Shooters of Color Are Called 'Terrorists' and 'Thugs.' Why are White Shooters Called 'Mentally Ill'?
22 June 2015
By Anthea Butler
Police are investigating the
shooting of nine African Americans at Emanuel AME Church in Charleston as a hate
crime committed by a white man. Unfortunately, it's not a unique event in
American history. Black churches have long been a target of white supremacists
who burned and bombed them in an effort to terrorize the black communities that
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 KKK bombed the 16th Street Baptist Church,
a tragedy that ignited the Civil Rights Movement.
But listen to major media outlets and you won't hear the word ''terrorism'' used
in coverage of Tuesday's shooting. You won't hear the white male shooter,
identified as 21-year-old Dylann Roof, described as ''a possible terrorist.'' And
if coverage of recent shootings by white suspects is any indication, he never
will be. Instead, the go-to explanation for his actions will be mental illness.
He will be humanized and called sick, a victim of mistreatment or inadequate
mental health resources. Activist Deray McKesson noted this morning that, while
discussing Roof's motivations, an MSNBC anchor said ''we don't know his mental
condition.'' That is the power of whiteness in America.
U.S. media practice a different policy when covering crimes involving African
Americans and Muslims. As suspects, they are quickly characterized as terrorists
and thugs, motivated by evil intent instead of external injustices. While white
suspects are lone wolfs — Mayor Joseph Riley of Charleston already emphasized
this shooting was an act of just ''one hateful person'' — 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. Michael Brown stole cigars.
Eric Garner sold loosie cigarettes. When 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 as ''No saint either.''
Early news reports on the Charleston church shooting followed a similar pattern.
Cable news coverage of State Sen. and Rev. Clementa Pinckney, pastor of Emanuel
AME who we now know is among the victims, characterized his advocacy work as
something that could ruffle feathers. The habit of characterizing black victims
as somehow complicit in their own murders continues.
It will be difficult to hold to this corrosive, racist media narrative when
reporting on the shooting at Emanuel AME Church. All those who were killed were
simply participating in a Wednesday night Bible study. And the shooter's choice
of Emanuel AME was most likely deliberate, given its storied history. It was the
first African Methodist Episcopal church in the South, founded in 1818 by a
group of men including Morris Brown, a prominent pastor, and Denmark Vesey, the
leader of a large, yet failed, slave revolt in Charleston. The church itself was
targeted early on by fearful whites because it was built with funds from
anti-slavery societies in the North. In 1822, church members were investigated
for involvement in planning Vesey's slave revolt, and the church was burned to
the ground in retribution.
Early news reports on the Charleston church shooting followed a similar pattern.
Cable news coverage of State Sen. and Rev. Clementa Pinckney, pastor of Emanuel
AME who we now know is among the victims, characterized his advocacy work as
something that could ruffle feathers. The habit of characterizing black victims
as somehow complicit in their own murders continues.
It will be difficult to hold to this corrosive, racist media narrative when
reporting on the shooting at Emanuel AME Church. All those who were killed were
simply participating in a Wednesday night Bible study. And the shooter's choice
of Emanuel AME was most likely deliberate, given its storied history. It was the
first African Methodist Episcopal church in the South, founded in 1818 by a
group of men including Morris Brown, a prominent pastor, and Denmark Vesey, the
leader of a large, yet failed, slave revolt in Charleston. The church itself was
targeted early on by fearful whites because it was built with funds from
anti-slavery societies in the North. In 1822, church members were investigated
for involvement in planning Vesey's slave revolt, and the church was burned to
the ground in retribution.
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