Yesterday afternoon, March 31st, on my way home, I picked up a copy of the New York Post. Shortly after scanning through the front page, a headline caught my attention (the other headlines were about baseball and Judge Judy: I’m not a fan of either). “Hate Rap for Kid, 12, in Attack on Muslim girl” read the front of the paper. The story was about a 12 year old boy from Staten Island who beat down a fellow classmate because she was Muslim. 12 year old Osman Daramy apparently approached the female classmate and asked her “Are you a Muslim?” Later, Osman and an accomplice punched and kicked her to the ground, trying to rip her hijab off her head. The victim suffered a few bruises and a cut lip, as reported.
Now, at a glance, this may seem like a hate crime. 2 non-Muslim kids attacking a Muslim; but, what really got to me was the fact that these kids are 12! I have a nephew who is 10 years old and just imagining him plotting a plan to beat another 10 year old would be quite mind-boggling. Osman was eventually arrested and currently, he could be facing up to 18 months in a Juvenile facility. The thing that bothers me the most is the way the NY Post covered this story. The newspaper gave no empathy to Osman and was extremely harsh on him in a lot of the phrases and rhetoric used. For example, they called him a “Holy Terror,” ”Menace” and even boldly stated that he is “Staten Island's number 1 problem child”.
I agree that what he did was wrong, BUT it is important to keep in mind that the assault on the Muslim student happened on school property and the question that really should be asked is where were the teachers? Where were the parents? Where were the people older than 12? The NY post had only mentioned the alleged mother of Osman and had one quote from her. The quotation simply stated that it’s not right to bug other people of their religion; there was no mention of the assault and her defense. This was not the first time Osman had gotten in trouble. He had, on an earlier account, cut a girls hair with his scissors after running around the class with them. In another earlier incident, young Osman and a few other “Punks/Crooks” (as the NY Post delightfully put it) robbed a pizza deliveryman and got away with food and cash. These were explicit signs that this was a problem child, yet nothing was done about it. When one of your students is caught robbing a pizzaman, the principal and parents have to bear responsibility. Why wasn’t anything done earlier? Why did the school or the parents not punish Osman accordingly? All the school did was suspend him. A more stringent punishment should have been pursued which may have prevented this atrocity.All though these other incidents that young Osman were invloved are equally troubling, these events were not publicized by the media.
This directly leads into personalization bias and shows that in this specific story, the media blames and criticizes the individual heavily rather than the institute or the structure surrrounding the events. By sensationalizing the story and submitting a writer’s bias, the true story loses substance. In this event, the only teachers who were interviewed only spoke about how troubled young Osman was and another teacher only said how safe he/she felt going into school. None of interviewed said anything about what could be done to help guide kids like Osman in the right direction or how this could have been prevented. Without the teachers accepting responsibility or offering a solution, they show a lack of concern and a lack of regard for student safety that parents have invested in them. I feel like the writers of this article simply wrote it to create the perception that Osman was a troublemaker who could not be helped.
Furthermore, the very title of the hard copy of the story is “Muslim-Bash Bust For Tiny Terror.” I could be wrong but I get the perception that the wording of the title, “Muslim-Terror” in any bold letters has become comfortable for the media. Using the 2 words to agitate the deep frames that have been embedded in us after 9/11 has decimated the Muslim-American image. This particular event was deemed as a “hate crime' so quickly without even considering the facts at hand. Young Osman already had a reputation of being a “misguided” kid and had already been involved in a number of run-ins with authorities, but all of a sudden, when he assaulted a Muslim, he is put on the front page of the NY Post.
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