On Charlie Hebdo Analysis

In “On Charlie Hebdo”, Richard Seymour discusses the attack on Charlie Hebdo’s newspaper headquarter and how people should have reacted. Two men entered the headquarters with machine guns and killed 12 of the workers. There is no justification for this action and freedom of speech must be defended. The media quickly claimed the attack to have come from an Islamic group in relation to an Islamic state. In addition, the president quickly claimed the attack as a terrorist attack. This term justifies the repressive and securitarian response to target Muslims. In France the magazine Charlie Hebdo became the symbol of “Western values” because it held freedom of speech. Seymur brings up the difference between being solidarity with journalist and solidarity with a racist publication. In addition, with this rise against Islam it establishes an us vs. them. Seymour ends the article by restating how the newspaper headquarters should have not been raided, however we still shouldn’t stand in line with the discrimination toward Muslims, or defend the
Alan Kurid was a three year old refugee who died in the Mediterranean Sea. His family was trying to escape the crisis in Syria by fleeing to Europe. I don’t think its ever okay to make a caricature of a dead child in a satire way. When I saw this image it filled me with anger. There are things that a person can joke about, but not a dead three year old. All of Charlie Hebdo cartoon upset me because its bluntly racist, however this one I believe is the worst one out of all of them because its trying to make a joke out of a dead three year old. After seeing the caricature I look up the actual picture of the child and he’s so young and his parents don’t deserve to see this image produced by Charlie Hebdo. The cartoon brings into account race and social class, but not