Q U E E N

1. The Germanwings plane crashed in France. Therefore we are talking about EUROPE here.

2. The definition of terrorism (wikipedia): Terrorism is commonly defined as violent acts (or the threat of violent acts) intended to create fear (terror), perpetrated for a religious, political, or ideological goal, and which deliberately target or disregard the safety of non-combatants.

3. The co-pilot had the wish to die. There is enough proof that he has been mentally ill for a very long time, that he even had to take a break during his training because of his mental problems. He even had a sick note for the day of the plane crash, but he hid it from his employees. He had the wish to die and unfortunately he chose to take 149 people with him.

But hold on, you say, what about these suicide bombers? Aren’t they terrorists?

Yes, they are. They commit suicide for their personal beliefs, for their religion, for their political views, whatever. The co-pilot did not commit suicide to give his life for a God, for a religious group or for a political system. He did it because he was sick and did not see any reason to go on with his life. It is tragic that he chose to take these people with him.

And here’s what I’m trying to tell you guys. This has nothing to do with race. Even if his name had been Ahmed or Mohammed, even if he’d been black or purple or whatever fucking difference to white skin and western culture you’re trying to bring up - Europe thinks differently. We’re not the US, we have a different culture, a different history. I’m not saying that we’re not having problems with racism and discrimination here, believe me, we certainly do. But we treat acts like these differently. What this co-pilot did was mass murder and we are not saying this because he’s white and German and a man. That’s not why we’re not calling him a terrorist. We call him a mass murderer because he is a mass murderer. Not a terrorist. If he’d been a terrorist the situation would be a different one.

So, how’s Europe dealing with this situation?

It’s on the news everywhere, obviously. Our politicians are travelling to France, churches are praying for the victims, their families travel to France to find the ones they’ve lost. Students are coming together at school to mourn the friends they will never see again. We try to understand what was going on in that co-pilot’s head. His family, his friends and his neighbours are shocked, they are literally speechless. Of course we asked ourselves if it was an act of terrorism, but we all agree that it isn’t.

And now some Americans got the fucking nerve to tell us that we’re giving that co-pilot white privilege and treating him not the way he deserves. Americans who probably dream of Europe as the land of original pizza, German beer and the oh-so-sexy French language. We are more than that, we are people who live and work here, we know Europe better than you do. And you know America better than we do. We may not be able to understand how your mindset works, but nevertheless we mourn with you whenever something terrible happens. Now we’re mourning and you’ve got the fucking nerve to turn this into a discussion about racism and terrorism just because you can’t deal with your own shit. You actually try to tell us how to deal with this terrible incident.