An Australian white nationalist man
who says he hates immigrants acted out his hate by murdering at least
49 people and seriously injuring at dozens more. He directed his ire
at two mosques in the New Zealand city of Christchurch, after posting
a hate-filled manifesto that was replete with anti-immigrant and
anti-Muslim ranting. It is important to know that it was a WHITE
man, not a person of color, who perpetrated the most deadly mass
shooting in New Zealand. It is essential to call out the WHITE
terrorists that too many are too timid to call out by name. They are
called nationalist, but when they go on gun-toting rampages,
especially in places of worship, this is not nationalism; it is
terrorism, plain and simple. Why are so many so willing to put
adjectives around heinous acts, and to describe these terrorists as
mentally ill. Why are so many willing to soft-pedal the abhorrence
of these acts?
To
his credit, the 45th President did acknowledge the "horrible
massacre" in New Zealand, which is much better than he did when
Heather Heyer was murdered in Charlottesville, and 45 said that there
were "good people on both sides" of that insanity. The
Charlottesville murder of Ms. Heyer is relevant because the man who
slaughtered 49 people in New Zealand embraced our President as a
symbol of renewed white identity and common purpose." Had 45 a
speck of sense, he might have addressed his inclusion in the
shooter's manifesto and condemned it. But how could 45 actually
condemn the actions of a white nationalist when, heretofore, he has
embraced them, riled them up, supported them, and even used the word
"nationalist" himself when it has suited him.
The
New Zealand terrorist also referenced Dylan Roof in his manifesto.
Roof, of course, was the man who has been convicted for his attack at
the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South
Carolina. The way that law enforcement chose to coddle Dylan Roof,
and the way the media sought to "explain him" is a textbook
case in how white privilege works, even for terrorists. Upon his
arrest, Roof was taken to get a fast-food meal. Perhaps his blood
sugar was low, and someone hoped to attribute his terrorism to the
fact that he may have forgotten to eat! In any case when have you
know an African American perpetrator of ANYTHING to be fed BEFORE he
gets to jail? There is, of course, a professional courtesy that "law
enforcement" officials treat WHITE terrorists, while the FBI
stirs up anti-Black sentiment with their bulletins about "Black
Identity Extremists." The word TERRORIST has rarely been
applied to Dylan Roof (instead, he is described as a murderer and
white supremacist) but his massacre of nine Black people in church
was nothing less than terrorism. But if we call Roof a terrorist, we
must also look at the police who coddled him as terrorist-enablers.
We have to look at the media who rushed to explain his background as
terrorist-explainers. We have to ask WHITE people why such
terrorism is acceptable.
Let's
consider the massacre at the Tree of Life Congregation in Pittsburgh
last year. The assailant, Robert D. Bowers killed 11 people and
wounding several others, including four police officers. For all the
talk of the anti-Semitism that supposedly comes from Muslims, African
Americans and others, it was a WHITE terrorist who killed all those
people at the Tree of Life Congregation. But for all the talk we
hear about terrorists, we rarely experience people calling terrorists
just what they are!
A
white man kills 49 at two mosques. A white man kills 11 at a
synagogue. But the people who are being accused of hate are Black
and Brown. What if Black, Brown (Muslim, Palestinian, Latino) and
Jewish people decided to fight the white supremacy that permeates our
nation? Then, do you think, we could all get along? We may not all
agree, but we must call out the WHITE TERRORISM that leaves too many
dead or maimed. We must say "enough" to a President who
fans the flames of white nationalism, thus white terrorism, for sport
and to inflame his base. When will he stop? When will it end? And,
equally importantly, when will some folks call white nationalism for
the terrorism that it is?
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