Where is the actual argument that this is racist? Africa is not a part of the daily ongoings of Europe or America. There's nothing racist about that any more than we don't pay attention to things going on in Cambodia unless it's a plane crashing or something.

Saying it's racist doesn't mean it's racist.

I think you're confused with France having religious intolerance and the rise of racist anti-Jewish actions there

Oh, geez.

Good Morning Charles,
Quite frankly, I see no connection whatsoever between the atrocity in Kenya last week and the giant protest in solidarity with Charlie Hebdo in Paris last January. Like you and others on SLOG, I deplore racism AND tribalism. The attack last week in Kenya smacks of reactionary Islamic assailants massacring students. There's simply no explanation for such horrific behavior. It is barbaric. I'm in solidarity with the families of those victims. I don't believe there's a need to politicize this tragedy. This greatly jeopardizes Pres. Obama's possible trip to Kenya, the country of his father. It's most distressing.

In the aftermath of the Michael Brown and Eric Garner killings, the right wing a-holes immediately declared African Americans to be racist because they had not been previously protesting "black-on-black" murders with the same vigor.

Reading Charles' post today, I can't help but think that with a few changes (e.g. swap Benjamin Netanyahu with Al Sharpton, Paris with Ferguson, "I'm Charlie" with "I can't breathe"), it would look like a quotation from Rush Limbaugh.

If solidarity ultimately leads to exclusivity in some way (something that seems to be a thread in this "story"), why do we allow Pride Parades? Could it be that when people stand up and say "This is who we are.", they are seeking validation of self and same rather than seeking exclusion of "The Other"? Or does any attempt to present one's authentic self automatically negate those who do not associate with that authentic self?
How could the Hebdo solidarity movement not have been racist in your eyes? What could they have done differently that would have satisfied you? You seem... perturbed at the way these events played out in reality, but don't provide a solution that would have been acceptable.

World leaders came to the Paris March because social media helped them see in advance that there would be millions of French citizens showing up. They highjacked a spontaneous popular demonstration in order to seem interested in the issues at hand. So they had their little PR stunt in front of the everybody for 20 minutes and then were gone.
Of course for M.Mudede the main thing in the Paris March is the world Leaders. But their coming was frankly totally unimportant and quite ridiculous for the citizens who went there to protest and who held the 'je suis charlie' signs.
M. Mudede should remember that none of the world leaders cared to hold those posters. The 'je suis charlie' movement has nothing to do with the racism of country leaders.

So if a bunch of white people got killed in, say, Kosovo or Russia, and no world leaders turned up in solidarity, would that be considered racist?

I agree with Mudede on virtually nothing. I find most of his philosophy to be self indulgent and nebulous, with vague Marxist overtones that don't really track in any kind of coherent, actionable set of ideological principles.

That said, fuck all of you. What is being criticized here is not the incidental, but the systemic. Mudede, who actually has the qualification to make this observation, is pointing out the inherent racism not in the dichotomy of little domestic attacks like the ones Westerners experience, but in the way that white culture conflates them to be worthy of more importance or notice than those that happen every single fucking day. Why? Because they happen in Africa, in black Africa, not in South Africa, or in North Africa, but in the parts of Africa we equate with genocide, rape, FGM and terrorism to the point where we treat the attack on a university as a GIVEN.

So yeah, there is a problem with that. There's a problem that we're more concerned that Turkey doesn't have twitter than we are with the fact that a full scale assault was made on the most promising young people in Kenya. There's a problem with the fact that we forget that terrorism in the west is a drop in the fucking bucket compared to terrorism in the rest of the world. Domestic attacks in the west? You could reference the height of the IRA and not even be comparable.

We- the media, the populace- ignore terrorism in Africa even more than we ignore it in the Middle East. Never mind that these organizations are now forming an alliance. This shit happens every day. Boko Haram? Bring back our girls? #alreadyforgot.

