If only America had welcomed this young victim of color

The case of alleged Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev reveals the special stresses and strains of immigrants in an increasingly intolerant and right-wing America. Interviews with classmates of Tsarnaev reveal a lonely and conflicted recent immigrant, desperately trying to fit in and become “American” yet prevented from doing so by the very Americans that surrounded him.

“He just wanted to fit in.  To be American” said a classmate.

He tried his hardest.  He used to go to Fenway Park to watch the Red Sox, even though he didn’t like baseball. He liked soccer.  As a person of color the deck was stacked against him.  He seemed lonely.  I visited him once and I noticed he had lots of pressure cookers.  I thought that’s a nice hobby.  He wants to be a chef.  But then he told me that he wanted to build a bomb to blow the legs off Americans.  I must admit I didn’t understand his comedy of color.

A former teacher talks about how ill-suited Tasrnaev seemed to be in modern American society.

He seemed unsure of himself.  He didn’t fit in.  I assume it was because he was a recent immigrant of color and America is a terrible racist place to live.  He reminded me a lot of Martin Luther King Jr.  I could see him leading marches against oppression.  I once asked him what he wanted to be when he grew up.  He told me he wanted to be a bomber and blow the legs off infidels.  Now that’s a skill, you see.  Very technical.  I was proud of him.

Tsarnaev’s guidance counselor talks of a young man in search of himself.

He used to drop by my office a lot.  More often than not he was depressed. He was having a hard time fitting into his new country.  I suppose his problems are what most peoples of color have to deal with. I would tell him to be patient.  That things would work out.  I  mean he just wanted what all immigrants want:  free healthcare, food stamps and government control over every aspect of his life.   You see peoples of color are very compassionate that way, not like the white man who only cares about himself.  I complemented him once on how well he was holding up in the pressure cooker of modern American society.  He said, “Pressure cooker. Yes!  Where can I buy some pressure cookers.”  I was happy that he wanted to hold onto his native Chechen culture and use the pressure cooker to bake some of his native food.

Once during show and tell Tsarnaev brought in a pressure cooker and showed the class how to stuff it with ball bearings and nails.

“We really didn’t understand what he was getting at” said classmate.  “We thought perhaps he was demonstrating the adverse effects of man-caused workplace violence.”

One neighbor commented on how Tsarnaev once asked her if he could use his pressure cooker to experiment on her dogs.

He told me he built a bomb using a pressure cooker – and let me just say I was proud of his technical skills – and he wanted to test it out on my dogs since dogs are the mouthpiece of Satan.  He said he wanted to see how much explosives he needed to blow off my dogs legs.  I was concerned but chalked it up to his rage of color over having to live in racist America.  I never saw him as dangerous.  Not like those teabaggers.

If convicted of the the killings of the three dead in the Boston bombing Tsarnaev faces life in prison.

The director of the Boston Marathon has asked for clemency.

“Come on cut him some slack. He didn’t use a gun.”

(533)