I don’t see other white people condemning this violent extremist. I guess Caucasians are just naturally inclined to violence, following that horrible religion of theirs that tortures and kills millions of people. Really, we should round up their leadership and have them shot for hating America and all its freedoms.
BizarroTrump 2016.
@beschizza
I’m struck by how obvious and shopworn the “lone white gunman” stock story is getting. Lots of mental health speculation, he-was-a-good-boy, what could possibly happened with this guy, “Average Joe”, etc.
There is a central question how obvious mental health trauma and/or illness as a risk factor for violence is reported differently based on race.
For whites, mental health trauma is offered more often as a mitigating or explaining factor of an isolated event. For blacks, it’s hardly mentioned.
And no incidents are investigated often enough as part of a whole constellation of community factors inreasing risk for this sort of violence.
The “lone white gunman” narrative also confuses those more systemic questions.
The most remarkable things about this tragedy are that the shooter is alive, and the victims, at this point, appear to be truly random. These things do not frequently happen in a mass-killing event.
What is most unremarkable in this mass killing event is that the perpetrator was a white male with a gun. I suppose, once again, this isn’t the time to talk about super-easy access to guns. Will it ever be time to talk about the elephant in the room?
I recently came to the realization that arguing with gun people online would accomplish nothing except to get me shot. That’s what political debate in this country is coming to. Seriously, emigrating to Scandinavia seems like a great idea except that it amounts to taking my privilege and getting out while the getting’s good. Not really sure what to do…
I do. I don’t exactly see support for him in the news. I see condemnation, confusion, fear, and concern; so far, he doesn’t seem to have had any motive beyond “hey I’ve got a gun so I think killing people would be cool”. Completely random victims chosen for convenience. He doesn’t seem to have had any noticeable mental issues or had any previous record of violence. He’s just a guy with a gun.
KRAMER: Then the mugger, he comes to and he starts choking me. So, I’m fighting him off with one hand and I kept driving the bus with the other. Then I managed to open up the door and I kicked him out the door with my foot at the next stop.
JERRY: You kept making all the stops?!
KRAMER: Well, people kept ringing the bell!
Hush, now. That goes against The Narrative.
You are rather missing the point.
Have religious leaders of his faith been asked to explicitly disavow his actions? Are white pundits lectured on TV as to why their community shares collective responsibility for his actions?
That’s what happens when the shooter is brown, and never happens when the shooter is white.
It’s not that this should happen in this case. But the systemic bias is rather obvious when you look at the big picture.
If there is a period (greater than say, a day) after yet another shooting spree incident in which it is the wrong time to speak about this, then no, there never will be a time in which we can speak of it.
Cord Jefferson has been talking about this for a while… but sadly, white people just don’t want to hear the truth about their race:
Sad, really.
My point (which, yes, thank you) is that it’s a bit early to start condemning all white people because of an absence of pundits. We still know almost nothing about this guy; the community is still in shock and baffled as to why he did what he did. Are white pundits on TV? You tell me. So far this literally looks like a crazy dude with a gun. I’m sure the pundits will pundify any moment.
How many victim’s families have to shout demands to talk about gun control before the NRA’s money gets drowned out?
No one is doing that. No one is ever doing that. When we talk about structural racism and white privilege it’s not to say “ALL WHITE PEOPLE ARE EVIL RACISTS”, it’s to say that white people benefit from racist structures which are baked into our culture. Not looking at bigger pictures when a white dude goes off the rails and begins murdering his fellow human beings and thinking it’s mental illness is part of that. It very well may be the reality, but that’s the go to response and the first thing out of nearly all the pundits mouths. That’s the problem. People said that about the Charleston shooter, EVEN AFTER HE WAS IDENTIFIED AND HIS FACEBOOK PROFILE SHOWED HIM WITH RACIST PARAPHERNALIA… Even after it was obvious that he had racist motives, it was still “well, he’s just crazy.”
Were these riders charged Purge Pricing?
While it may be in jest/sarcasm/snark, when someone says:
…should I not think of it as condemnation?
So far, it looks like the Kalamazoo shooter was just picking convenient, random people off in parking lots, unless there’s some new information that’ve come out. But I’m fascinated to hear the NRA spin this.
Do you honestly think snark is condemnation? If so, perhaps you’re too sensitive. What such things (and the article I posted by Cord Jefferson) is meant to do is highlight the different ways we talk about crime based on the race of the offender. What @Daedalus posted is a parody of what someone on Fox News might say when discussing a crime involving African Americans. It’s parody to highlight racism, not condemn white people.
Well at least he was on the clock and getting paid.
Wondering when racial profiling will start to happen for white males aged 14-60…