Terrorism is not about Islam vs the West. It's not about shutting down a newspaper- as if they even could, they have no power to do so. But they do have power in their own jurisdictions. THAT'S the point of terrorism. It's to build power where you are, and you do that by killing your neighbours, abducting their children, burning the crops and salting the earth. To pretend for an instant that having someone kick sand at your freedom of speech is somehow a greater offense is racist because of the tremendous number of black people, millions upon millions, who are excluded from our notice every single day. Why don't we pay attention to Cambodia or Kosovo? Because the frequency of which violence occurs in places like Nigeria or Kenya or Uganda is so astounding that under the same conditions there wouldn't BE a Cambodia or a Kosovo.

So fuck all of you. The problem with free speech is that anyone who has it can use it any way they want, and that means for every single person who feels that an ideologically violent message should be permitted in order to protect the universal freedom of speech for its own sake, there are going to be ten more who will use that as an excuse to say that gives them the right to hate Muslims. In which case, they should be supporting terrorism, because terrorists kill Muslims more than they kill anyone else.

The question is, why don't we feel the same outrage, the same sense of kinship or heartbreak when a group of African university students is slaughtered? Because the perception of Africa is a racist structure. As long as we let it stand, terrorism will always have a home.

All I see here is another nonsensical excuse for childish name calling. Is anyone who takes a stand against political Islam a racist is your book, Charles?

school shootings are only a big deal to americans when they are done in america.

how much coverage was given to the massacre in norway? did any world leaders show up there? if they didn't it's because of racism, right?

what about all of the african witch doctors killing albinos. that's pretty racist right?

http://news.discovery.com/human/psycholo…
“The mutilated body of an albino toddler has been found in Tanzania with his limbs hacked off, the latest such killing for body parts for witchcraft… police finding the body on Tuesday afternoon in a forest area close to his home. ‘His arms and legs were hacked off,’ regional police chief Joseph Konyo said. The baby’s mother Ester Jonas, aged 30, is in a serious state in (the) hospital with machete cuts to her face and arms after she tried to protect her baby.”

"The Charlie Hebdo March was racist because it was racist. Also, because I need some pageviews."

#JeSuisCharlesMudede

When a group (al-Shabaab) describes itself as "waging war on the enemies of Islam," damn near any response the West might offer would only be used to justify a victim mentality and used to drum up more support for their cause. Just look at how Fox reacts to passing anti-discrimination laws protecting atheists, for a very tame comparison. And we theoretically live in a sane, secular country.

100% of the compassion and advocasy isn't being directed towards blacks black racists cry fowl. Our media goes from one rare instance of white on black violence to the other and turns the myth blacks are disproportinately killed by whites into a worldwide obsession. If that march in Paris was for Michael Brown or Trayvon Martin Charles Mudede would praise it to high heaven. Part of the attacks in Paris was the targetting on Jews by a man of African decent. Another man of African decent encouraged more. Note that Charles doesn't call either of these things racist. You notice that blacks such as Charles who bring race into everything never bring up the race of the perp who committed the anti-Jewish massacre.

@22- You notice Mudede never mentions the race of the perps in the Kosher market attack? Why do you think that is? Mudede always mentions race when the perps are white or Jewish.

MR Mudede.
This article is a caricature. I like caricatures but those which speak their names. I was and am still "Charlie", took part in the "Huge march" in january in Paris and I know from the depth of my brains that "Charlie" is not racist. The problem is that we, the people, have had a lot of bad news lately, and people finally get tired. I agree that this lack of persistent reaction is dreadful but it has nothing to do with racism, (more to do with "far" and too much trouble) and I am deeply involved in showing my concern to our kenyan friends, to anybody victim in their flesh and soul of terror. I make no difference.
Dont' be so naïve : That is not "west values" but our humanity, the target of these fanatics, humans but also through them, laugh, art, education, cultural diversities. (See what they do in african countries, forbidden to play traditional music and so on) the only response is SOLIDARITY or nothing. What do you think you are doing in trying to make sound a beautiful moment, because the march in january was trully beautiful just shit? You are dividing people, blowing on hatred and suspicion, eventually playing the terrorists' game.
Another detail : one should not mix up the genuine people demonstrating with the politics who showed off in the procession. Some of them we perfectly knew their pretense and actual involvement in human rights violations.
In the end, what do you think of the absence of reaction of other african leaders and nations? are they racists too?