Playing Dumb About Racism

In the aftermath of the murders at the Emmanuel AME Church in Charleston, South Carolina, many people have weighed in on the tragedy.  Scenes from that city where thousands marched across the Arthur Ravenel Jr. Bridge on Sunday told me that white and black people share the knowledge that this was a hate crime.  They held hands with strangers united in sadness and in the hope that they could heal their community.

The suspect reportedly had a clear message for his victims.  The only adult survivor of the massacre, a woman who feigned her death by lying in a pool of her son’s blood, told authorities what Dylann Roof said before he opened fire: "You rape our women and you're taking over our country. And you have to go."

Unfortunately, not everybody seems to understand this message of racism and hate.  Some news pundits and politicians are ignoring it all together.  For example, when “America’s Newsroom,” host Martha MacCallum was joined by guests who blamed access to fire arms and lack of mental health care for the crime, she waved these reasonable arguments away.  “We’re a very unique society and that’s a very wonderful thing, in large part,” she said. “But that may be a contributing factor here.”

Fox News anchors Steve Doocy and Elisabeth Hasselbeck ignored the racial implications of this hate crime and spun it into a crime against Christianity.  Their guest, Pastor E.W. Jackson attempted to make a case for arming ministers by citing “rising hostility toward Christians in this country.”  Naturally, Doocy agreed, calling the hate crime label “exceptional” and one which was determined by authorities “because it was apparently a white guy in a black church.”  Doocy appeared to be confused.  It had to be an attack on religion.

Taking a lead from Fox perhaps, Pennsylvania’s former Senator and presidential hopeful Rick Santorum echoed his belief that Roof attacked his victims because of their religious faith rather than the color of their skin.  South Carolina’s Senator Lindsay Graham, another presidential candidate, agreed.  Roof, he said, was just another one of many “people out there looking for Christians to kill them.”  On Friday, Jeb Bush also joined the chorus of ignorance.  He claimed that he didn’t know what motivated Roof, but urged Christians to come together in reflection and prayer.

The only Republican presidential candidate who got it right was Dr. Ben Carson.  Carson has said a lot of really strange things in public, but his op-ed piece in USA Today was pitch perfect.  He likened denial of the racist element in this crime to being a doctor who won’t tell his patient a medical diagnosis for fear of offending them.  The article said:

“I understand the sensitivities. To some, calling the events in Charleston, S.C., a hate crime reinforces a stigma, which they have fought hard to put behind them. But refusing to call it what it is — racism — is a far more dangerous proposition.”

“We know what's at stake here, so let's stop all the interpretive dance around the obvious. Was it a depraved act of violence? Of course. Was it an act of unspeakable evil? Affirmative. Was it an attack on innocent Christians? Manifestly so. Is this killer a sick individual? In my professional opinion, yes, he is. What is his sickness? It's the sickness of racism, a spiritual sickness that distorts the mind and heart and causes irrational and baseless fear and hatred in people of all colors.”

Well stated.  It is a rare day that I agree with most of Ben Carson’s ideas.  Today, I applaud every word and urge readers to read the rest of this very thoughtful article.