An Emotional Week: Terrorism in South Carolina
The June 17 attack on a historic black church in South Carolina moves us all, I hope, to consider what we can do to dismantle systemic racism and injustice.
The news this week of terrorism targeting the African American community has hit hard, with an avalanche of feelings: horror, grief, anger, weariness, exhaustion, determination.
The attack and assassinations at Mother Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, South Carolina, an institution with a long and current history of fighting for racial equality and freedom, are not “beyond understanding,” as some have said. The attack grows out of a system which taught white superiority, white entitlement, and hate to a young man. It grows out of a system which armed him and which allowed him to talk of his plans for six months to friends with none of them taking action. To simply identify that young man as “mentally ill” is to ignore the larger reality and American history. To think that applying the death penalty to one person somehow restores justice is a tragic mistake.
I also remembered, hearing the news from South Carolina, what it was like hearing about friends who were close to the shooters in the Knoxville church shooting and the Holocaust museum shooting. My memories remind me how much these incidents affect not only those present, creating deep wounds that heal slowly, but also other lives in expanding ripples of effects. These mass killings are meant to attack more than those who died. They are meant to attack a value system and more, to strike fear in a larger circle of people. They are truly terrorist acts.
What can we do? In the moment, support one another through these emotions, listen to each other, hold each other in loving kindness, and, if you’re so moved, send donations to the church which may be used to support the survivors, the families of those killed, and the church’s mission of justice. You can donate online here: http://www.emanuelamechurch.org/
In the longer term? I have no easy answers. A minister friend wrote this week that it’s not the time to pray, but the time to act.
We can commit to efforts that seek to honor the worth and dignity of every person: ending a system of white supremacy and racism, addressing the cultural, social, economic and political roots of inequality and hate. Half of the white people in America do not see that there is any racism around them, according to some recent research. Homegrown rightwing terrorism is nearly invisible to most Americans, who tend to see each incident as an individual aberration, not part of an organized system. The Confederate flag – used so often to symbolize racism and white supremacy – flies high above South Carolina’s state capitol. Guns are still ridiculously easy to obtain, and a gun culture reinforces guns as a solution to dissatisfaction.
That means we need to have courageous conversations. And we need to help our children and grandchildren see that there’s hope – which they will only see if they see us making change in our own lives and taking action.
Picture credit: Solidarity Tree / Fotolia