America’s glamour cannot mask the violence that goes on.
EVEN as the US teeters on the world stage, with economic woes and the gap between the rich and poor expanding, you wouldn’t know it if you landed in an American city. The cars are still shiny and new. The restaurants are still full of people laughing, eating, and spending on a single meal what could support an entire family in South Asia for perhaps months. New York City is decked up for Christmas, with gorgeous decorations adorning its streets. A peek into the homes of the wealthy reveals scenes of celebration. The world may be burning but the wealthy and powerful remain untouched by misery.
Such is the mask that America wears. Over the last week, however, it slipped a little as some events showed that even the world’s wealthiest are not immune to tragedy and that beneath the brightest exteriors lie the darkest truths. The first scene unfolded in Los Angeles. The setting was a Christmas party, a glitzy affair hosted by the former late night TV show host Conan O’Brien. It was the sort of thing that one sees in American movies and indeed many who make American movies were in attendance. Champagne and great food flowed in luscious quantities.
It was here that an illustrious Hollywood family was seen having a very public altercation. The director-actor Rob Reiner and his wife Michele were there. Reiner directed movies including When Harry Met Sally and The Princess Bride. It was during the time he was making When Harry Met Sally that he met the woman who would become his wife — he changed the ending of the movie for her. He wanted it to have a happy ending so that he would have one too.
Michele and Rob were both at the party as was their son Nick Reiner. According to reports, the son got into a loud argument with his parents at the party. It is unclear what the argument was about, but the couple left after the clash. Everyone knows what happened next. The couple were found stabbed to death hours later. In the days that have followed it has become known that Nick Reiner had struggled with drugs and substance abuse for years. He has been arrested.
On the other side of the country, another nightmare was unfolding at Brown University. Early December is the time for exams at US universities and students were all cramming. In the engineering building, a study session was being held in one of the classrooms. It was full of students. At around 4pm, a gunman burst into the classroom and opened fire. According to police, he shot about 40 rounds. When he was done, two were dead and nine injured. The gunmen himself was able to get away (he was found dead some days later, apparently of a self-inflicted gunshot wound). Students at the university were in lockdown for hours; those in the building hid in closets and hallways and bathrooms because they did not know if the shooter would be bursting into their rooms next. They had to stay that way until the police came and led them to a safe place. One of the students killed was from Azerbaijan — no doubt living out his dream of attending one of the top institutions in the world.
America’s glamour cannot mask the violence that goes on.
Not far from Brown University, another murder took place, a couple of days after the shooting. The victim was an MIT professor — a brilliant scientist from Portugal. Police are now linking the suspect in the Brown University tragedy with the murder of the professor.
Tragedies and crimes occur everywhere in the world, and it is true that America is a big country. But who was killed, how easily they were killed, and the sheer rapacious scale of violence cannot be masked even by all the power, wealth and glamour covering it up. The people who died over the weekend were all brilliant and talented and yet could not count on the state to give them a safe existence. The inner wreck of family structures, the completely unchecked proliferation of weapons, and more than anything else, the easy tendency of individuals to turn to violence has become a cancer that is eating America from the inside.
Two of the four people that died were immigrants — one a student at Brown University and the other the MIT professor. The US is making a big show of being done and dusted with immigration and immigrants. Immigrants too should seriously look at other places where they can flourish and actually live a safe and peaceful life. This macabre America, replete with gun violence, where everyone, from a wealthy film director to an outstanding student to a science genius, can be killed in so short a period of time is not the place for a better future.
rafia.zakaria@gmail.com
Published in Dawn, December 20th, 2025
Rafia Zakaria is an attorney and human rights activist. She is a columnist for DAWN Pakistan and a regular contributor for Al Jazeera America, Dissent, Guernica and many other publications.
She is the author of The Upstairs Wife: An Intimate History of Pakistan (Beacon Press 2015). She tweets @rafiazakaria
Published December 20, 2025
DAWN
EVEN as the US teeters on the world stage, with economic woes and the gap between the rich and poor expanding, you wouldn’t know it if you landed in an American city. The cars are still shiny and new. The restaurants are still full of people laughing, eating, and spending on a single meal what could support an entire family in South Asia for perhaps months. New York City is decked up for Christmas, with gorgeous decorations adorning its streets. A peek into the homes of the wealthy reveals scenes of celebration. The world may be burning but the wealthy and powerful remain untouched by misery.
Such is the mask that America wears. Over the last week, however, it slipped a little as some events showed that even the world’s wealthiest are not immune to tragedy and that beneath the brightest exteriors lie the darkest truths. The first scene unfolded in Los Angeles. The setting was a Christmas party, a glitzy affair hosted by the former late night TV show host Conan O’Brien. It was the sort of thing that one sees in American movies and indeed many who make American movies were in attendance. Champagne and great food flowed in luscious quantities.
It was here that an illustrious Hollywood family was seen having a very public altercation. The director-actor Rob Reiner and his wife Michele were there. Reiner directed movies including When Harry Met Sally and The Princess Bride. It was during the time he was making When Harry Met Sally that he met the woman who would become his wife — he changed the ending of the movie for her. He wanted it to have a happy ending so that he would have one too.
Michele and Rob were both at the party as was their son Nick Reiner. According to reports, the son got into a loud argument with his parents at the party. It is unclear what the argument was about, but the couple left after the clash. Everyone knows what happened next. The couple were found stabbed to death hours later. In the days that have followed it has become known that Nick Reiner had struggled with drugs and substance abuse for years. He has been arrested.
On the other side of the country, another nightmare was unfolding at Brown University. Early December is the time for exams at US universities and students were all cramming. In the engineering building, a study session was being held in one of the classrooms. It was full of students. At around 4pm, a gunman burst into the classroom and opened fire. According to police, he shot about 40 rounds. When he was done, two were dead and nine injured. The gunmen himself was able to get away (he was found dead some days later, apparently of a self-inflicted gunshot wound). Students at the university were in lockdown for hours; those in the building hid in closets and hallways and bathrooms because they did not know if the shooter would be bursting into their rooms next. They had to stay that way until the police came and led them to a safe place. One of the students killed was from Azerbaijan — no doubt living out his dream of attending one of the top institutions in the world.
America’s glamour cannot mask the violence that goes on.
Not far from Brown University, another murder took place, a couple of days after the shooting. The victim was an MIT professor — a brilliant scientist from Portugal. Police are now linking the suspect in the Brown University tragedy with the murder of the professor.
Tragedies and crimes occur everywhere in the world, and it is true that America is a big country. But who was killed, how easily they were killed, and the sheer rapacious scale of violence cannot be masked even by all the power, wealth and glamour covering it up. The people who died over the weekend were all brilliant and talented and yet could not count on the state to give them a safe existence. The inner wreck of family structures, the completely unchecked proliferation of weapons, and more than anything else, the easy tendency of individuals to turn to violence has become a cancer that is eating America from the inside.
Two of the four people that died were immigrants — one a student at Brown University and the other the MIT professor. The US is making a big show of being done and dusted with immigration and immigrants. Immigrants too should seriously look at other places where they can flourish and actually live a safe and peaceful life. This macabre America, replete with gun violence, where everyone, from a wealthy film director to an outstanding student to a science genius, can be killed in so short a period of time is not the place for a better future.
rafia.zakaria@gmail.com
Published in Dawn, December 20th, 2025
Rafia Zakaria is an attorney and human rights activist. She is a columnist for DAWN Pakistan and a regular contributor for Al Jazeera America, Dissent, Guernica and many other publications.
She is the author of The Upstairs Wife: An Intimate History of Pakistan (Beacon Press 2015). She tweets @rafiazakaria
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