Wednesday, August 4, 2010

I Just Assumed

I assumed he was white.

It's just a gut reaction whenever I hear about a mass shooting, I think "white man." Like kiddie rape and wire fraud, mass murder has been designated a "white crime" in my mind the same way crack dealing has been labeled a black one. It doesn't matter what the stats say, that's how I see the world.

I figured the man who killed nine people at a beer distributor was white, and I promptly forgot about the sad, but unsurprising incident. Consequently, I was shocked when a friend told me that the young man who killed his co-workers after coming in to be fired was a black man.

You can imagine how surprised I was when I learned his family claims that he killed all of those people because of racism.

Lately, I've been reading a lot of Walter Mosely's novels. Those of you who have read his work know that racism is a character in every single book Mosely creates. It takes different faces and it has different characteristics, but it's always stalking the pages. Mosely loves to discuss what it's like to be black in a country that ain't.

One of the themes running through his work is the anger and cowardice that lives inside the heart of an abused man. And, in Mosely's work, black men are often abused in a variety of ways. By their families, by their employers, by their lovers and, ultimately, by themselves. The abuse isn't limited to black men, but, as a man, Mosely's insight seems truest when he's talking about black men.

I don't know the young man who shot up that beer business, but I think I understand a little of his killing rage. Maybe his slights weren't as serious as those once endured by our ancestors, his degradation was likely only a pale shadow of the abuse blacks have faced in times past. But, his dreams were likely larger as well. He probably had accepted and embraced the lie of the America Martin Luther King Jr. once imagined, and which corporations tell us has been achieved every February. A color-blind America where it's only about the content of man's character, not the melanin content in his skin.

Mama Lorraine told us about dreams deferred, didn't she.

Shriveled, rotten dreams fester and ferment inside a man's mind and the bitter wine they produce is more than mildly intoxicating. The wine of the grapes of wrath does strange things to a psyche. It makes it seem reasonable to kill nine people instead of finding another job. It makes suicide seem like an acceptable ending to a day filled with the blood and pain of others.

It makes you mad.

No excuses can be made for murder. Sticks and stones have not ceded their domain to words.

But, while there is no justification, there is understanding. There is understanding of the madness that accompanies racial injustice. The madness that makes you want to lash out and forces you to distrust the aims of authority figures. That madness says that you have the right to join others at playing judge, jury and executioner.

Being told that you are less than, that you deserve death and denigration for the mere crime of your birth is a twisting thing. It twists reality, it twists minds, it twists morality. It twisted that young man who killed nine people, and it twists other people every day in large and small ways.

So, I guess I shouldn't have been surprised that we ended up with a big mess. And neither should you.




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14 comments:

Thordaddy said...

I just thought this was a white mass murderer...

Murder is never justified, but I can understand why black dude murdered...

Black dudes murdering black dudes is a normal part of life in my city...

Black dude murdered because whitey wouldn't pretend to be "equal" with him...

Did I mention black dude was a 34 year old broke thief???

Paraphrasing the mind of the raving black lunatic...

Black dude murdered because he has been poisoned by "equality." But because he drank that poison voluntarily and to intoxication, he is nothing more than a black murderer and cowardly self-annihilator.

All there is to understand, raving black lunatic, is that some are so sick and twisted that they justify the murder of those that THEY THINK ARE THINKING ABOUT BEING BETTER THAN THEM...

These dirty dirtballs think "equality" is a God-given entitlement and liberals like you sell it for the price of murder.

Big Man said...

If you don't like what I write, you can find somewhere else to read. Your choice.

I have no interest anymore in engaging with you, discussing with you or debating with you. This is a courtesy notice.

Good day.

Thordaddy said...

Raving black Lunatic,

I love what you write... Keeping writing... No need for masks anymore... No response needed, necessary or required to my critiques. Better yet, rave black lunatic, rave... I'll be the blog's play-by-play announcer... Uh hmm...

Call me the raving black lunatic's wayward parrot... Lol!

Anonymous said...

Now you are just being an ass! Regardless of your feelings bottom line this person thug or not will be held to a different standard. He DAMN sure won't have the countless excuses made for him that are made for the MANY white male serial killers lowlifes like Joeseph Stack,Bufford Furrow,Russell Weston,Charles Mccoy,George Hennard,etc. . Where's his 'oh but he was CRAZY' defense?!! He should get one of thsoe too right seeing how you don't want to differentiate and all

Thordaddy said...

