Heart of Mass Shootings
A few weeks ago, two mass shootings rattled cities across the nation in less than 24 hours. One in Dayton, Ohio, and the other in El Paso, Texas. While many people checked in on loved ones, an Ohio State Senator, Candice Keller (Middletown, OH) posted on facebook after the Dayton shooting to blame the shooting on:
LGBTQ people (transgender people, gay people, and “drag queen advocates”)
Violent video games (which have no actual connection to violence)
“Open borders” (claiming every immigrant is a criminal)
Marijuana (while there is an opioid crisis in our own state)
President Obama causing a “disrespect” of law enforcement
Athletes standing up against violence (as “hatred of our veterans”)
Spinning “The Squad’s” criticisms of Israel as antisemitism
I spent a few hours staring at her post as if it were written in a forgein language. Keller’s hatred towards people who are different from her is palpable. Her post rages against those who have different views and experiences from her own. Her words ignore any ability for substantive conversations regarding change and reform because instead of making arguments around policy, Keller condemns people. She offers specific communities as the ones to blame for harm; to point fury towards.
The ironic part is that fury and anger are the same emotions that incite violence like mass shootings. Blaming marginalized communities gives people permission to act on their anger in the form of violence. That’s why 57 LGBTQ people were killed in hate crimes in 2017 and why at least 13 transgender people have been killed so far this year. The difference between the anger that incites violence and the anger motivates substantive change is white supremacy.
White Supremacy is the internal belief that white people are the ‘superior race’, but over the years it has come to have a larger meaning. It has become the idea that those that are ‘less than’ are those who deviate from what has been considered the ‘norm’ and ignores all possibility for the idea of what is normal to shift or evolve over time.
The reason people like Keller and Trump can hold office are the ideologies of hatred that allow for discrimination. Fury and anger are what incite violence against these communities she lists in her post. That’s what white supremacy means. Fury and anger are also what are used to elect people who will both speak to and fuel the same hatred that put them there. Hate speech is used to galvanize voting based fear, and in turn that makes people with white supremist views feel like they have permission to act on their rage. Crimes like vandalism and violence based on hatred against communities have been on the rise since 2016 when Trump was elected. Trump and Keller speak to feelings that some people hold and give them an outlet for those feelings through violence and legislation.
Anger and blaming marginalized communities is a larger and more complex problem than someone in elected office blaming the Dayton shooting on LGBTQ people, but that post is a small part of it. That’s why people like Trump will continue to be an issue after he’s past being president. That’s also why these kinds of words and posts need to be called out for what they are; white supremacy.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/05/sports/trump-violent-video-games-studies.html