Who’s at Fault for the Charleston Massacre?
*Henry Flores says the Charleston shooting was everyone’s fault for letting institutional racism get out of hand. He says “we need politicians con ganas who are willing to step up and insist on banning hate speech, racism, racial symbols, guns, campaign donations from bigots and the organizations they represent.” It’s undoing what’s been done politically since the 60’s. VL
By Dr. Herny Flores, NewsTaco
This is not a rhetorical question. The answer is simple, [tweet_dis]we are all responsible for what happened at Emmanuel AME Church in Charleston[/tweet_dis], SC where a white supremacist shot and killed nine African Americans who were participating in a traditional Wednesday evening bible study. The blame for this falls on the shoulders of all of us. We allowed racial hatred to become a political tool in the 1960s and nefarious politicians exploited it to win elections. That’s correct we allowed politicians to manipulate racism to their advantage. This advantage gave us Presidents Nixon and Reagan and allowed the Republican Party to ascend to the control of the national legislature.
Racial Hatred as a Political Tool
[pullquote]Racial hatred was used to control slaves for over four hundred years in this nation.[/pullquote] [tweet_dis]Racial hatred was used to control slaves for over four hundred years in this nationand then reused to control the freed African American population after 1865.[/tweet_dis] Racial hatred was used also to take the land and kill the cultures of Native Americans, Latinos and Asians. In short, racial hatred was used to keep non-Anglos in segregated communities, making it easy to withhold education, health services, work and public accommodations to these groups.However, [tweet_dis]racial hatred became an electoral tool in the 1960s[/tweet_dis] when the Republican Party decided to exploit it in the development of its now infamous Southern Strategy. The plan was designed to turn the old “Solid Democratic South,” Republican by appealing to the southern whites who were angered that the Civil Rights Acts of 1965 had been passed. This gave racial hatred social legitimation and opened the door to right wing extremists to spout their hateful rhetoric. This, in turn, created the conditions for violent white supremacists to ply their evil trade.
The Nation’s Fault
[pullquote]Allowing racial hatred to rise to the top of acceptable political discourse was not only the result of the legitimization granted by Republican candidates at all levels but also the outcome of a warped perception of First Amendment protections.[/pullquote]Allowing racial hatred to rise to the top of acceptable political discourse was not only the result of the legitimization granted by Republican candidates at all levels but also the outcome of a warped perception of First Amendment protections. This is compounded by another misperception of the constitutional protection of gun ownership. Add into this formula the need for politicians to not say anything controversial about race and gun control for fear that they will alienate donors and voters and you have a recipe for what happened in Charleston as well as other mass murders and shootings that are hate-motivated.Free speech is not free! The courts have been clear about this for ages making rulings about controls necessary governing different types of speech including political, commercial, provocative, artistic expression and so forth. We need to stand up and insist that curbs be placed on hate speech that include racial, homophobic, and anti-woman among others to tamper down the ability of demagogues to incite dangerous behavior among extremists. Germany and other liberal democracies have such statutes, why not the United States?
Secondly, we need to pass gun control legislation that is meaningful and not symbolic. The only folks who need to possess and carry guns in our country are the police and military. Frankly, if you banned all guns the police would probably not need to carry weapons either. This might lead to police talking to suspects rather than just shooting indiscriminately at every black or Latino perceived suspect.
The Role of Politicians in all of this
Finally, [tweet_dis]we need politicians con ganas who are willing to step up and insist on banning hate speech, racism, racial symbols, guns, campaign donations from bigots and the organizations they represent.[/tweet_dis] Several Republican politicians are returning the campaign contributions from the Council of Conservative Citizens, the group that “inspired” the Charleston murderer, or they are donating them to help the victims’ families. Por favor Senator Cruz you are going to give the hate money to victims of the murderer. What are you thinking of?
In the first place what does this say about the politicians that accepted the funds from such a nefarious organization? This is the sort of behavior that needs to be curbed because by accepting the campaign contributions from the CCC (looks like the KKK to me) in the first place these politicians, Greg Abbott, Ted Cruz, Rand Paul and Rick Santorum, are legitimating the political place of racist extremists. And, we need to hold these politicians and their racist supporters accountable. Without their support incidents like the Charleston Massacre might not have occurred.
Henry Flores, PhD, is the Distinguished University Research Professor, Institute of Public Administration and Public Service; Director, Masters in Public Administration (MPA); Professor of International Relations and Political Science at St. Mary’s University. He is the author of Latinos and the Vorting Rights Act: The Search for Racial Purpose.
Latinos and the Voting Rights Act: The Search for Racial Purpose.
