{"id":59956,"date":"2015-06-22T12:00:42","date_gmt":"2015-06-22T11:00:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=59956"},"modified":"2015-06-21T23:33:35","modified_gmt":"2015-06-21T22:33:35","slug":"shooters-of-color-are-called-terrorists-and-thugs-why-are-white-shooters-called-mentally-ill","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2015\/06\/shooters-of-color-are-called-terrorists-and-thugs-why-are-white-shooters-called-mentally-ill\/","title":{"rendered":"Shooters of Color Are Called \u2018Terrorists\u2019 and \u2018Thugs\u2019 – Why Are White Shooters Called \u2018Mentally Ill\u2019?"},"content":{"rendered":"

This racist media narrative around mass violence falls apart with the Charleston church shooting.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"<\/a>

Media pundits have already started to use the \u201cmental illness\u201d narrative to characterize suspected shooter Dylann Roof. Why not call him a suspected terrorist? (Facebook account of Dylann Roof)<\/p><\/div>\n

Police are investigating the fatal shooting of nine African Americans<\/a> at Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, S.C., as a hate crime committed by a white man. Unfortunately, it\u2019s not a unique event in American history. Black churches have long been targets of white supremacists who burned<\/a> and bombed<\/a> them in an effort to terrorize the black communities those churches anchored. One of the most egregious terrorist acts in U.S. history was committed against a black church in Birmingham, Ala., in 1963. Four girls were killed when members of the Ku Klux Klan bombed the 16th Street Baptist Church, a tragedy that ignited the civil rights movement.<\/p>\n

But listen to major media outlets, and you won\u2019t hear the word \u201cterrorism\u201d used in coverage of Wednesday\u2019s shooting. You haven\u2019t heard the white, male suspect, 21-year-old Dylann Roof, described as \u201ca possible terrorist\u201d by mainstream news organizations (though some<\/a>, including The Washington Post<\/a>, have covered the growing debate about this discrepancy). And if coverage of other recent shootings by white men is any indication, he never will be. Instead, the go-to explanation for his alleged actions will be mental illness<\/a>. He will be humanized<\/a> and called sick, a victim of mistreatment<\/a> or inadequate mental health resources<\/a>.<\/p>\n

That narrative has formed quickly for Roof. Soon after his arrest Thursday, former FBI special agent Jonathan Gilliam appeared on CNN, saying that Roof probably \u201chas some mental issues\u201d and didn\u2019t know he had done anything wrong. That is the power of whiteness in America.<\/p>\n

U.S. media outlets practice a different policy when covering crimes involving African Americans or Muslims. As suspects, they are quickly characterized as terrorists<\/a> and thugs (if not always explicitly using the terms), motivated purely by evil intent instead of external injustices. While white suspects are lone wolves \u2014 Charleston Mayor Joseph Riley has emphasized that this shooting was an act of just \u201cone hateful person<\/a>\u201d \u2014 violence by black and Muslim people is systemic, demanding response and action from all who share their race or religion. Even black victims are vilified. Their lives are combed for any infraction or hint of justification for the murders or attacks that befall them: Trayvon Martin was wearing a hoodie, which was \u201cas much responsible for [his] death as George Zimmerman,\u201d Fox News\u2019s Geraldo Rivera concluded<\/a>. Michael Brown stole cigars, and Eric Garner sold loosie cigarettes \u2014 \u201cepically bad decisions<\/a>\u201d that New York Post columnist Bob McManus, and many others<\/a>, used to somehow justify their deaths. And when Dajerria Becton, a black teenager who committed no crime, was tackled and held down by a police officer at a pool party in McKinney, Tex., Fox News host Megyn Kelly described her<\/a> as \u201cno saint either.\u201d<\/p>\n

In public discussions, black children often morph into potentially menacing adults after they\u2019ve been victimized, while white mass shooters are portrayed as children, even if they\u2019re well into their 20s. Media reports<\/a> and police statements repeatedly referred to Tamir Rice, a 12-year-old boy shot by police in Cleveland while playing with a toy gun last year, as a \u201cyoung man<\/a>.\u201d But James Holmes, who was 25 when he shot dozens at an Aurora, Colo., movie theater, was frequently defined by his youth in media profiles, which described him as \u201ca normal kid<\/a>,\u201d a \u201ctypical American kid<\/a>\u201d and \u201ca smart kid<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

