People in this hemisphere woke up Friday morning to the horror that yet another horrifying mass shooting of innocents had taken place in Christchurch, New Zealand. Hours later, it emerged that the killer of 49 people had meticulously planned his crime to the point of streaming it live on the internet and social media platforms were having a difficult time pulling it down. What was sickening after the fact was the way racial profiling followed even after death. Mainstream media houses tried to sell the story that it was a white supremacist crime, not its true name; terrorism. It is a pattern that has emerged over the years in the western media. They tend to whitewash domestic terrorism if the killer is white and will come up with all kinds explanations such as the person behind the “mass shooting”,“… had a troubled childhood”; “was always a loner”, etc. That is institutionalised racism. But the New Zealand government dispelled all doubt; it was a terror attack, and no amount of categorisation will make it anything else. The above concept is what many developing countries – Rwanda included – have been suffering for long. A group that was branded a terror outfit because of a spate of grenade attacks that took the lives of people in Kigali is busy being feted in many capitals. They are regarded in high esteem as bona fide opposition figures that should be given a place on the negotiations table. This comes at a time when American drones are busy dropping Hellfire missiles on targets they deem are threats to the “American way of life”. That “silent” racism and bigotry will only make things worse. A spade should be called a spade because it is not a spoon
