Yesterday (20/6/15) a website emerged purporting to show photographs of Dylann Roof alongside a manifesto/explanation of why he carried out the Charleston shooting. This can be read at the above link. Obviously the fact that it emerged on a Russian hosted website two days after Roof had been taken into custody raises questions about it's credibility. Not least because it seems to reference events that occurred after Roof was taken into custody and - I assume - denied access to the Internet.
For example it talks about why many white people feel they don't have a unique cultural identity. It then goes onto suggest that this is because white culture has become the globally dominate culture people fail to recognise it. On Friday (19/6/15) a minor league baseball team in Utah planned to hold a "Caucasian Heritage Night" similar to "Black History Month." Following the usual accusations of racism the event had to be cancelled. Amid the torrent of abuse the event provoked on Twitter one of the most frequently asked questions was; "What can Caucasians claim as their heritage?"
As such I think I should be commended for showing remarkable restraint for not pointing out that with the Caucasian ethnic group including all white Europeans (Hispanic etc), all Arabs and all those on the Indian sub-continent Caucasian heritage is pretty much every major contribution to art, culture and science. This includes the abolition of slavery, the hymn "Amazing Grace" and the song "We Shall Overcome" that have long been appropriated by members of the Negroid ethnic group in America including at the Emanuel AME Church in Charleston that very evening.
Also the manifesto expresses an almost agitated confusion at the role of Jews within American society accusing them of agitating black Americans. One of the things that came up frequently in the backlash against Caucasian Heritage Night was a quote attributed to a Rabbi saying that there would not be racial harmony until Caucasians had been subject to the horrors of slavery. The term "Slavery" has it's origins in the "Slavic" tribe who were kept as slaves by the Ancient Greeks. Also the overwhelming majority of the victims of the Nazi holocaust were Ashkenazi Jews who along with Mizrahi Jews and Sephardic Jews are all Caucasian. One of the nicest things the Nazis did to the Jews was to use them as slave labour.
Although it's something I glanced at on Twitter rather then having studied my first impression was that the Rabbi was actually mocking black Americans and their frequent claims that they are the most oppressed group on earth.
It must be said though that none of the these arguments about race are exactly new. In fact amid the "Black Lives Matter" protests Iggy Azalea has been heavily condemned for - as a white woman - daring to appropriate black hip-hop culture. I find that particularly sad because when criticising a woman as clearly as untalented as she is there seems no need to bring race into it. Also while I haven't seen the evidence myself there seems to be a growing consensus amongst people with the resources to analyse this sort of thing that the content was posted long before Roof was taken into custody. It just took a long time to find it.
In terms of it's discussion of black Americans and attempting to justify the shooting what struck me most about the statement is that it is certainly a lot milder then many racist manifestos I've read. It is certainly completely lacking in the type of blind hatred that TV shows have been assuring me motivated Roof. In fact it seems to express regret that black Americans are taught to see everything through the lens of race and this causes them to fail in a multi-ethnic society because they're only expected to be thugs and criminals rather then say doctors and lawyers. This is something US President Obama has also spoken on although he has been keen for it - and everything else - to be seen through the racial lens.
It's made clear that the main motivation is a fear of black crime. For example it talks about being unable to understand the outrage at the Trayvon Martin case because it was clear that George Zimmerman was in the right. This is an entirely valid point because from the moment Martin decided to start punching Zimmerman in the face and smashing his head into the concrete Zimmerman was perfectly entitled to kill him in self-defence. This is a point that the jury (the definition of "reasonable people" under law) unanimously agreed upon. It goes on to talk about apartheid and segregation as a way to protect law abiding white people from black criminals rather then a system to oppress minorities.
In choosing Charleston it points out that America's highly populated ghettos are far too big a target for one man to attack on their own. It also mentions that there is no-one in South Carolina prepared to stand up to the black crime wave. Crucially it makes no mention of carrying out the act in order to start a race war, provoke anyone else into action or to influence either the government or the wider population in any way.
As such I would say that the document strengthens claims that Roof acted in self-defence by demonstrating an honest, prior belief that the wider population needs to be protected from the actions of the black community. Of course to be acquitted it would need to be demonstrated that this belief was also reasonable. This can be done by asking some simple questions;
- Did Al Sharpton as head of the National Action Network (NAN) of which Emanuel AME Church is affiliated give a speech in Washington D.C on December 13th 2014 (13/9/14) praising a diversity of tactics while the crowd chanted; "What Do We Want? Dead Cops!" that was broadcast live to a solidarity rally in New York City; YES/NO?
- Seven days later on December 20th (20/12/14) were two police officers shot and killed in New York City by a black gunmen simply for being police officers; YES/NO?
- Between August 2014 and April 2015 was the city of Ferguson, St Louis subjected to multiple nights of rioting, looting and the attempted murder of police officers; YES/NO?
- Was the pattern of violence carried out by members and affiliates of NAN with a view to change local government policy; YES/NO?
- Following a change in local government policy did the crime rate in Ferguson soar including an 84% increase in the murder rate; YES/NO?
16:05 on 21/6/15 (UK date).
No comments:
Post a Comment