Race: The giant elephant in the room

Hate Crime: Any of various crimes (as assault or defacement of property) when motivated by hostility to the victim as a member of a group (as one based on color, creed, gender, or sexual orientation). 

Terrorism: The use of violent acts to frighten the people in an area as a way of trying to achieve a political goal.

These definitions, pulled from Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary, define what 21-year-old Dylann Roof committed when he attended a Bible study group at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church and killed nine people, targeting these individuals because of their race and ethnicity.

When a victim cried out asking why Roof was doing this, he said, “I have to do it. You’re raping our women and taking over the country. You have to go.”

Nevertheless, the Facebook comment feed on a number of news articles I read called it a crime “against humanity, against religion, against anything other than the victims’ perceived race and ethnicity.” This is part of the problem that we have seen in America, an issue that has continued to manifest for centuries. When we continue to be “blind” to race, to the color of someone’s skin, when we try to say that we still live in a post-racial society, the problem persists because we can never directly target it. A solution cannot be conceived when society, as a whole, cannot admit that a problem does in fact exist.

A similar situation erupted following Michael Brown’s death in August of 2014 with the creation of the hashtag #BlackLivesMatter. #AllLivesMatter quickly developed in response from people who truly do not believe black lives matter, to people who truly believe all lives matter, including people of color. Yes, obviously the murder of nine people is a crime against humanity. And, I get it, all lives do matter. But right now, that is not what the focus is on. Black lives are being targeted each and every day by violence and systematic oppression simply because of the color of one’s skin at the hands of individual’s who hold typically unaddressed racist stereotypes and biases. And when continue to make excuses for why these individuals commit these crimes (i.e. they are mentally ill, they were a “good kid,” they played violent video games), the problem of racism is never addressed.

When race is historically and consistently used as an excuse to use violence against black men and when women, in particular white women, are used as the excuse and the scapegoat, the problem persists. The weaponization of white women has been used as an excuse of violence against black individuals since the early days of colonization, with slaves such as Emmett Till being murdered for looking at a woman with what was perceived as a “flirty” glance. In the case of the tragedy that occurred in Charleston, many of the beliefs that these original colonists had are still reflected hundreds of years later. With six of the nine murder victims identifying as female, Roof’s display of violence on behalf of “protecting” women was clearly regarding the lives of strictly white women, an idea continuing from colonial times.

And when the media continues to depict white assailants as the victim and black victims as the attacker, society continues to feed into this desire to hear “sensational” news, showing that we really do not want the problem to be addressed at all.

Take a step back from social media and bias news sources in order to analyze the entire story. A white man went into a church targeting black individuals because of his notion that black people are becoming the majority and are gaining more power in society, threatening his privilege. And he used women as one of many excuses to carry out his plan. If you cannot critically evaluate this as a crime committed against people of color, you are part of the problem.