I was scrolling through my Twitter timeline the other day, September 11, to be exact, when I saw that there was a huge discussion/argument going on. The discussion was over a tweet that a woman put out.
The tweet says, "White people cant ever let go of 9/11, a single day in our history, but want you to get over 300 years of racial oppression lol."
Lol.
The first thing that I want to touch on is the fact that this is so completely ignorant. I couldn't believe my eyes when I read that! September 11, 2001, was an awful day in American history because it marked the day that thousands of people of every race were killed by terrorists. This national tragedy marked the start of an era in our history, one that shaped our country into the one it is today. Because of 9/11, airport security has become more strict, it started the war against Afghanistan, and the word terrorist and the concept of terrorism became known and feared by all.
I completely understand that slavery and the oppression that happened was also a tragedy and is still heinous to think about even to this day, but for someone to say that about a national, no, international tragedy, is unfathomably ignorant. Especially one that the woman who tweeted this was alive for. She saw that pain and panic that ensued after. She saw the people grieving over their loved ones that they lost. I don't know if you have seen pictures of the phone calls or heard stories of the victims that happened during the crash, but to me, seeing and hearing these things is enough to silence anyone who was alive during this tragedy. Also, ask the people who lost their loved ones to this event to get over it, to stop grieving. That is an insult to them and to the victims of this.
The next point that I want to bring up is that this tweet perfectly embodies some of the idiots of 2016 to me. It does so because it feels like every issue that has ever been brought up this year, someone has to bring race into it. I am not saying that racism isn't a big issue that we need to discuss, but I am saying that it should not be forced into something where it doesn't belong. I think that it is people like this who give America a bad name. Because to me, this woman is not smart, using racism to redirect September 11 into something that isn't. It was not an event based on race, it was an event based on religion and terrorism. So stop making it into something else.