A Mass Shooting Is the Most Deadly Kind of White Privilege
By: Walter Rhein
Tags: Politics, Mass Shootings, Black Lives Mater, Murder, Racism

A Mass Shooting Is the Most Deadly Kind of White Privilege

Only the right calls murderers patriots

Photo by Bermix Studio on Unsplash

I recently got into a social media argument when someone tried to make the claim that mass shootings have plummeted under the Trump administration. Sometimes you read things that are so appallingly ignorant you feel the need to silence a person into oblivion.

We are currently under a nationwide quarantine. The only reason that mass shootings have gone down is that large gatherings of people are prohibited. Right now it’s impossible to have a mass shooting.

The one good thing about the pandemic is that we haven’t had to endure a daily briefing about the preventable slaughter of children. However, the moment the pandemic ends, our nation will once again be subjected to the actions of deranged individuals who march into schools and churches to commit terrible murder. We also know the people committing these atrocities are virtually guaranteed to be white.

Lawless white people

The racist rhetoric that has flooded our society since the George Floyd murder has been absolutely stunning. The phrase ‘white privilege’ is guaranteed to give racists conniption fits. The people who react have worked themselves into hysteria, and every time you interact with one of them you encounter the same set of arguments.

“Well, my life has been hard too, I guess that concept is a lie!”

You might respond with, “Do you recognize that you have no experience with unfair treatments other people have to endure?”

“No!”

“But that’s just nuts, obviously…”

“STOP TALKING! STOP TALKING! STOP TALKING!”

The argument gets less civilized from there.

Highway protests

When Black Lives Matter organizes a protest on a highway, the good ol’ boys start bragging about how they’d be inclined to run them down. They make these statements without a hint of shame that they’re admitting in public that they want to kill people. The result is that murderous racists are encouraged to drive trucks into crowds of peaceful protesters and the right stands by cheering.

In real life and on social media you constantly see bigots brainwashing themselves by repeating nonsensical propaganda which they use to cultivate a delusional belief that, somehow, they’re not the aggressor. “What if somebody has to get to a hospital?” they say. “You can’t stop traffic!” “The roads have to stay open.”

Yet, a few days before the election, caravans of Trump supporters shut down highways across America to nary a wisp of criticism.

“Do as I say, not as I do!”

Mass shootings

One of the clearest examples of white privilege is how mass shooters are routinely taken alive, while men and women of minority groups are gunned down by the police while already in custody or even when they are sleeping at home in their own beds.

I brought this up as an example of white privilege and a deluded bigot left a response that was perhaps the most offensive comment I’ve ever read in my life. “Well, the shooters give themselves up,” he said.

How does a person get to a place where they think something like that? George Floyd had given himself up. He hadn’t shot anyone. They had him restrained and in custody. Yet at the end of the day Floyd ended up dead while dozens of white mass shooters get to wait for their day in court.

In many cases, a mass shooter is likely to be taken alive unless he takes his own life, and when that happens the right starts acting like it’s some kind of tragedy.

Pro shooter legislation

Not only does America tolerate mass shooters, but there are also well-funded institutions and politicians who seem steadfastly dedicated to ensuring such tragedies will continue to happen. It’s almost as if a massive portion of our society has been structured to provide a de facto encouragement of this kind of atrocity.

Only white people feel entitled to march around carrying guns and occupying government property. Minority groups know that if they go walking around trying to claim they’re engaging in a “peaceful protest” armed to the teeth, they’re going to get shot. Heck, they’re likely to get shot driving their cars down the road in full compliance with all rules and regulations.

But a large percentage of white people don’t have the slightest reluctance to brandish weapons in front of the police. It’s like they’re constantly grooming the public to ensure more of these shootings will happen.

If minorities committed mass shootings, the government would respond

The simple fact is that the United States has mass shootings because the only people that commit them are white. Only white people have a whole culture that revolves around their “patriotic obligation” to grab their weapons and slaughter their fellow citizens.

“I have to defend my family.”

“I have to stop the government from becoming tyrannical.”

White people routinely brag about how willing they are to commit the foulest murder anyone can imagine. Every now and then some deranged, pathetic loner takes all that irresponsible talk to heart and starts indiscriminately pulling a trigger.

The race of mass shooters matters

The next time you get into an argument on social media about peaceful protests, bring up the fact that virtually all mass shooters are white. The next time somebody ignores the fact that it’s the white supremacists from out of town who show up and start burning down buildings to turn passive demonstrations into riots, underscore that with the race of all mass shooters.

There are white people who indulge in the shooter fantasy and there are white people who indulge in the hero fantasy, and both of those groups are equally dangerous. A large portion of the white population knows these other groups are insane, but they’re too cowardly to say anything about it and that makes them complicit as well.

Good people don’t have murder fantasies

Minorities and reasonable white people are at a disadvantage. We are decent enough that the thought of indulging our frustrations with lethal violence doesn’t even enter into our thinking. There’s no other way to say it, our society allows white people to indiscriminately kill. If minorities aren’t committing a certain type of crime, the government feels no compulsion to take any action.

It’s sobering to recognize that law enforcement is more concerned about actions that might infringe upon the rights of white people to kill than they are about taking action that might protect the rights of minorities to live.

Do you understand “white privilege” now?