South Carolina Massacre: Why Don’t We Call Killing of 9 Black Churchgoers an Act of Terrorism?
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South Carolina Massacre: Why Don’t We Call Killing of 9 Black Churchgoers an Act of Terrorism?
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Why are so many politicians and much of the media afraid to call the mass shooting an act of terrorism? We discuss the double standards in coverage of shootings carried out by white attackers with two guests: Anthea Butler, associate professor of religion and Africana studies at the University of Pennsylvania; and Rev. Dr. Raphael Warnock, senior pastor of the Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, Georgia, which was the spiritual home of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
Transcript
AMY GOODMAN: To talk more about the massacre in Charleston, in addition to Dr. Raphael Warnock in Atlanta, we’re joined in Philadelphia by Anthea Butler, associate professor of religion and Africana studies at the University of Pennsylvania, author of Women in the Church of God in Christ: Making a Sanctified World. Professor Butler has just written a new piece for The Washington Post; its headline, "Shooters of color are called 'terrorists' and 'thugs.' Why are white shooters called 'mentally ill'?" Anthea Butler, would you continue on this point? Talk about the issue of who we call terrorists and who we don’t.
ANTHEA BUTLER: Yeah, thank you, Amy, for having me. I really respect the show. The reason why I believe that whites are often—and white shooters, especially male white shooters, are always called "mentally ill" is that it’s a soft pedaling of part of the structure of racism in America. Whenever you hear about a Muslim doing something or suspected of doing something, or a black man or a black woman, they are always "terrorists"; it’s "terrorist activity"; there are pejorative words that are used to describe them; they are dehumanized; they are, you know, the vilest people on Earth. When somebody white does something in this country, there are excuses. White youth who are young men, as Dylann Roof is, are called "boys." They are, you know, infantilized. A young man like Trayvon Martin is called a "hulking young man." It’s a clear sign of the racist infrastructure underneath this country, and part of that has had to do with the media and these portrayals and the constant drumbeat of all of these kinds of racial stereotypes and religious stereotypes that have caused us harm in this nation.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And in terms of Dylann Roof, it’s been particular. He went not only—he’s been—you know, they normally have what the police call the perp walk, when they allow the cameras to shoot them being brought in or out of a station. Here, you see a situation where he’s handcuffed, but also has a bulletproof vest on him, which I don’t recall being the situation, for instance, with the young men in the Boston marathon bombing or many of these other incidents that we’ve had. Even the images that the media is allowed to see of these accused killers is very different.
ANTHEA BUTLER: Yeah, no, exactly. And one of the things I thought yesterday about the picture of Dylann Roof was that the putting the vest on him made him seem somewhat frail, when this was the same person who sat in a Bible study for an hour and then shot everybody dead. There’s nothing frail about his terrorist and his racist behavior that he did. And so, this is kind of this—you know, this sense in which whiteness is so protected in these sort of—they don’t even understand, I think, how much they do it. It’s just ingrained. It is a practice of law enforcement, media and others in this nation.
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http://www.democracynow.org/2015/6/19/south_carolina_massacre_why_dont_we
