Deconstructing the Charleston Massacre

On June 17, a man entered the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina, with the intention of killing the people inside. He took the lives of nine people before he fled, and was later apprehended by police, and taken in wearing a bulletproof vest among swarms of security, there to prevent a revenge killing. This event was, undoubtedly, the cause of one man’s racist intentions. The shooter isn’t denying it. Few people worth listening to are denying it. It’s a somber reminder that hard as we may try, there are despicable people in the world who would harm another for their race, to go as far as to spill the blood of others in a holy establishment.

Yet, as if on queue, we have removed the period of mourning, of reconciliation, of prayer and silence, and in our typical American way, replaced it with a thousand discussions we’ve had a hundred times before. Blame guns. Blame mental illness. Blame white people. Blame men. Blame liberals. Blame conservatives. Blame everyone in the entire country except the man who actually pulled the trigger, who you will instead put on a pedastal and use as your symbol of whatever cause you choose to use this devastation to promote. Meanwhile nine families and a church who has undergone attacks like these for decades, a historic monument in the black community, are in true mourning.

Hate crimes are caused by one of four things. Extremism, boredom, revenge, and fear. Boredom is the most common, committed primarily by young people who view those different from them as below human, as okay to harm for the sake of entertainment. Likely, it’s not as relevant here. These are the dime a dozen hate crimes which are rarely deadly or even violent. The other three could be quite pertinent though.

Revenge is a crime in response to a past indiscretion — a person kills a cop in a different county after an act of police brutality, a group spraypaints a mosque after ISIS threatens a bombing. Fear is a response to preconcieved bigotry. The idea that a group is threatening, and will spring to assault you at any minute. So you react prior to that fantasized threat. Extremism, the most rare and most dangerous, is simply that. To believe in a prejudice so strongly, that you take actions to a realm of cruelty that becomes inhuman.

Terrible motivations yes? Then why is it we as a society are completely okay with them so long as they’re in the “right” contexts? Why do we teach our children that it is okay to generalize fear, to harbor revenge, to praise extremism. Why, in response to something like, is our first response all three? A man murdered nine people, for their race. So the response of so many seems to be to promote fear, revenge, and extremism against the race of the man who committed it. Millions of people, the vast majority of which are equally disgusted with the mans actions. All somehow responsible for this, even those who have never experienced a true position of power in their lives. On the other hand, people trying to downplay it. Trying to find some other reason for the mans actions, trying to disguise what is absolutely without argument an act of true racism as something less scandalous. Both are in response not to this one event, but a pattern. One side angry at years of true oppression. The other side angry at being forced into feeling responsible for a behavior they had no hand in creating. Society is not so simple — existing while white, male, straight, black, female, gay, transgender, whatever — that does not create a structure. People in power create a structure.

This is not how we discuss racism in this country. You don’t resolve it, or fix it, or get rid of it, by making other people unrelated to it feel guilty for it. That’s not only inneffective, but lazy. It means you get to hoist all the responsibility onto someone else, while still getting to have all the say. Even if this is a problem solely with all whites, then it is a problem you must let them solve. You can’t force them to sit in a corner and tell them how they need to change, but not respect their identity or culture or upbringing in the process. As well, you can’t just try to hide it and pretend it isn’t what it is because you’re afraid people might do that too you. That isn’t any better. A duck is a duck.

So how do we discuss it? By doing the exact opposite. Facing it head on together.

If your response to something like this is to compartmentalize people, then you are giving this shooter exactly what he wants. A world seperated by race, a bigoted world. You know how you “solve” racism? You solve the reasons people express that bigotry in the first place. You solve fear by exposure. You solve revenge by understanding. You solve extremism by moderation. You do not respond to these three things with more of the same just on a different side of the spectrum. You balance the spectrum.

Exposure is simple enough. Children are bound to have fewer hangups about people who look and act differently if they’re around it. Integrating schools helped resolve many of the severe racial issues in this country simply because the new generation grew up around it. There is still a self segregating aspect though. And for whatever reason, the neo-progressive movement often seems to push for segregation again, either socially or lawfully. If we are to encourage forced segregation again, you may as well kiss the progress we have had good bye. If children can’t be around different ideas and cultures and ways of life, then as adults, it’ll be that much harder for them to understand it.

Speaking of understanding, this does not mean “teach children they’re terrible and responsible for slavery and should be ashamed of their skin color”. Understanding means teaching that we ALL have a race. And a gender. And an ethnicity. And very few people on this green earth can actually say they have never in their life been judged or treated differently because of some part of themselves. Appearance, upbringing, percieved intelligence. We judge people for everything. You want people to understand, it means making people realize we need to treat each other respectfully, not forcing people into a pattern of guilt over things they had no hand in (speaking of which, stop making people feel guilty for having privilege. The whole point of privilege is it is something beyond a person’s control, and you should never be made to feel guilty for something you can’t control).

And moderatism. Why do we as a society have such a problem with the idea of moderation? Why does everything have to be black and white (literally and figuratively)? In everything we discuss, it is as if there are only two possible solutions and no in between. We shun compromise as a sign of weakness. We ignore third parties falling int he middle of a two party system. When tragedies happen, we don’t blink — we jump straight to blame, to us vs. them. And then we wonder again and again, every new disaster “Why does this keep happening”.

And we never change.

Just once America, just once. Why not try something different? Why not instead attempt peace. Why not say “This was definitely racism, and there is no sugar coating it”. Why not say “This is not the fault of all white people, but of one despicable person, and we all need to stand together against it”. Why not spend some time thinking and commemorating the victims. Their lives. Their accomplishments. Why not spend time looking to true heroes, who have actually made changes and inspired thousands. Why not spend time looking to each other for hope, instead of anger. Anger is natural, but dangerous. It’s fine to feel anger. It’s not fine to let it control you and lead you down a bad path, because that same anger is what fueled this shooter.

America has a problem with learning from mistakes. Maybe it’s time we try that before we eat each other alive.