Interpreting Media Coverage Of The Chapel Hill Shooting

by @AGuettatfi

A vigil for the victims of the Chapel Hill Shooting held at California State University in Fullerton, California on February 11, 2015. A large diverse crowd stands before a make-shift candlelit altar. In addition to a gathering of thousands at UNC, similar vigils have been held worldwide including in Palestine. (Twitter / @Happy_Arab, used with permission).

A vigil for the victims of the Chapel Hill Shooting held at California State University in Fullerton, California on February 11, 2015. A large diverse crowd stands before a make-shift candlelit altar. In addition to a gathering of thousands at UNC, similar vigils have been held worldwide including in Palestine. (Twitter / @Happy_Arab, used with permission).

The otherness of Muslim Americans

by Amel Guettatfi

The fatal shooting of Deah Barakat, 23, his wife Yusor Mohammed, 21, and her sister Razan Mohammed Abu-Salha, 19 in a Suburban neighborhood in North Carolina was reported more than 12 hours after the fact on national television. Chapel Hill Police released the identity of the self-confessed killer, Craig Hicks, 46, approximately seven hours after a 911 call by a distressed neighbor. He reportedly shot all three of them, point blank, in the head.

Why did it take so long for national media to pick the story up? Their silence stood in stark contrast to prompt coverage of the Charlie Hebdo shooting in Paris last month. Only after a social media outburst protesting their lack of coverage did we see CNN, FOX and MSNBC headline the shooting of three Muslims in Chapel Hill.

This initial radio-silence reinforced the other-ness of Muslim Americans as well as other minorities in the United States. It spoke louder than any anti-Muslim messages online could have.

It’s difficult not to say that if the roles were reversed, and Muslims were behind the gun rather than in front of it, it would have sparked almost instantaneous media coverage. Mainstream media portrayals show Muslims as “violent, backwards, [and] fundamentalist.” When a news item skews from the dominant discourse, it is simply disregarded, pushed down the day’s running order.

And what does it tell us when the phrase “parking dispute” is brought to the forefront of the Chapel Hill Shooting coverage? Repeatedly highlighting an alleged ongoing parking dispute between the victims and Hicks implies their complicity. It suggests the two parties were active participants in a conflict about designated parking spaces and the three Muslims drew the shorter end of the stick and paid the price with their lives. It does not question the absurdity of this over-simplification, subtly shifting the blame to the victims themselves instead of examining the greater context of this crime.

Dean Obeidallah of The Daily Beast reported conversations he had with close friends of the victims. They say Yusor Mohammed expressed fear of her neighbor Hicks and was “shaken” by an incident in which he yelled at Mohammed while carrying a gun. While the police have yet to release a full assessment, the Chapel Hill Shootings bear striking features of a hate crime.

This is not the first incident of its kind. 15-year-old Abdisamad Sheikh-Hussein was struck by an SUV in front of a Kansas City, Missouri Somali community last December. Seham Jaber, whose assailant believed her to be Muslim, attacked her and shouted obscenities against Muslims in June of 2014. Alia Ansari, a Muslim mother of Afghani origin, was shot dead in September of last year in California.

Officially, we wait for the police to confirm Hick’s motives. We intellectualize and analyze the two families’ loss, reading into the greater socio-political context of three young lives and now deaths. While their pain is shared by extended communities across the country, these families will continue to bear the worst of it, even after this nearly-coerced media attention shifts elsewhere.

 

 

Other MintPress staff, writers & bloggers react to the killings & their coverage

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About The Author
Amel Guettatfi
Amel Guettatfi
Amel is a journalist and documentary filmmaker currently pursuing a Master’s degree at Georgetown University. Her focuses are social issues, MENA affairs and refugee rights. Most recently, she finished her first solo documentary about Syrian refugees living in makeshift camps in Calais, France as they try crossing the English Channel.

More articles by Amel Guettatfi