Roof is getting the same treatment. In an interview with CNN on Thursday, Sen. Lindsey Graham<\/a> (R-S.C.) insisted that the 21-year-old is just \u201cone of these whacked-out kids.\u201d Since Roof\u2019s arrest on nine counts of murder, the Wall Street Journal and other major news outlets<\/a> have called him \u201ca loner<\/a>\u201d in headlines.<\/p>\n

But it will be difficult to hold to this corrosive, racist media narrative when reporting on the Charleston shooting. Those who were killed were simply participating in a Wednesday night Bible study. And the shooter\u2019s choice of Emanuel AME was most likely deliberate, given the church\u2019s storied history. It was the first African Methodist Episcopal church in the South, founded in 1818<\/a> by a group of men including Morris Brown, a prominent pastor, and Denmark Vesey, who would go on to lead a large, yet failed, slave revolt in Charleston<\/a>. The church was targeted early on by fearful whites because it was built with money from anti-slavery societies<\/a> in the North. In 1822, church members were investigated for involvement in planning Vesey\u2019s slave revolt, and the building was burned to the ground in retribution.<\/p>\n

In that context, it\u2019s clear that killing the pastor and members of this church was a deliberate act of hate. Mayor Riley noted that \u201cthe only reason that someone could walk into a church and shoot people praying is out of hate.\u201d But we need to take it a step further. There was a message of intimidation behind this shooting, an act that mirrors a history of terrorism against black institutions involved in promoting civil and human rights. The hesitation by some in the media to label the white, male killer a terrorist is telling.<\/p>\n

In the rapidly forming news narrative, the fact that black churches and mosques historically have been the targets of racial violence in America should not be overlooked. While the 1963 Birmingham church bombing is the most historic, there also was a series of church burnings<\/a> in the 1990s. Recognition of the terror those and similar acts impose on communities seems to have been forgotten post-Sept. 11, 2001. The subsequent Islamophobia that has gripped sectors of the media and politics suggests that \u201cterrorism\u201d applies only in cases in which the suspects are darker-skinned.<\/p>\n

This time, I hope journalists will ask questions that get to the root of racially motivated violence in America. Where did this man learn to hate black people so much? Did he have an allegiance to the Confederate flag that continues to fly over the South Carolina capitol? Was he influenced by the right-wing media\u2019s endless portrayals of black Americans as lazy and violent?<\/p>\n

I hope the coverage won\u2019t fall back on the typical narrative ascribed to white, male shooters: lone, disturbed or mentally ill young men failed by society. This was not an act of just \u201cone hateful person.\u201d It was a manifestation of the racial hatred and white supremacy that continue to pervade our society, 50 years after the Birmingham bombing galvanized the civil rights movement.<\/p>\n

That systemic prejudice is evident in the Confederate flag that remains at the statehouse because white \u201ctradition\u201d is more important than a history of racial terrorism against black people. It is evident in the assault rifles that white \u201cpatriots\u201d were able to parade around outside a mosque in Arizona<\/a>, while a black man was killed by police<\/a> for picking up a rifle for sale in an Ohio Wal-Mart. It is evident in the tea party rallying call to \u201ctake back our country,\u201d words mirrored by the Charleston shooter as he killed nine black Americans.<\/p>\n

The Charleston shooting is a result of an ingrained culture of racism and a history of terrorism in America. It should be covered as such. On Friday, Department of Justice spokeswoman Emily Pierce acknowledged<\/a> that the Charleston shooting \u201cwas undoubtedly designed to strike fear and terror into this community\u201d (though terrorism is not among the nine murder charges brought against Roof, so far). And now that Roof has admitted <\/a>to killing those people to start a \u201crace war,\u201d we should be calling him what he is: a terrorist.<\/p>\n

______________________________<\/p>\n

Related:<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

[Jon Stewart\u2019s blistering monologue about race, terrorism and gun violence in America<\/a>]<\/em><\/p>\n

[How people convince themselves the Confederate flag represents freedom, not slavery<\/a><\/em>]<\/p>\n

[It\u2019s up to white people to fight white racism<\/a>]<\/em><\/p>\n

Anthea Butler is an associate professor of religion and Africana studies at the University of Pennsylvania.<\/em><\/p>\n

Go to Original \u2013 washingtonpost.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This racist media narrative around mass violence falls apart with the Charleston church shooting.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-59956","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-in-focus"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59956","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=59956"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59956\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=59956"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=59956"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=59956"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}