Back in the day when people were Charlie, three months ago today, everybody spoke a word in defence of freedom of expression. Good times, those days. Good people.
Well, in case you haven´t heard, there was a terrorist attack in a university in Kenya last week. Kenya, by the way, is a country in Africa. 147 people, mostly students, were killed.
Like it happened with Charlie, I would have expected some facebook comments like "I plan to go to the university tomorrow, and you won´t stop me", or maybe some photos of defiant people actually going to the university.
But nope.
One of my facebook friends said "I am Kenya".
Another one posted the news from Le Monde and changed his profile pic to show this photo:
A third one posted this article in Spanish ("When not every death from terrorism hurts the same").
And that has been all, so far.
After the attacks in France, I said I was not Charlie. That did not mean I wasn´t horrified, angry and sad about the killings just like everybody else.
And I´m sure this doesn´t mean people are not horrified, angry and sad about this attack in Kenya. But then why aren´t we posting about it like we did about Charlie?
Let me translate some lines from the article. "As young as the university students from here, with the same hopes as the students from here, with so much life ahead of them as the students from here." Talking about terrorism, "It´s a global threat that does not cause a global pain. Kenya´s dead are not our dead, even when the terrorists are the same." "Unfortunately, we still see death in black and white."
Well, I´m not sure about that last line. I don´t think it has anything to do with black or white. But I do think, sadly, we are so used to hearing about poor people dying in the third world, that a few more deaths among millions don´t cause as much shock as a bunch of french guys killed. The killings in France make us, the first world, realize that the threat is real and is here, much more than whatever happens in Kenya or any other developing country. (I hate the expression "developing country", btw. It´s just a way to say "really poor people" without having to feel awful about it.)
Anyway, my point again, we protest, but we keep focusing on the wrong reasons. This is not white people not caring about black lives. This is not terrorists versus freedom of expression, muslims versus jews or the IS versus kenyan university students. This is humans versus humans. And that´s what we should speak up about.
