Charleston shooter is a White Supremacist; GOP'ers saying otherwise is racist | #Davkaism on Blog#42
Republican behavior in the aftermath of the massacre in Charleston, South Carolina last night is solidifying its reputation as the party of racism. It has been disheartening to watch, Republican after Republican official, Conservative after Conservative media outlet and personality, engaging in "davkaism" at one of America's darkest hours by toeing a line whereby the cause of the pain of the Black community will not be acknowledged, not even for the briefest of moments, by citing the reason why nine people's lives were snuffed out. Even Senator Lindsey Graham, the Senator, whose state it is is that nine Black people were slain inside a historic church, initially did the right thing, by posting a statement on his Senate website:
But then, Graham took it all back in one last little crass sentence:
Lindsey Graham: Niece went to school with shooting suspect
By Maeve Reston, CNN Thu June 18, 2015
"(CNN) Republican presidential candidate Lindsey Graham said his niece, Emily, was in an 8th grade English class with Dylann Roof, the suspect in the Charleston church massacre.
"He was quiet, strange, very unsocial and everyone thought he was on drugs," Graham, a U.S. Senator from South Carolina, said of the suspect in an telephone interview with CNN, relaying the description from his niece Emily and sister Darline Graham Nordone." [...]
""I just think he was one of these whacked out kids. I don't think it's anything broader than that," Graham said. "It's about a young man who is obviously twisted."
"No one at home [in South Carolina] believes this represents us. We don't want to be judged by him," Graham said."
Suddenly, the reason for a communities nation's grief is replaced by hearsay and armchair diagnoses, just so the hateful nature of the crime won't reflect poorly on white South Carolinians. That is Davkaism of the most despicable kind.
I curated, below, other examples of the expression of Republicans' davkaism; most center on strengthening the ridiculous straw man argument they've been building whereby religious rights are under assault, on the back of this tragedy.
Make no mistake. What happened in Charleston was a hate crime. The words of its perpetrator were recorded for all time:
"You rape our women and you're taking over our country. And you have to go," (source: CNN)
To deny that the Charleston massacre was a hate crime is racist. To provide alternative explanations for Dylann Roof's behavior when none are needed is racist. To absolve the perpetrator of his hate by assigning weirdness and the suspicion of drug use is a racist act. TPM quotes, via ABC News, Dylann Roof's roommate as saying:
"Dalton Tyler told ABC News that he'd known Dylann Storm Roof for about seven months to a year. Tyler told the news outlet that he last saw Roof about a week ago and knew he'd been planning something like the Charleston church attack "for six months."
“He was big into segregation and other stuff,” Tyler told ABC News. “He said he wanted to start a civil war. He said he was going to do something like that and then kill himself.”"
While Fox News may engage in selective reporting, Senator Graham may not make statements that minimize the heinous nature of the crime that was committed by one from among his community. Yes, racism is alive and well in South Carolina. What happened at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church is a hate crime that was planned and executed by a white supremacist named Dylann Roof. Own it, Senator Graham! Own it! Then, ask why anyone who, like Roof's roommate, knew of Roof's plans, did not report him. They too have a part in the hate crime they did not prevent and are a stain on your community.
Fox's Steve Doocy: It's Extraordinary That Charleston Church Shooting Is Being Called A Hate Crime | Video | Media Matters for America
Read the rest of this article on Fox's Steve Doocy: It's Extraordinary That Charleston Church Shooting Is Being Called A Hate Crime | Video | Media Matters for America
A striking image that shows politics never rests — even amid Charleston’s tragedy
By Aaron Blake June 18
Read the rest on WashingtonPost.com
And The First Person To Blame The Charleston Shooting On A Lack Of Guns In Church Is...
The Huffington Post | By Nick Wing
Posted: 06/18/2015
A white gunman killed nine people Wednesday night, after opening fire on a Bible study group gathered at the historically black Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, South Carolina. Reverend Clementa Pinckney, a Democratic state senator and pastor at the church, was among the victims.As the community and nation struggled to comprehend the level of hate that could motivate such a heinous act of racially motivated terrorism, Christian conservative radio host Bryan Fischer, a former director of issues analysis for the right-wing American Family Association, knew what the real problem was:
Read the rest of this article on HuffingtonPost.
Santorum Calls Charleston Shooting 'Assault On Religious Liberty'
By BRENDAN JAMES Published JUNE 18, 2015
"It’s obviously a crime of hate. Again, we don’t know the rationale, but what other rationale could there be?" Santorum said on the New York radio station AM 970. "You’re sort of lost that somebody could walk into a Bible study in a church and indiscriminately kill people,” he added. Santorum called for a broader pushback against the "assaults" on religious liberty. "You talk about the importance of prayer in this time and we’re now seeing assaults on our religious liberty we’ve never seen before. It’s a time for deeper reflection beyond this horrible situation," he said. Read the rest on TPM.com