The massacre in South Carolina carried out last week by a racist domestic terrorist left me thinking for a week about the insidiousness of racism, which is more than conscious hate. It is a system, an idea and a philosophy that pits one race against the other. It is a way of life that creates the false and dangerous notion that anything White is better than Black. Think about the diabolical manifesto linked to the terrorist Dylann Roof who took the nine precious Black lives at Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, a church steeped in the long and proud tradition of fighting for equality, justice and freedom for Blacks. Think about the South Carolina terrorist’s hatred and wanting Blacks to remain subjugated to Whites. That is such a political statement that has long haunted this nation since America’s first sin of slavery. Roof, the terrorist, was on a political crusade. He was not acting alone. This hate for Blacks did not just come to him overnight. He was simply and squarely acting out of years of a hateful body of work that promotes the deceitful narrative that Blacks are less than human beings.
Think about the Dred Scott v. Sanford case in which then U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice Roger B. Taney declared that a Black person “had no rights which the White man was bound to respect; and that the Negro might justly and lawfully be reduced to slavery for his benefit. He was bought and sold and treated as an ordinary article of merchandise and traffic, whenever profit could be made by it.” That is the history we are dealing with. This is the idea that produced the terrorist Roof.
If a Chief Justice in the world’s leading democracy no matter how long ago that majority opinion was written can condemn a race of people in such a violent and hateful description masked as an intellectual legal opinion, what do we expect of a Dylann Roof?
Let’s not pretend that Roof came out of nowhere with his hate. Let us acknowledge that we have a system that was built on racism. Roof came out of a system that instilled racism, and saw Blacks as less than human beings. He was the product of a system that former Chief Justice Taney and others like him helped to build.
Even in the Declaration of Independence, Taney sought to deny Blacks inclusion in the opening words that “all men are created equal.” Instead, the dubious reason he gave is that “it is too clear for dispute, that the enslaved African race were not intended to be included, and formed no part of the people who framed and adopted this declaration.”
You wonder why Roof was brandishing symbols of the racist apartheid era in South Africa and saying that Blacks don’t belong here?
Taney’s morally deficient legal thinking has gone on to inform debates around race and racism for generations. To this day his way of thinking helped to inform and inspire bigots who see the Taneys of the world as heroes of an America that has been tainted because of Blacks.
Roof is a by-product of the Taney school of racism which for a long time permeated every facet of our national life. That is what Blacks have to deal with and the traumatic effects of slavery, an institution Taney supported.
Unless we are ready to take racism head-on there is no point in tiptoeing around the issue. History should serve as a guide.
For Roof to write a manifesto raging against Blacks and to use apartheid era symbols as well as the Confederate flag as his medals of honor, is an indication that he did his homework before carrying out the massacre in Charleston.
He is not a lunatic. Let’s not give him that luxury, because if the tables were turned and the culprit was Black, some of us would not call the person a lunatic. There is always a double standard when it comes to White defendants compared to Black defendants. We tend to explore the biological origins and upbringings of White defendants in a bid to explain why they acted in a certain way and to humanize their crimes. Black defendants, on the other hand, are quickly cast as beasts who deserve to die in prison for their actions.
Dylann Roof is a cold-blooded murderer and racist who was on a political crusade.
Manifestos are political statements. They explain the philosophy of the author or the organization that wrote it. In the case of Roof, the terrorist, his manifesto makes it very clear how he views the world and what he wanted to do. He even lamented the lack of action from the Ku Klux Klan.
Raging against Blacks, Jews and Hispanics, Roof saw the Trayvon Martin case as his inspiration to kill Blacks.
“The event that truly awakened me was the Trayvon Martin case. I can say today that I am completely racially aware. Black people are racially aware almost from birth, but White people generally don’t think about race in their daily lives,” Roof wrote. “I have no choice. I am not in the position to, alone, go into the ghetto and fight. I chose Charleston because it is the most historic city in my state, and at one time had the highest ratio of Blacks to Whites in the country. We have no skinheads, no real KKK, no one doing anything but talking on the Internet. Well, someone has to have the bravery to take it to the real world, and I guess that has to be me.”
That is the manifesto of Dylann Roof who came out of a system that is still refusing to affirm the humanity of Blacks.
But Roof’s actions have not left us powerless. Because those who are sincere and honest and bold about dealing with racism will defy the philosophy of Roof by taking on prejudice and racism.
In this case it is more than just taking a gun and shooting a Black person. It is how we relate to each other despite the color of our skin. It has to do with the kinds of opportunities afforded to Blacks when compared to Whites. It has to do with who shows up at the front door and who is asked to take the back door. All of these contributed to the atmosphere that produced Roof, a climate that was first justified by the likes of Chief Justice Taney.
We cannot afford to be apologists for racism, lack of racial diversity in our institutions or simply outright bigotry. The more we can prove to the world that we will fight racism because it should not be part of today’s civilization, the more the likes of Dylann Roof would be rendered powerless.
But we cannot prevent another Charleston massacre by hiding our faces and whispering to each other when no one is around. This battle will require those who are truly committed to devote resources to the struggle and to be publicly engaged in addressing structures of institutional racism.
The playing field is unequal and President Obama’s election has not made it equal. Obama’s presidency brought racial pride and great suffering to Blacks because the bigots showed their true colors because of Obama. The nine who died are victims of an Obama era that saw racial animosity in a way that no recent presidency has witnessed.
That is why what we are witnessing is part of the residue of the Obama presidency. That there are still strong segments in this country that cannot see themselves submitting to a Black president because Chief Justice Taney long ago made it clear in his opinion that Blacks have no rights that a White person must respect.
We can only say goodbye to racism when we begin to attack the school of thought that promotes the deceitful narrative that anything other than White is of lesser value. In doing so we should not apologize for attacking such a babaric notion and we should call out those who want to apologize for racism and why the system is not working. You can choose to be the spook who sat by the door, demonstrating that you are not selling your soul or remain a pitiful apologist for racism. We have the power to prevent another mass killing like the one in South Carolina. Unlike Roof, our manifesto is all people are equal in dignity and rights.
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