Russian Lives Dont Matter Much EitherOp-Ed by Lana Zakinov They say that a tragedy unites people, brings them together in compassion, empowers them to be strong in the face of a common enemy. That didnt happen after the Paris attacks. On the contrary, it unleashed rampant Islamophobia, just like after the 9/11 attacks, escalated the carnage in the Middle East, and was used as an excuse to close borders to Syrian refugees. On a more trivial level, it divided Facebook users into two camps: those who overlaid their profile pic with the French flag, and those who didnt. I suspect there is a third camp: those who dont care, but as usual, they are irrelevant to the political zeitgeist. I support France and I sympathize with the victims and the families who suffered this terrible tragedy, but I didnt change my profile pic. The morning after the nightmarish events of that Friday the 13th I couldnt help thinking about how selective our compassion is. A Jewish friend said to me: Terrorist acts like this is a regular occurrence in Israel, and nobody cares. I disagree. People do care, and our governments support of Israel is unquestionable and systematic: from supplying weapons for the Israeli military and direct financial aid to diplomatic and trade agreements. Every time theres a terrorism act in Israel, I see an outpouring of support and a blanket condemnation of the Palestinian rebels. But when a Russian plane blew up in the air and hit the ground somewhere over the Sinai desert, it was barely even reported in the news. Every single person aboard died over 220 people and we dont even blink an eye. Many of the passengers were families with children (or parents who left children at home) returning from vacationing at an Egyptian resort Sharm el-Sheikh. Some were saving up for this trip for yearsThe youngest passenger was 10 months old, affectionately hashtagged the main passenger on Twitter. The Russians made a point to collect all the evidence before pointing fingers, so the news reports were initially tentative about identifying the cause of the crash, focusing more on the impact. But lets face it, planes dont just blow up in the air. Now over 90 percent of international experts concluded that it was an act of terrorism, and lo and behold Islamic State claimed responsibility for the explosion. It happened two weeks before the Parisian attacks. I only heard about it because Im Russian, and I subscribe to a few Russian news channels. Talking to my mom on Skype confirmed that it was a national tragedy unlike anything that happened in Russia before. St. Petersburgs Pulkovo the destination airport of the ill-fated flight 7K9268 was buried in flowers, pictures, toys People said: this affects everybody, this is our common loss. So why is a terrorist attack on Paris a tragedy, but a Russian plane crash or Beirut suicide bombings a side note? Why are we so eager to support the French and ignore the rest? I dont think the answer to that question is more complicated than the deeply entrenched euro-centrism that still plagues much of the world. Even American citizens still have to fight the discrimination, reiterating over and over again that black lives matter, the implication being that white lives matter more in this country. Is it at all surprising that Arab lives or Russian lives matter less than French lives? Either that, or desperately uninformed and brainwashed by the mainstream media, were just blindly following the social media trends, complacent and self-righteous in our hypocrisy. P.S. In response to the Russian passenger plane crash French magazine Charlie Hebdo published a cartoon that showed a burning skull with a caption The dangers of Russian low cost flights. Many Russians were appalled by what they considered pure blasphemy and a mocking of this unspeakable tragedy. The French foreign ministry denied any association with the magazine, saying that it did not reflect the views of the French government. Lana Zakinov is a Russian American freelance writer and editor with a Masters in Political Science. She lives in San Diego, CA with her husband and three dogs. It has nothing to do with russian, or french, or otherwise. It is that there is a point at which people are triggered into some kind of action. And/or someone simply came up with an idea that others could get around. The us vs. them mentality, is exactly why we are here! The Russian plane news was on CNN, BBC, France24, Aljazera and all US TV channels, also in European online newspapers. The difference between the Russian plane and Paris was that in Paris there was much more to report as the chase on the terrorists was ongoing b/c at least one was still alive and hiding and was later found in another country. I dont think at all that Russian lives matter less. Most Americans dont give a crap about anyone. They did not care about 500,000 dead Iraqi children that were the victims of American sanctions and that was a price worth paying according to Madeleine Albright, How about the millions of Vietnamese, Iraqi, South American and Afghan victims of the scum from the land of the fee and home of the slave? I was happy to read your article because I saw the outpouring of sympathy for France and the immediate Watching this same situation has been distressing me too. Just not on Facebook. Iam on a large art website known as DA. Watched as hundreds of images poured out for Paris and made the front page when nothing had showed up for Civilian Plane that was shot down. Instead of lamenting my generation, I took it into my own hands. When they downed the Pilots, I did a picture for Russia, thanking them for their sacrifices regarding IS. I met a couple of extremely nice Russian artists this way. All it cost me was time. Some People seem to have lost the ability to empathise without being told to by Facebook. Forgotten, because of social media and its show me only what I want to hear algorithms how to connect with people who arent exacly like them. So. How do we fix this? 