Racially motivated shootings in South Carolina Church

[Voronwë the Faithful]

As most people have heard by now, nine people were shot to death by a white man at a historic black church in Charleston, South Carolina, including the pastor, who was also state senator. The church, Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church, was founded in 1816, and has been an important landmark through the abolitionist movement, the civil war, the early 20th century (among others, Booker T. Washington spoke there), the civil rights movement, and into the 21st century. The slain senior pastor and state senator Clementa Pinckney was noted as following in the tradition of earlier church leaders, in participating in both religious leadership and politics.

A young man, 21-year-old Dylann Roof, now has been arrested for the shootings, in North Carolina. He was wearing a pro-Apartheid batch on his jacket, and multiple witnesses report that he stated that he was "there to shoot black people." The gun that he used was apparently given to him by his father in April as a birthday present.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morn ... 4641514687

[Frelga]

Apparently they got the man. That's a huge relief. Imagine being a Black person in the area, already grieving, and wondering if the murderer is going to turn up somewhere to open fire at you or your family.

ETA also apparently there's now a #NotAllWhites tag on Twitter. I wish I could muster some disbelief.

[axordil]

Nice to know you can murder nine black people and get the loan of a bullet-proof vest when you're arrested. Good thing the guy wasn't, you know, selling single cigarettes or something.

[yovargas]

Must we go there every time, every where? Would you like me to repost the video of the unarmed white man getting beat to death by cops?

[tinwë]

Apparently they got the man. That's a huge relief. Imagine being a Black person in the area, already grieving, and wondering if the murderer is going to turn up somewhere to open fire at you or your family.

I really can't imagine. What a horrible, horrible feeling.

On a personal note, it seems like there's not a day that goes by these days that I'm not ashamed to be from North Carolina. Or white. Or human.

[River]

I'd be wondering if the murderer's a lone wolf or if he has friends. And even if he's not a lone wolf, there might be copy-cats.

Obama's comments were heart-breaking. How many times do we have to do this? Why do we keep having to do this?

Nice to know you can murder nine black people and get the loan of a bullet-proof vest when you're arrested.

Do you want justice or do you want revenge? Because if you want the former, he needs to appear in court alive. If that means putting a bullet-proof vest on his pathetic back then so be it. If memory serves, they did the same for Tim McVeigh.

ETA: I wish this were from The Onion: White Supremacists Worried Charleston Shooting Makes Them Look Bad. Because, you know, they don't look bad already.

[axordil]

Do you want justice or do you want revenge?

I want justice. For all.

[axordil]

Must we go there every time, every where? Would you like me to repost the video of the unarmed white man getting beat to death by cops?

Must I read the names of every black person lynched over the last hundred years? This isn't a contest.

And "we"--as in the American people--go there every time there's a reminder that being black in the U.S. is basically a capriciously commuted death sentence.

[Impenitent]

I'm so sad And frustrated, and angry.

[JewelSong]

Nice to know you can murder nine black people and get the loan of a bullet-proof vest when you're arrested....

Ax, I guess I don't understand what you are actually saying here. Are you indicating that you believe the suspect in this case should NOT have been given a bullet-proof vest? It is standard procedure in these kinds of cases for the suspect to be protected against violence from understandably angry citizens. Otherwise, vigilante justice could prevail., as I am sure you know.



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[Voronwë the Faithful]

It's not my place to speak for Ax, but I doubt that is what he was saying, nor do I think he was suggesting that the fact that a white suspect was given a bullet-proof vest was an example of racist preferential treatment, despite the discussion going on by others in a different thread. I just think he was noting the powerful irony and symbolism of the image of this avowed white separatist and now reportedly confessed perpetrator of the worst instance of racial violence in years being given a bullet-proof vest. It is a powerfully symbolic image, like the confederate flag proudly flying over the South Carolina statehouse at full mast, while all the other flags are at half-mast, and matching the picture of the confederate flag proudly displayed on the license plates of the killer's car.

[Lalaith]

I think that's standard procedure if the prisoner has received a death threat. I saw in my FB feed a picture of Roof juxtaposed with Lee Malvo, the DC sniper who is black and whose shootings were racially motivated. But I'm not getting into a big debate on whether more white murderers get bulletproof vests or not. I have no idea. The whole thing sucks.

And, quite honestly, I'm at a loss. What do I do as a privileged white person? I have very few black friends, not by choice but by circumstance. I grew up in a town with 3 black families. (For the record, I was good friends with 2 of the children my age in those families.) There are no black families in my "neighborhood." (I don't really have a neighborhood now; I live in the country.) I'm just at a loss. How do I even have conversations to find solutions? To express my anger and grief for this kind of horrible, awful crime? To hear their experiences and have my eyes opened? I can get some of that from the internet, and I'm grateful for that. But I hate that I'm so racially isolated.

So here's this:

https://oshetablogs.wordpress.com/2015/ ... harleston/


And so I say, "I'm sorry, and I'm listening." I just wish I had more black people I could say this to face-to-face.

[eborr]

It's not my place to speak for Ax, but I doubt that is what he was saying, nor do I think he was suggesting that the fact that a white suspect was given a bullet-proof vest was an example of racist preferential treatment, despite the discussion going on by others in a different thread. I just think he was noting the powerful irony and symbolism of the image of this avowed white separatist and now reportedly confessed perpetrator of the worst instance of racial violence in years being given a bullet-proof vest. It is a powerfully symbolic image, like the confederate flag proudly flying over the South Carolina statehouse at full mast, while all the other flags are at half-mast, and matching the picture of the confederate flag proudly displayed on the license plates of the killer's car.

Every now and then someone at the hall of fire puts together a post which is insightful and elegantly written, this is one of those, thanks V

[Voronwë the Faithful]

Thank you, eborr. That is high praise, indeed!

Lali, your love shines through.

[yovargas]

Just thought it was worth saying, as I've seen it said a few times now and it's not something that would have occurred to me but - yes, it is reasonable and accurate to call this shooter a domestic terrorist.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

A manifesto has been discovered online which was reputedly written by Dylann Roof. It is perhaps the most horrible thing I have ever read, but I think it is worth reading just to get a glimpse into the thinking that might have gone into something like this. The text can be read at the end of this article:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/06/2 ... 1434815180

In related news, the judge overseeing the case, who has already caused some controversy by telling the victims' family members that the shooter's family were victims too, had in the past been reprimanded for using the n-word when addressing an African-American defendant.

Edited to add: when I first tried to submit this post, it gave me an error message saying "submitting form is invalid, try again" which I have never seen before. When I hit submit again without changing anything, it went through.

[Lalaith]

Wow.

That is...sickening.

[River]

It's not the most reprehensible thing I've ever read, but it comes in at a close second. Yeesh.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

I'm almost afraid to ask, but what was No. 1?

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