“Please Let It Be a Lone White Guy”

I heard someone say this about the unknown terrorist who set off the two bombs near the end of the Boston Marathon Monday:  “Please let it be a lone white guy.”

Why?  Probably because . . .

• If this was the act of a Middle Eastern terrorist group, ignorant Americans might take it out of innocent people like the Sikhs.
• Most immigrants from the Middle East are not terrorists – although, according to a 2011 study, 1 in 3 Americans think that Muslim Americans are more sympathetic to terrorists than other Americans.  A Middle Eastern Boston Marathon bomber would not help correct this misconception.
• If a lone white guy – or a group of white guys – are responsible for the Boston Marathon bombing, vigilantes are unlikely to take it out on random other white guys.
• Women are unlikely to initiate terrorism in the U.S. – although women are increasingly “carrying out suicide bombings, hijacking air­planes, and taking hostages in such places as in Palestine, Iraq, Afghanistan, Sri Lanka, Lebanon, and Chechnya” according to this study.

Whoever did this is clearly evil and sociopathic – whatever race or ethnicity he/she might be.  But I understand the person who hopes it’s a lone white guy, just as I used to hope that people who make stupid racist comments don’t have Southern accents.   (Enough people already believe that Southern accents = ignorance.)

I pray this person is identified and caught soon.  And maybe that he’s a lone white guy.