When the second tower was hit by an airplane on September 11, 2001, a new age of constant war against a new threat began for Americans. This threat was identified with a single word that became part of our culture: Terrorism. The history of the word dates to the acts of violence by anarchists. It was specific to people and acts of violence. The way Terrorism is used in its modern context today is less individualistic and has become too broad in its scope, too manufactured by patriots and politicians, and not reflective of how it is now used to disguise the brutal military interests of entire nations throughout history. My generation must come to appreciate the root of terrorism and the political power it wields today.

The word terrorism can be traced back to describe the Reign of Terror of Robespierre during the French Revolution. The word “terrorist” was an offshoot of this, being used by 18th century French philosopher Francois-Noel Babaeuf to describe the lackeys of Robespierre’s reign who would terrorize people who didn’t support his government. These definitions of “terrorism” and “terrorist” were officially added to the Merriam-Webster dictionary in 1864. The words remained in the dustbin of the dictionary for decades, rarely being unearthed in situations describing the acts of organized groups such as gangsters in Chicago and the extreme regimes of Hitler and Mussolini during World War 2. Instead, the word terrorism began to appear in the public consciousness in the early 70s, as the rapidly evolving Cold War gave rise to a new group of violent “terrorists''. They were still individuals but acting on behalf of a nation and were a foreign and unseen enemy who wanted to do harm to the United States. Nowadays, the word terrorism is mostly used by political news outlets, or anybody talking about politics, to describe the enemies the United States has been fighting overseas.

Terrorism now invokes that “bad-guy” feeling of the angry foreign terrorist out to destroy America, and the only thing standing in the way of us and certain death is our brave military overseas. However, this interpretation of the word undermines the background behind why these people in these foreign nations became terrorists and instead focuses on how they are all harming America. This is because for years the brutal military dictatorships the U.S. set up in other countries during the 50s, 60s and 70s began to collapse in the early 90s and the US no longer considered Russia a cold war threat. This made the former countries we invaded with our military, especially in the middle east, turn into a political battleground. This gave rise to politically motivated ideologies like the Islamic extremists of the middle east or the anti-dictatorial insurgents of Central and South America. These regimes were hellbent on the complete removal of the United States from their country as the United States took everything from them through our acts of violence. America gave rise to the terrorism that we label and fight today.

And yet, here we are. Our culture now uses the one-dimensional word “terrorism” to criticize foreign countries who are not on our side. The word is one dimensional making you think the terrorists don’t have a reason to be terrorists. “Terrorism” undermines the point of why these terrorists are committing atrocities, and it hides the involvement of the U.S. in the problem. Terrorism is then used to support U.S. interests by painting the U.S. as heroes in the situation when we are complicit in the creation of the problem. The slaughter of innocent civilians in another country just to support U.S. interests is just as bad as killing U.S. soldiers and grossly mistreating the population. America terrorism isn’t just complicit in the creation of terrorism itself; it’s also being morphing it into a slur of Muslims. The acts of 9/11 “loaded” the word and gave it an identity and a race. The word at this point has been contorted beyond what it is supposed to represent. Instead of representing extremists fighting against their oppressors, this word is now used to represent racism against a collection of people we see as ideological enemies. We see terrorists as a caricature of a faceless foreign group of people who are a threat to us, and we don’t seek to understand the root of their anger and the role we played to create it.

As my new generation of Americans (labeled "Gen Z") begin to become adults, we need to look beyond the depiction of terrorism and not just associate the word with revenge for 9/11. We need to see terrorism in totality as the creation of decades of violent politically motivated acts, and as a tragic tale involving greed resulting in a horrible fate for a large group of people. Terrorism needs to be relabeled and referred to not as the act of individuals, but as the response to politics leading to violence. We should do away with the word terrorism and call it something that brings blame to both sides.