lives.


Even as that sorrow connects us, media coverage of the event and mainstream discussion rip us further apart through selective focus. Paris, tragically, isn’t alone. After more than six months of presidential campaigning, months more of public anxiety over the Islamic State group’s spread and six combined primary debates ... not one mention of the vicious spread of jihad in places like West Africa and how it’s inextricably linked with the crisis worldwide. More than a thousand people, asThe Root has covered in recent weeks, have been massacred by suicide bombers in Nigeria since the election of its new president in February and alignment of the group once known as Boko Haram with the Islamic State. Read more here: