Thread by @ZachWLambert

In preparation for a time of prayer this morning, I tried to locate the number of lives lost in the Kabul suicide bombing.

I already know the US troops (13), but I was trying to find the number of Afghans who died.

I skimmed 20 different articles and couldn’t find it.

1/

I checked CNN, Fox News, MSNBC, USA Today, CBS, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, The New York Times, Reuters, AP, NPR, and everywhere else I could think of.

Nothing.

Just words like “dozens” or “many” but no actual number of Afghan casualties.

2/

I finally found the number on Wikipedia.

169.

One hundred and sixty-nine Afghan civilians died and most of our major news media barely even mentions them.

3/

Why is that? Why would 169 lives be reduced to “dozens” or “many” in virtually every article?

Candidly, it’s because most Americans don’t care how many brown-skinned, Middle Eastern people died and the major news media knows it.

4/

Do you know how many Afghans have died in this war so far?

About 120,000.

120,000 people!

Most of us have no idea and I’m not even blaming the media. They know what gets clicks/viewers and what doesn’t.

White people dying does.
Black and brown people dying doesn’t.

5/

There are horrific things happening in melanin-rich parts of our world All. The. Time. and it barely even blips on our radar screens.

I don’t know how to fix it, but I think the first step is bringing awareness to the issue and admitting that it’s a problem.

6/6