AME Church Shooting is NOT an Anomaly – Racism is here to stay...
In the aftermath of the senseless violence that continues to plague our society (the mass murder at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church (AME) in Charleston), I find it imperative that we address overt racism, as it was the cause of the murderous rage. Racism is defined as "the belief that all members of each race possess characteristics or abilities specific to that race, especially so as to distinguish it as inferior or superior to another race or races". The truth is that racism is an illogical belief that stems from fear of the unknown. It comes from innate insecurities that are exploited to keep dominance over groups of people. It is a self-imported belief that a group is more deserving without any justifiable basis. It is part of American culture. In a place that is supposed to be considered a sanctuary (a church), lives were tragically lost based on a delusional concept of black dominance. The fear of black persons taking over the country, despite being a minority, statistically, caused delusional ire. This shooting wasn't based on a legitimate or imminent threat, as killing those individuals does not lead to the extermination of the black race. While black people may be a minority group, nine people hardly depletes an entire population. Nevertheless, this shooter, felt that killing those innocent people was a way of somehow stopping the raping of white women and the dominance that he felt black people had. This act of terrorism, which is what it was, was committed from a position of undeniable superiority. The privilege that is bestowed upon the majority where they feel that however they choose to deal with minorities is their prerogative. This mass murderer felt the confidence to sit in the black church, with the black congregation, because he could. He could walk into a black church, go undisturbed, and cause havoc. Is this incident isolated? Absolutely not! This incident is part of a growing epidemic of vocalized and expressive racism from individuals and State Actors. Police officers in several states have killed, harassed, unarmed blacks and minority people, repeatedly, with total impunity. There are so many cases that a multiple series book can be written; therefore, all cannot be addressed in this article. However, some are worth mentioning.
