Many people hear the word “terrorism” and a few words might come to mind. One might think of danger, violence, or a threat from abroad. The meaning of what a terrorist act is over the years in the United States has always leaned towards a foreign threat. This could be a country or a group of people but the defining factor in the eyes of many is that they are not “American.” The most unpatriotic act is causing threat to your own country, right? These threats are always from beyond our borders, correct? Not quite. Many of these violent acts that we are seeing today are actually right here here in our own backyard but news coverage paints a different picture on what terrorism means.
What Domestic Terrorism Isn’t
Domestic terrorism is the growing problem in the United States when we think about threats at home. The antiquated idea that terrorism is something done from the outside in is motivated by racist and discriminatory beliefs. Much of this has been fueled by historical events such as September 11th or the Boston bombings where the blame was placed on a marginalized group in the belief that ALL members of that community are to blame. Many people who are part of the Islamic faith or from the Middle East get branded as the root of terrorism in the United States. Many Muslim Americans face persistent and rampant racism stemming from biases and stereotypes which labels all of them as terrorists or un-American. Many words that tend to get thrown together in conversation are terrorism, the Middle East, Islam, and violence. Terrorism is associated with “foreign enemies” or “outsiders” who are looking to cause harm to the United States.
What is Domestic Terrorism?
What many people do not realize is that terrorism has variations and domestic terrorism is a major issue in America today. Terrorism has evolved and the main form that we should be concerned with is attacks happening within our borders from people claiming to represent this country. Domestic terrorism is defined as criminal acts committed by an individual or group to further goals stemming from domestic influences, such as those of a political, religious, social, racial, or environmental nature according to the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The new face of terrorism are attacks happening within the country from radically goal-oriented individuals or organizations. Specifically, white supremacists or white supremacist organizations have been at the forefront of these attacks. According to the Anti-Defamation League (the ADL), white supremacy is defined as the belief that the white race is superior over all others and should dominate all of society at the expense or exclusion of other races, ethnicities, cultures, and more. It is deeply rooted in racism, xenophobia, anti-semitism and other discriminatory ideologies. White supremacy is a major domestic terrorist issue that the media severely under covers.
How Does the Media Portray Domestic Terrorism?
Much of the incidents we see regarding domestic terrorism has to do with radical white supremacist groups but what we see in the media differs. As shown in this figure, between 2006 and 2015, news coverage of domestic terrorism heavily covered attacks perpetrated by someone who is Muslim versus someone who was not. However, the number of incidents of domestic terrorism, which was 115 between 2008-2016, was mostly perpetrated by non-Muslim, right-wing groups which typically associate with white supremacy or similar ideologies. The media is skewing the perception of who is actually committing these acts of terrorism.
Who is Leading the Domestic Attacks?
The number of domestic terrorist attacks perpetrated by such groups has increased significantly over recent years. The Charlottesville car attack during the Unite the Right Rally in 2017 was perpetrated by a Proud Boys supporter, James Alex Fields, Jr., that killed one and injured 35 other people. Fields had a variety of what are considered radical, far-right ideologies such as anti-semitism, xenophobia, homophobia, etc. Another domestic terrorist attack was the 2018 Tree of Life Synagogue shooting where a lone shooter with white supremacist ideologies murdered 11 people during morning services. Over the last 5 years there has been an uptick in these types of attacks yet news coverage does not reflect that.
Why Does International Terrorism Receive More Coverage?
Domestic terrorism is not as widely covered as international terrorism but why? When it comes to terrorism by its own citizens, news outlets do not want to “sensationalize” or give attention to the home-grown organizations that caused them in hopes there will be no copy-cat attacks. People do not want to view their own citizens, especially White Americans, as the enemy or as perpetrators of such crimes. However, as shown in the figure from the CSIS Transnational Threats Project, the violent far-right groups which are typically white supremacists, Neo Nazi, or other discriminatory groups, orchestrated the most terrorist attacks from January to August 2020, a little over 40 attacks while other groups hardly hit over 10. Media outlets would rather vilify and use Muslim Americans or other people of color as a scape goat for the label of terrorism rather than face the truth that the real perpetrators of these kinds of crimes are white people belonging to extremist groups here in America.
How White Supremacy is the New Face of Domestic Terrorism
The war on terrorism is something that America has been fighting against for decades. But, what the media fails to realize and focus on is that terrorism is also homegrown. The worst acts of terrorism are actually being committed within our borders and do not have the stereotypical face that many people are accustomed to seeing on the news. White supremacy is the new face of domestic terrorism. Once we address the fact that domestic terrorism has its deep roots here due to the history of racism, anti-semitism, and xenophobia of this country, then we can make real progress to preventing similar attacks.
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