After the Parkland, Fla., shooting much of the conversation, especially from those on the right, has centered around the shooter’s mental illness as the root cause of the problem.
But when the shooter is Muslim or a person of color, “the immediate reaction from those on the right is to try to find a solution...around immigration,” says Francis Maxwell, host of “The Breakdown” on The Young Turks.
Take for example the Orlando nightclub shooting in 2016. The Muslim shooter used an AR-15, the same gun used in Parkland, but there was no serious discussion about gun control back then.
Fingers quickly pointed at loose immigration policies despite the fact that statistically, “you’re more likely to be killed in a domestic act of terror by a white American on homegrown soil,” says Maxwell.
This difference in treatment is also clearly demonstrated in conversations about the movements that rise from these tragic incidents.
Today, #NeverAgain has turned into an admirable national movement against the NRA but when #BlackLivesMatter asked for the same things, “their message wasn’t given the platform.”
“We need to look at ourselves in this country and think why...is one vilified and looked at as a movement that’s disruptive and disrespectful and the other looked at as empowering?”
The U.S. approved updated COVID-19 vaccines Monday, hoping to rev up protection against the latest coronavirus strains and blunt any surge this fall and winter.
The Biden administration has cleared the way for the release of five American citizens detained in Iran by issuing a blanket waiver for international banks to transfer $6 billion in frozen Iranian money from South Korea to Qatar without fear of U.S. sanctions. In addition, as part of the deal, the administration has agreed to release five Iranian citizens held in the United States.
The U.S. government is taking aim at what has been an indomitable empire: Google’s ubiquitous search engine that has become the internet’s main gateway.
President Joe Biden departed Vietnam after meetings with President Vo Van Thuong along with other high-ranking officials, following his participation at the G20 summit in India.
