Are the Tsarnaev brothers white?

Mon, 22 Apr 2013 11:45:00 +0000

In the wake of David Sirota’s hot-button essay last week, “Let’s Hope the Boston Marathon Bomber Is a White American,” conservatives swarmed to trash Sirota and Salon. I’m not here to defend or criticize Sirota’s piece – I get in enough trouble on these issues myself -- but the storm it provoked was revealing, especially once we learned the identity of the two suspects: Tamarlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, ethnic Chechens who grew up in Russia and came legally to the U.S., who were also Muslim.

Tsarnaevs’ uncle experiences an immigrant’s shame

Fri, 19 Apr 2013 16:42:00 +0000

To angry, anguished Ruslan Tsarni, his nephews Dzhokhar and Tamerlan Tsarnaev had a simple motive for allegedly bombing the Boston Marathon: “Being losers. Being unable to settle.”

Tsarni’s rant wasn’t exactly what law enforcement might have advised: A soothing person giving young Dzhokhar a reason to come out of his hiding place alive, and to cooperate with officials in revealing whether there may be more hidden bombs as well as what his and his late brother Tamerlan’s motives were.

But it was a window on an ancient American story: the anguish of immigrants when one of their own becomes notorious, and shames not only his family, but his entire ethnic group.

“He put a shame on the Tsarni family. He put a shame on the entire Chechen ethnicity,” the uncle raged. “It has nothing to do with Chechnya.” To reporters questions, he answered: “We’re Muslims, we’re ethnic Chechens,” and he went on: “Of course we’re ashamed. They’re children of my brother. Who had little influence of them.”

This wasn’t the classic testimony of a family member, declaring love for the accused and shock at the accusation. Although he hadn't seen his nephews since 2009, Tsarni declared flatly:

Salon.com > Dzhokhar Tsarneav

Are the Tsarnaev brothers white?

Tsarnaevs’ uncle experiences an immigrant’s shame