The recent tragedy in Paris has woken many of us out of a dreamlike, slumberous attitude that we’ve had towards the conflicts in the Middle East. We’ve seen a recent surge of nationalism not only in America but in many other western countries. While this strong support for Paris shouldn’t be lost, I want to address the slippery slope this support may create. The United States finds strength in its sense of nationalism, but this trend can continue the vicious cycle of history. This cycle allows prejudices against certain ethnic groups to persist. Through these prejudices, America and countries all over the world continue these bloody conflicts in all parts of the world, not just France.
One main danger of the fierce nationalism is immediate side-choosing. Instead of examining the entire situation, we defensively acknowledge the actual tragedy in a vacuum. Understanding surrounding situations and tensions may better explain how hundreds of people can get slaughtered. When we fail to do this, we instead make sweeping generalizations which may end up negatively impacting more people than we choose to admit. We leave out half of the conversation when we fail to acknowledge Western involvement and manipulation in the Middle East, Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, etc.
This acknowledgment doesn’t excuse the terroristic behavior of radical groups such as ISIS or Boko Haram, but it gives the term “radical” better context. In better understanding global politics, you’d avoid making generalizations that we continue to hear in our national media even before the Paris attacks. You would be able to avoid generalizing the whole Muslim population for the actions of the very few “radical” fundamentalists, just as all Christians aren’t blamed for the actions of the very few radicals who terrorized different ethnic groups on our own turf.
Designating acts of atrocities to whole ethnic groups becomes even more dangerous when powerful people have this mindset. These basic, unconscious prejudices rock the general public to sleep while nations are sent into war with each other. People in power must be able to hold a leveled mindset that allows them to do their job without jeopardizing the lives of their constituents. That doesn’t exclude protecting the basic rights of all people regardless of race, religion, sexual orientation and all other identities that I may not be able to name.
Nationalism is important in keeping a country together, but I’m against any kind of nationalism that chooses to marginalize other ethnic groups. I’m against any nationalism that chooses to ignore the hand that they play in global conflicts especially when it chooses to ignore its own conflicts within. I’m against any nationalism that refuses to acknowledge normalize similar tragedies in poorer countries while pouncing to action when tragedy occurs in Western society. The last thing I want to do is downplay the situation in Paris as I currently have some family living over there, but let’s not put ourselves in a position where we’re blinded by nationalism so that we don’t repeat the same mistakes that we’ve committed throughout the history of the inception of this country.
Sylla is a sophomore intended computer science major from Bronx, New York