Since last week’s terrorist attack in Boston, I have been thinking a lot about race, its presentation in the media and the reaction of those in possession of white privilege to it. Actually, I think about this topic constantly, but events such as this magnify the issue. This is a good article about how people from various groups reacted. Basically, for the moments prior to the identification of the suspects, everyone who is not considered “white” was afraid. They were anticipating the potential backlash from society once the suspects were identified. The Czech government even went so far as to issue a statement that it has nothing to do with the Chechen region after people started blaming Czechoslovakia.

It is inevitable that in the moments after such an event, commentary ranges from idiotic to cautious to brilliant. Canada Sun chain columnist John Robson wrote that the root cause of terrorism is terrorists. Can’t really argue with that, can you? I guess we can all go home now and quit trying to understand why things happen and whether or not we can ever prevent them.

For me, the brilliant commentary comes from those who urge restraint in identifying a cause. After all, can we really ever fully enter the mind of young men who decide it is a good decision to kill and maim hundreds of people?

Canadian Liberal leader Justin Trudeau even found himself immersed in the controversy after he commented that it is important to find the “root causes” of terrorism. The Globe and Mail’s reaction was decidedly negative.

I would argue that if a leader of a nation had no interest in investigating the causes of major, deadly events, this would be a major concern about his or her ability to think through the very challenging role of running a nation.

The next day, however, Trudeau’s approach was mirrored by the media, which was awash with reporters investigating the terrorists’ background. World leaders also reflected this approach. Even US president Barack Obama stated it is essential to discover the root causes of terrorism. And Canadian prime minister Stephen Harper’s administration is already hard at work on investigating the causes of terrorism with the establishment of the Kanishka Project, a five-year, $10 million program to “invest in research on pressing questions for Canada on terrorism and counter-terrorism.” (Source).

The scholarship on the root causes of terrorism attacks this issue from many angles: psychological, historical, political, sociological and a whole range of a blend of these disciplines. But the bottom line is that human beings are unpredictable creatures and while we can prevent some of these horrific attacks from happening, we cannot foresee everything.

It is also clear that blaming an entire group is illogical. I am convinced that the attitude towards Muslims, “brown” people, or people from the Middle East in fifty years will be equated with the McCarthyism era. During this period, anyone who was suspected of subscribing to communism was questioned and was rendered an outcast. This included anyone from Hollywood celebrities to innocent government workers. Sound familiar? For a contemporary example, witness “no-fly” lists.

In the aftermath of such an event, it is natural to want to classify and file information in order to make sense of it. This professor explains it well, taken from a Washington Post article: “The brothers “don’t neatly fit into pre-existing boxes,” says Peter Spiro, an international law professor at Temple University. “It is a very complex picture,” challenging the psychological need to “set the boundaries of the in-group and treat others differently.””

The dangerous period is now, when information is scarce, people are afraid and seeking certainty. They are operating on adrenaline, ready to react and blame. Hopefully, the confusion and debris will be cleared away enough such than no more people are harmed.