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KamaAina

(78,249 posts) Thu Jun 18, 2015, 07:13 PM Jun 2015

The Charleston shooter killed mostly black women. This wasn't about 'rape'

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/jun/18/charleston-shooter-black-women-white-women-rape

Before opening fire – and reportedly reloading five times – the man who killed nine black people at the historic Emmanuel AME church in Charleston, South Carolina on Wednesday night, he reportedly said: “You rape our women. And you’re taking over our country. And you have to go.” (Dylann Roof has been arrested in North Carolina and is expected to be charged with the crime.) According to police, three of the people who died were male, including South Carolina state senator Clementa Pinkney, who served as the church pastor, and six were female.

Six black women were shot to death during a community prayer service by a young white man who allegedly declared: “You rape our women.”

These women and men welcomed a white man into their close-knit church, and likely encouraged others in their community to join and listen and pray and let God into their hearts. Black women, who are said to be the most religious demographic in America, have long been considered the backbone of black church – our backs are precious and sturdy, but have been weighted down for decades. You don’t attend Wednesday night services if you aren’t a devout churchgoer; you don’t go to Wednesday night services with a gun and the intention to murder if your true goal is to kill as many black men as possible.

There is something inconsistent with the Charleston shooter’s alleged evocation of the historical myth of black man as beast and rapist of white women, and the fact that he killed mostly black women. Did he only shoot black women because there were no more black men to kill? Because black women birth, care for and love black men? Or because he didn’t see black women as women at all, and, as something less than women (and certainly lesser than white women), felt us undeserving of the same valiance he conjured on behalf of the women he claim to be protecting?

11 replies

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The Charleston shooter killed mostly black women. This wasn't about 'rape' (Original Post) KamaAina Jun 2015 OP

Those words sound like KKK and White Supremacist hate speak. I suspect he heard or read a lot of it. nolabear Jun 2015 #1

Yup, prolly heard a lot of it on Fux News. InAbLuEsTaTe Jun 2015 #9

The sexism is as deep as the racism. undeterred Jun 2015 #2

This all makes me sick to my stomach madokie Jun 2015 #3

He'd have shot and killed whomever he found there hifiguy Jun 2015 #4

I'm still trying to process how a 21 year old opens fire on malaise Jun 2015 #5

Well, you see, they couldn't KamaAina Jun 2015 #6

I think it's pretty obvious he was going to kill whoever he found there Blue_Tires Jun 2015 #7

Either way, it's sick sick sick. InAbLuEsTaTe Jun 2015 #10

The MAINSTREAM conservative response to #BlackLivesMatter is rhetoric on black-on-white crime alcibiades_mystery Jun 2015 #8

The myth of a high rate of black men raping white women go back generations davidn3600 Jun 2015 #11

nolabear

(42,006 posts)

1. Those words sound like KKK and White Supremacist hate speak. I suspect he heard or read a lot of it.

Reply to KamaAina (Original post)

Thu Jun 18, 2015, 07:18 PM

Jun 2015

This whole thing just makes me terribly, terribly sad.

InAbLuEsTaTe

(24,128 posts)

9. Yup, prolly heard a lot of it on Fux News.

Reply to nolabear (Reply #1)

Thu Jun 18, 2015, 10:27 PM

Jun 2015

undeterred

(34,658 posts)

2. The sexism is as deep as the racism.

Reply to KamaAina (Original post)

Thu Jun 18, 2015, 07:19 PM

Jun 2015

Do women of any race like being referred to as "our women" as if we are owned by the males of the race? Women and men are free to love members of any race.

The idea of a black man as a rapist is an old one - the facts are that the vast majority of rapes are intra-racial. People who hate aren't interested in any data that doesn't fit with their worldview, however.

I think he killed more women because they were black and female- two negatives in one.

madokie

(51,076 posts)

3. This all makes me sick to my stomach

Reply to KamaAina (Original post)

Thu Jun 18, 2015, 07:20 PM

Jun 2015

its hard to fathom what it must feel like to hate so strongly that would allow someone to find this acceptable, to do this.

hifiguy

(33,688 posts)

4. He'd have shot and killed whomever he found there

Reply to KamaAina (Original post)

Thu Jun 18, 2015, 07:36 PM

Jun 2015

as long as they were black. Awfully hard to see it any other way, though surely some will try.

malaise

(269,328 posts)

5. I'm still trying to process how a 21 year old opens fire on

Reply to KamaAina (Original post)

Thu Jun 18, 2015, 07:42 PM

Jun 2015

women who could be his mother and grandmother.

KamaAina

(78,249 posts)

6. Well, you see, they couldn't

Reply to malaise (Reply #5)

Thu Jun 18, 2015, 07:43 PM

Jun 2015

because they were the wrong color.

Blue_Tires

(55,445 posts)

7. I think it's pretty obvious he was going to kill whoever he found there

Reply to KamaAina (Original post)

Thu Jun 18, 2015, 07:47 PM

Jun 2015

And he was going to a place where the victims would be caught completely by surprise and unable to defend themselves...

I don't know if he focused to killing the men first, or what...

InAbLuEsTaTe

(24,128 posts)

10. Either way, it's sick sick sick.

Reply to Blue_Tires (Reply #7)

Thu Jun 18, 2015, 10:29 PM

Jun 2015

alcibiades_mystery

(36,437 posts)

8. The MAINSTREAM conservative response to #BlackLivesMatter is rhetoric on black-on-white crime

Reply to KamaAina (Original post)

Thu Jun 18, 2015, 07:56 PM

Jun 2015

Particularly structured around rape. Sure, the rhetoric of "beastly" Africans raping white women has a long history, but it has been particularly prevalent the last two years, especially post-Ferguson. Take 15 minutes on any conservative (or even unmoderated news) message board, and you will see it. Roof was rehearsing mainstream conservatism here (and mainstream conservatism has become deeply and aggressively white supremecist in the last few years). Dollars to donuts he is a frequent listener to whomever the local talk radio yahoo might be, and that same talk radio yahoo has quoted supposed Justice Department stats on "black-white rape" at least 30 times since New Years. This is what conservatives talk about. Not neo-Nazi Stormfront shitheads: mainstream conservatives.

davidn3600

(6,342 posts)

11. The myth of a high rate of black men raping white women go back generations

Reply to KamaAina (Original post)

Thu Jun 18, 2015, 10:35 PM

Jun 2015

That's an a very old racist myth that has been thrown around in the south by racists for a very long time.

And you see the same arguments made frequently by the far right concerning immigration. On Free Republic, they seem to always find these stories of Latino immigrants molesting kids or "raping our women" or being gang members. etc, etc... And they think this is a reason we need to put a wall on our border and kick them all out. It's the same formula...

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