The Insanity of Hatred

Dylann Storm Roof sat in a Bible study for an hour on Wednesday night at the Emmanuel AME church in Charleston, South Carolina.  Everyone was very nice to him, he said.  He almost couldn’t do it.  But, he wanted to start a race war.  In the end, he arose, shot, and killed nine innocent people because they were Black.  Then he fled the scene of his crime, driving north to the neighboring state.

This young man will retain a public defender who probably will attempt an insanity defense when he comes to trial.  Pleading innocence by reason of insanity would be the only reasonable thing to do in a court of law.  The media supports the idea that this is the act of a "crazy" person.  No “sane” person would kill a room full of nice, faithful, peaceful people, would they?

A sane person who is a bigot would, though.  Mirriam Webster defines a bigot as “a person who is obstinately or intolerantly devoted to his or her own opinions and prejudices; especially :  one who regards or treats the members of a group (as a racial or ethnic group) with hatred and intolerance.”  While bigotry is irrational, there is no mention of insanity in this definition.

In contrast, Mirriam Webster defines insanity in the following way:

1:  a deranged state of the mind usually occurring as a specific disorder (as schizophrenia)

2:  such unsoundness of mind or lack of understanding as prevents one from having the mental capacity required by law to enter into a particular relationship, status, or transaction or as removes one from criminal or civil responsibility

3 a:  extreme folly or unreasonableness.  b:  something utterly foolish or unreasonable.

People who are insane are disorganized thinkers.  Many cannot retain jobs or keep their living spaces clean without help.  Though some forms of insanity are expressed in compulsive behaviors or obsessive thoughts, those expressions are more crippling than they are conducive to forward progress.  This was not apparently the case with Roof.  According to CNN, Roof’s roommate, Joey Meek, reportedly said that Roof had been “plotting something for six months.”  Roof also reportedly reloaded his .45 caliber weapon five times during the assault.  These are not hallmarks of a disorganized mind.

In my mind the real insanity is that almost any “sane” person with a few hundred dollars can purchase a firearm with extreme ease almost everywhere in America.  While the NRA and 2^nd Amendment supporters cringe at the idea of making the acquisition of a firearm even a little bit more complicated for “law abiding” citizens, it is obvious that crimes like this would not occur if guns were less available.

I had to ask: Why a race war?  How could Roof benefit personally from a race war?  I pondered that for a while and arrived at this conclusion.  In riots such as those in Baltimore and in Los Angeles in 1992, when people of color took to the streets, the damage they caused was to their own homes and communities.  Whites were responsible for depriving the communities of education and opportunity while suppressing and abusing the rights of citizens on a daily basis. Roof knew this.  He knew that he didn’t have to be anywhere nearby to start a fire.  All that Roof had to do was light the match that caused African Americans to burn themselves down.

That is not insanity.  That is hatred.