I spend a lot of time on Twitter and I see tons of amazing dialogue and reflections. Twitter Thread of the Day is a feature on my blog where I’ll try to share one thread that was particularly interesting, smart, moving, or impactful for me. Go here to read previous editions.
Today’s TTOTD comes from Anand Giridharadas, who writes about the shooting of Srinivas Kuchibhotla and Alok Madasani in Kansas. The attack seems like a clear example of a hate crime, fueled by the current political climate that’s awash in anti-immigrant sentiment. Giridharadas explains how this happened.
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I am shocked by the murder of Srinivas Kuchibhotla in Kansas, and want to share some things I learned reporting on a similar crime in Texas.
— Anand Giridharadas (@AnandWrites) February 25, 2017
Like the Kansas attacker, Mark Stroman of Dallas thought he was targeting Middle Easterners, and thought he was protecting America.
— Anand Giridharadas (@AnandWrites) February 25, 2017
President Trump’s administration has quickly leapt to say his talk and actions have nothing to do with this crime. https://t.co/EceiTIditJ
— Anand Giridharadas (@AnandWrites) February 25, 2017
I would like to explain why the president is dead wrong on this one. He has everything to do with this, and I can explain.
— Anand Giridharadas (@AnandWrites) February 25, 2017
What I learned reporting on the Stroman spree, which occurred right after 9/11, is how such an act is dependent on circles of enablement.
— Anand Giridharadas (@AnandWrites) February 25, 2017
Frankly, Stroman wasn’t intellectually sophisticated enough to channel his anger in this direction on his own. He needed help.
— Anand Giridharadas (@AnandWrites) February 25, 2017
When I reviewed his letters, prison writings and blog posts, what amazed me was how he had stolen so much language from his social betters.
— Anand Giridharadas (@AnandWrites) February 25, 2017
It mattered greatly what politicians and pundits said, because it gave his inchoate drifter emotions a purpose and a narrative.
— Anand Giridharadas (@AnandWrites) February 25, 2017
He heard talk of “enemy combatants” on the news. He was inspired by that to call himself an “allied combatant.”
— Anand Giridharadas (@AnandWrites) February 25, 2017
So many of his phrases were borrowed from Fox News. He was a man without purpose all his life. This borrowed language gave him purpose.
— Anand Giridharadas (@AnandWrites) February 25, 2017
These stories are so often of drifting lives electrified by a sense of having to save one’s country. That call to save comes from on high.
— Anand Giridharadas (@AnandWrites) February 25, 2017
Here’s the thing. Stroman had no explicit support in 2001 from the highest levels of U.S. power. But the Kansas killer did. From @POTUS.
— Anand Giridharadas (@AnandWrites) February 25, 2017
W. Bush explicitly praised Islam and supported Muslims. Trump has explicitly degraded them and called them a problem. People hear that.
— Anand Giridharadas (@AnandWrites) February 25, 2017
Trump makes the statements and goes back to his chefs and jet. But there are aimless Americans who take the words as a summons to greatness.
— Anand Giridharadas (@AnandWrites) February 25, 2017
Part of being a leader is understanding how what you say will be used, how it will refract into other lives. That explains Bush’s remarks.
— Anand Giridharadas (@AnandWrites) February 25, 2017
Based on my reporting on Stroman, I can say that Trump has supplied more permission than Stroman ever received back in 2001.
— Anand Giridharadas (@AnandWrites) February 25, 2017
Trump not only identifies and exaggerates this threat to America. He also keeps talking down our institutional capacity to respond to it.
— Anand Giridharadas (@AnandWrites) February 25, 2017
Please understand, Mr. President, that this too gives permission, by dog-whistling to drifters that they might do what the government can’t.
— Anand Giridharadas (@AnandWrites) February 25, 2017
Stroman was deeply motivated by the idea that the government wasn’t going to be tough after 9/11. So he had to be.
— Anand Giridharadas (@AnandWrites) February 25, 2017
So when @Potus denigrates our intel services and says he knows more than the generals, out there in America it empowers the hate criminal.
— Anand Giridharadas (@AnandWrites) February 25, 2017
When he spreads his idea of Americanness-as-whiteness, he and his rich friends can laugh about the brilliant tactic. But people listen.
— Anand Giridharadas (@AnandWrites) February 25, 2017
And a small fraction of those who listen will arm themselves and go to war. And people will die. And the president should sleep on that.
— Anand Giridharadas (@AnandWrites) February 25, 2017
.@potus understood one thing well: millions of Americans felt punched down upon for a generation. Some were right.
— Anand Giridharadas (@AnandWrites) February 25, 2017
But now he answers their feelings not by shielding them or helping, but by diverting blame from those who screwed them to those who didn’t.
— Anand Giridharadas (@AnandWrites) February 25, 2017
So the answer to those who felt punched down upon is the chance for them now to punch down at others. That isn’t leadership. It’s the WWF.
— Anand Giridharadas (@AnandWrites) February 25, 2017
U.S. elites did long neglect middle- and working-class folks. The remedy isn’t giving them permission to hate and sometimes kill immigrants.
— Anand Giridharadas (@AnandWrites) February 25, 2017
In other words, the least vulnerable Americans screwed the middlingly vulnerable, and Trump’s answer is a war against the most vulnerable.
— Anand Giridharadas (@AnandWrites) February 25, 2017
Goldman guy cost Scranton guy his house and hours, and now brown, Muslim & immigrant communities are attacked. Goldman guy’s in the cabinet.
— Anand Giridharadas (@AnandWrites) February 25, 2017
Wake up. The only people who are winning from this are the people who caused the problem. We cannot go to war against each other. Stop it.
— Anand Giridharadas (@AnandWrites) February 25, 2017
Because our president may keep giving this hate-permission, your voice matters. Drown the permission out. Tell people they are welcome.
— Anand Giridharadas (@AnandWrites) February 25, 2017
Stroman was persuadable. He heard more voices inspiring him to kill than inspiring him to love. Change their calculus. Goodnight. With love.
— Anand Giridharadas (@AnandWrites) February 25, 2017