What do you call the people responsible for the disasters in
Texas and Bangladesh?
 |
| The West, Texas fertilizer plant explosion was so huge, it created a mushroom cloud |
When Rolling
Stone ran a sexy photo of accused Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar
“Jahar” Tsarnaev on its cover, it sparked backlash and boycotts. Countless
magazine vendors, including 7-Eleven shops, refused to sell a product that
seemed to make terrorism look hot.
This publicity wave may ultimately
boost Rolling Stone‘s bottom line. Any news is good news
when it comes to marketing, right? And it’s also obscuring a more important
question than whether it’s OK to run flattering photos of terrorists: What
exactly constitutes terrorism?
Too often, the term
terrorism is preferred when the perpetrators are Muslim.
When the Newtown and
Aurora shootings turned out to be the work of local, disturbed, young men who
didn’t happen to be Muslims, they weren’t deemed terrorists. But the local,
disturbed, young men almost certainly responsible for Boston’s carnage were
Muslim. That qualified them as you-know-whats.
 |
| On the ground at West, Texas |
Meanwhile, what about
that deadly explosion at a West, Texas, fertilizer plant? It occurred just two
days after the April 15 Boston Marathon attack, and got far less news coverage.
The primary suspects for the blast that killed 15, injured 200, damaged or
destroyed 360 homes, and flattened a public school are corporate
negligence and under-regulation.
It’s a complicated
story, but West Fertilizer, which belongs to Texan magnate Donald Adair, stored
vast amounts of dangerous chemicals at a plant in the heart of a small
community. It broke the law by failing to disclose this hazard. When the
government did notice the company’s lack of a “security plan” and other signs
of negligence, it imposed minor fines. Clearly, Adair required more than a few
slaps on the wrist to stop endangering workers and residents in West Texas.
And what about that
factory fire in Bangladesh? The owner of Rana Plaza, the building
where 1,129 garment workers perished, is in jail.
But what about the
people who ran the sweatshops that were torched? What about the U.S. companies
that sell the clothing manufactured there with exploited and cheap labor? What
about the customers who snap up bargains when they go shopping — just about
everyone in America? Who is responsible?
We could try looking
in the mirror. Or take a trip to Bentonville.
Most of the companies
selling the clothes that were made in the factories that burned down have
promised to do something. The U.S. government and European Union are taking
some steps. But details, follow-up, and inspection remain someone else’s
department.
And whether you’re
talking about the disasters that befell those garment workers in a Dhaka suburb
or the people of West, Texas, one thing’s for sure: The mainstream media
definitely didn’t label any of the capitalists responsible as terrorists.
Emily Schwartz Greco is the managing editor of OtherWords, a non-profit national editorial
service run by the Institute for Policy Studies. OtherWords columnist
William A. Collins is a former state representative and former mayor of
Norwalk, Connecticut. otherwords.org