Maybe we just don't want to know

Both interesting and sad.  It was interesting to find out that there was much more press about seventeen people being killed in Paris than hundreds of people being killed in Nigeria.  Why are some things shoved under the carpet while other things receive repeated news media attention?   The conversation in class was interesting.  Someone brought up that technology may be a factor.  In Paris there were people with cameras and videos recording the attack while in Nigeria there were no bystanders with that kind of technology. Several people brought up proximity--proximity as in culture, distance, and similarities (color).  It was quite surprising to most in the class that this kind of prejudice existed in the reporting of news. 

Some  suggested perhaps the decision not to report on the Nigeria incident was because this kind of stuff goes on all the time in Africa.  It is very sad what is going on in Nigeria.  Africa is a place that has had it's share of horrific violence for a very long time.  It is where I first learned of the awful meaning of genocide--"the deliberate killing of a large group of people, especially those of a particular ethnic group or nation"(google).  I've heard news about boy soldiers being forced to commit murders in the most unthinkable ways. Kid trafficking, drugs, disease, wars, torture is not new to Africa.

Could it be that to Americans, Nigeria is like that messy closet in the back corners of a  home?  It's awful and overwhelming.   There is just so much stuff we don't know what to do about, so we just close the door and try not to think about it.  Someday, that closet is going to have to be dealt with, or  the door is going to break and everything in that dark closet is going to spill out.