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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsHow America has silently accepted the rage of white men
Mass shootings are a violent epidemic that have been met with fatal passivity for far too long. If mass shootings were perpetrated mostly by brown bodies, this would quickly be reframed and reformed as an immigration issue. If thousands died at the hands of black men, it would be used to excuse police brutality, minimize the Black Lives Matter movement and exacerbate the "raging black man" stereotype. If mass shooters identified as Muslim, it would quickly become terrorism and catalyze defense and security expenditures.
But this is a white man's problem. According to an analysis by Mother Jones, out of 62 cases between 1982 and 2012 (a time period that would not include the actions of Dylann Roof or Stephen Paddock, among others), 44 of the killers were white men and only one was a woman. Since 1982, mass shootings in the United States have been committed by white men who are often labeled "lone wolves" or "psychologically impaired." As a result, the government that would otherwise be mobilizing its institutions to bring about reform remains a stalwart of the Second Amendment and mass shootings' greatest ally. An over-affinity for guns among white men, dangerous against any other backdrop, gets defended as patriotism by many conservatives or even as white pride by those on the alt-right.
In fact, according to a 2014 poll conducted by Fox News, nearly seven in 10 Republicans believed that gun ownership is patriotic. If espoused by other groups, this sentiment and this number might be considered threatening. Instead, it is welcomed in a way that many believe gives tacit encouragement to potential mass shooters.
https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2017/10/03/opinions/mass-shootings-white-male-rage-modan-opinion/index.html
Doodley
(9,126 posts)Doodley
(9,126 posts)totally with the article. It is also white men that put a bigot idiot in the White House.
yardwork
(61,709 posts)Its a fact.
Doodley
(9,126 posts)HughBeaumont
(24,461 posts)ehrnst
(32,640 posts)Doodley
(9,126 posts)We can use that sentence as a template for other "demographic truths" about people of other color and I would find that unacceptable too.
ehrnst
(32,640 posts)WhiskeyGrinder
(22,433 posts)SweetieD
(1,660 posts)term by heart. But no one talks about the rage of white men that leads to their suicide rate dwarfing any other demographic and also mass shootings by them or domestic violence cases. It is never pathologized in the same way despite how destructive this violence is to their communities.
Doodley
(9,126 posts)imply all blacks are part of the problem. We could take other crimes committed more frequently by a particular race and add a word to the racial identifier like "rage," and it would sound very racist. Maybe I am far to the left on political correctness, but I do not apologize for that.
ehrnst
(32,640 posts)especially on certain issues, it isn't the same when you say it about a non-dominant culture/demographic.
If you don't get that, you aren't "too far left" or "politically correct."
Doodley
(9,126 posts)that is soon) that talk, using terms like "white rage" will suddenly change from being acceptable to unacceptable?
ehrnst
(32,640 posts)I don't know what will be "acceptable," because I don't have a way to see into the future.
LanternWaste
(37,748 posts)Is the headline "the despair of the American black male" racist as well?
If not, what is the precise and relevant difference?
If so, are all demographics then, by definition, racist, sexist or ageist to use as well-- or do you limit it merely to one demographic?
Doodley
(9,126 posts)about the language we use, and I also think we shouldn't be manipulated by the "political correctness" is bad argument on the right, which is saying it is okay to use language that is potentially divisive and offensive.
ehrnst
(32,640 posts)when you say it about a non-dominant culture.
See also the B word among women....
yardwork
(61,709 posts)Just on DU Ive read posts insisting that:
Successful older white men never do anything violent.
The foreign girlfriend must be behind it.
Muslim terrorists must be behind it.
Doodley
(9,126 posts)based on racial prejudice, so I obviously agree with the points you are making.
WhiskeyGrinder
(22,433 posts)Doodley
(9,126 posts)a hero kills native Americans because they are savages, and guns represent a way of resolving problems. White male supremacy is an obnoxious disease that is still prevalent in America. The election of the most bigoted candidate we have ever seen illustrates that.