To quote Jamilah Lemieux, "White privilege is a hell of a drug."
How else can you explain how the white woman's tears cried by the Charleston Shooter's sister could equate a ruined honeymoon to those of a church family who lost nine people?
I do hope, in all seriousness, that she gets her perfect honeymoon. But doing it this way and at this time, is in bad taste.
Before I go into my diatribe, I want to make it clear, that yes, we shouldn't put the murders that Dylann Roof did on his family. I lived in Georgia and Texas for a total of 15 years. Then I spent another 10 years in Baltimore during which time I drove all over Virginia, and Tennessee. I know the South.
I will say that his parents' and community's racism did affect his killing spree, but we will never know how exactly. To quote Kim Stanley Robinson, (Mainly because I JUST read this in his book Green Mars) "But childhood isn't just those years. It's also the opinions you form about them afterward. That's why our childhoods are so long." It's obvious that there was some toxic rhetoric and his opinions were formed with that as his basis. He wasn't some blank slate when he started reading about Trayvon Martin. To paraphrase Reza Aslan, The truth is it is more often the case that people insert their values into their history…If you are a violent racist, you will find plenty in history to justify your viewpoint…How you read history has everything to do with who you are.
Now we come to his sister. Knowing only she is guilty of bad timing, if she did this a year from now, for example, when nerves aren't so raw, I might be sympathetic. However, to do this now will only bring money in from vicious hate mongers, people who would say "Je Suis Dylann Roof," a small vile part of this country and not those who genuinely care if you are happy or not.
I'm now annoyed that I used the Charleston shooter's name twice in this. I try not to use the names of shooters if I can.
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