Why I watched reality TV instead of Obama's Oval Office address

Same old rhetoric, different day.

Image via Nicholas Kamm / Getty Images

Instead of watching President Obama’s address about terrorism and gun control on Sunday night, I opted to do something that seemed more worthy of my time: watch The Real Housewives of Atlanta.

Not because the fight between Porsha Williams and Cynthia Bailey is more important than America's "war with terrorists," but because it was a battle I knew would be depicted in more forthcoming fashion.

Now, having watched Obama’s address, I’m completely confident in my choice.

He started his nearly 15-minute address by categorizing last week's mass shooting in San Bernardino, California as "terrorism." Obama said, "We see growing efforts by terrorists to poison the minds of people like the Boston Marathon bombers and the San Bernardino killers.” Yet, he mentioned nothing of the attack on the Planned Parenthood health Center in Colorado Springs that happened one day after Thanksgiving.

When police apprehended the suspect, he reportedly exclaimed, “No more baby parts.” As Glamour’s Jennifer Gerson Uffalussy noted, this is the same language used by an anti-abortion activist group and many Republican politicians.

The San Bernardino massacre was a horrific act of terror, but so was the Planned Parenthood shooting, and so was the shooting that left nine dead at a historic black church in Charleston, South Carolina—but the latter two were not categorized as terrorism. Much of that has to do with the San Bernardino suspects being Muslim, although a study from research organization New American Foundation concluded that white Americans and the right-wing groups with which they align themselves are a bigger terrorist threat to the United States than Muslim extremists.  

there are certain truths Americans have yet to confront. Like the reality that I can step outside this very moment and it’s not implausible that a police officer could mistake me for some criminal—or hell, just recognize I'm black—and shoot me dead

Unfortunately, the domestic terrorism ravaging this country was not the theme of Sunday night's speech. ISIS was.

It was standard, measured Obama. He managed to tow the line between condemning Islamic extremists without uttering phrases like “radical Islam,” while also reminding the Donald Trumps of the world that Muslims are our neighbors, co-workers, and fellow citizens.

That said, a part of me cringed when I heard Obama say "extremist ideology" is a “real problem that Muslims must confront, without excuse." In fact, Pew found that Muslims worldwide are overwhelmingly opposed to the Islamic State. In 2007, Muslims were much less likely to view suicide bombings "in the defense of Islam" as justified than they were five years earlier. And in 2011, Pew revealed that an overwhelming majority of Muslim-Americans never consider suicide bombings to be justified.

But these tidbits have done little to sway Republican presidential frontrunner Donald Trump from calling for a "total and complete shutdown" of Muslim immigration to the U.S. While Trump's competitors may purport to be oh so offended by his remarks, they’re no less guilty of vilifying Muslims.

Meanwhile, there are certain truths Americans have yet to confront. Like the reality that I can step outside at this very moment, and a police officer could mistake me for some criminal—or hell, just recognize that I'm black—and shoot me dead. Or a friend could enter a Planned Parenthood clinic for health services, and find themselves in the crosshairs of some anti-abortion vigilante. Or anyone reading this could visit the mall, and be shot in the head by a mass murderer with a semi-automatic weapon that they just legally purchased.

These people may call themselves Christian, and suggest they were doing God a solid—much like the Islamic extremists Obama denounced in his speech. The fact remains, though, that it’s easier for Obama to talk about ISIS and war because it’s the only space he has any real power left as president. He can’t pass gun-control laws without Congress, so we're stuck with one shooting spree after another until…who knows anymore?

Yes, I’m worried about terrorist groups abroad and their plans to target Americans Stateside, but I'm even more worried about homegrown terrorists, here. Obama should have addressed them in as blunt a fashion as his did when speaking about ISIS, but that wasn't the case.

So the next time a government official makes a big speech condemning terrorist groups, I’ll probably skip it again in favor of reality TV—unless all of them are discussed.

Michael Arceneaux hails from Houston, lives in Harlem, and praises Beyoncé’s name wherever he goes. Follow him@youngsinick.

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