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charleston
I haven't said anything about the murders in Charleston because I don't even have the words to express how I feel. Shock. Sadness. Words are barely adequate. My heart goes out to all those who lost someone, and all those who feel less safe in their daily lives, as a result of this act of racist terrorism.
I'm more eloquent when it comes to how I feel about some of the commentary I've seen in the wake of these murders, so I will say this: it seems that some white people are so used to glossing over racism that even when the racist killer tells them, in his own racist words, why he murdered people, a distressing number of folks reflexively, deliberately, defiantly refuse to acknowledge the racist truth.
The (mostly) white people who claim they can't possibly understand Dylann Roof's motivations – when he said, in so many words, that this was a racist hate crime - need to take a long, hard look at the racism that is the background radiation of American culture, and how that plays out in their own lives. Because until white people step up and start holding each other accountable for our racist bullshit, the problem is not going to go away, and these sorts of hate crimes are just going to keep happening.
I suggest that the state of South Carolina might want to start by taking down the Confederate flag.
I'm more eloquent when it comes to how I feel about some of the commentary I've seen in the wake of these murders, so I will say this: it seems that some white people are so used to glossing over racism that even when the racist killer tells them, in his own racist words, why he murdered people, a distressing number of folks reflexively, deliberately, defiantly refuse to acknowledge the racist truth.
The (mostly) white people who claim they can't possibly understand Dylann Roof's motivations – when he said, in so many words, that this was a racist hate crime - need to take a long, hard look at the racism that is the background radiation of American culture, and how that plays out in their own lives. Because until white people step up and start holding each other accountable for our racist bullshit, the problem is not going to go away, and these sorts of hate crimes are just going to keep happening.
I suggest that the state of South Carolina might want to start by taking down the Confederate flag.