Ignoring Domestic Terrorism

by Deacon Blues

I find myself agreeing with the Southern Poverty Law Center (once again), when they say that this country doesn’t pay enough attention to domestic terrorists in our midst. A white man with known white supremacist preferences (from his frigging Facebook picture no less) walks into a black church in Charleston, South Carolina last night and slaughters 9 parishioners, including the female pastor, who just happened to also be a Democratic member of the State Senate.

And before anyone ascribes this tragedy to the actions of just another misguided young man with mental issues, let’s consider what he said in the midst of the slaughter, which he did with deliberation as he reloaded his newly-acquired weapon (from his dad) five times:

"He just said, 'I have to do it. You rape our women and you're taking over our country," Johnson said.

That’s the kind of talk you can hear through parts of the right wing media machine, and of course in the mainstream white supremacist culture. Yet I have no doubt we’ll hear the Fox News crowd tell us over the coming days that this man was undoubtedly disturbed, as he opened fire after sitting in the church awhile in the midst of a bible study group. Right wingers and their media will say and do anything to misdirect attention away from white shooters and towards their purported emotional or mental challenges, or even put the blame on the black victims.

Yet we know the NSA and other parts of the intelligence community are scanning social media and online communities looking for Islamic terrorists 24/7, and we know they have a catalogue of all Facebook pages with questionable pictures. But if they come across a picture of a young white man’s Facebook page with pro-apartheid pictures, do they even stop and spend any time on that, or are such demonstrations of outward racism simply free speech to the four white conservatives on the Supreme Court?