Anon,

Come out of your cave...

Black dude's skin and his very presence in America is all the excuse he needs to slaughter white folk AND BE SEEN AS "victim."

See above, clown...

Raving black lunatic can't justify murder, but he can "understand" why black dude murdered...

And what's there to understand other than dude WAS black AND in America AND SO obviously tortured by his all-white environment that he just had to mass murder...

And who in the "white" media ever made excuses for the crimes of white serial killers? Who? No one... That's who...

Deacon Blue said...

What a shame...thought the long absence was a sign that the troll had relocated to another land to terrorize its denizens with babble...instead, turns out it was just on vacation.

Anyway, Big Man, only time will tell if this guy gets the same analysis of other mass workplace murderers to explore/blame his upbringing or environment or circumstances for turning him into a killer. This is is all still recent, so it may yet happen (thought I doubt it).

I certainly don't recall as much effort going into the one or two black serial killers who have cropped up in recent years in terms of exploring the background and upbringing reasons for them turning into "monsters" so my bet would be that it won't happen.

Fact is that even white mass murderers and serial killers don't often get sympathy, so it's hit or miss whether they will be the compassionate "what went wrong for him" treatment that some of the high profile ones have gotten to help us "understand" them. Given that it's hit or miss with the white ones, my assumption is that it will be "miss" with this guy.

All I can say, though, in gallows humor style, is that given all the things whites have stolen from blacks (economically, culturally, etc.), I know they haven't been left with much to steal from whites, but I had always hoped they would leave that serial killer crap alone because it was a piece of moral high ground blacks have been able to claim for a while.

Thordaddy said...

DB,

No one cares about all that past oppression that raving black lunatic and Thorton HAVE NEVER EXPERIENCED.

Remember, raving black lunatic "UNDERSTANDS" why Thorton murdered. Wrap your head around that, gumby. If DirtyButt was one of the eight... Raving black lunatic WOULD UNDERSTAND why YOU got murdered.

Self-annihilating fool.

Deacon Blue said...

Being talked ABOUT is not the same as being talked TO...I stopped reading after "DB"

Thordaddy said...

Damn db,
u can understand...
ya own murder?
how much heart that take?
HOW.DO.U.GO.FURTHER?
blog black n forth
witha virtual murderer?
understands the slaughter,
gives two shits 'bout yur daughter!!!
sucker in da self-annihilation
n call'm self uh father?
what's the evidence,
that help the lunatic understand...
dude was in America and had black skin?
Lil nigel pops, cans the white man,
before da white man cans the black man
cuz black man stole the white man's cans
by the case
dude unleashed,
n u makin' his case!!!

And now u stand with ravin' BLACK lunatic
sorry whiteboy, u a total disgrace...

Thordaddy said...

Ravin' black lunatic...
Sumptin' I say not truthful
when I paraphrased ya, kid?
Cat gotcha tongue,
like thordaddy done did?
I know... U can "understand,"
y black man murder many white man
cuz whitey didn't fire'm n send'm to jail
'stead
let'm resign so he can thief again,
silly whitey
just don't want to b the magne...
So ravin' black lunatic kill ya
so we can "understand"
u n America n uzza black man...

Anonymous said...

Go crawl back under your damn rock. And they don't the F--K white people in the media don't make excuses for white males!!! What the hell is all that he was 'crazy' or 'mentally ill' bulls**t then?!! I sure as hell have never heard crazy being used to describe black males. Or the media's sick glorifcation and turning them into pop culture figures. White people make excuses all the damn time so come off it.

Thordaddy said...

Anonymous, come up off it
JUST CAUGHT A SERIAL KILLER
Said he was white, yeah right
Just like Lee and Malvo
Them media lookin' to pick a fight
Get Thornton off the stage
And put the bright light on Mr. White
But dude was a lil more shaded
An Arab who gave black n whites the knife
HOW COULD SO MANY SAY HE WAS WHITE?
Dude ain't light, but dude ain't black
BUT CLEARLY, he's an Arab attack
And you flat on your back
Defendin' mass murderers
Simply cuz the dude was black
And his target white,
that's all right...
You understand, like lil' man
'notha raving black lunatic
'bout to pop and play Sandman...

Anonymous said...

I FAIL to see how the b.s. you're spewing is a-n-y different than the countless times I have seen white male serial killers defended and given lame ass worthless excuses. And is this some attempt at a rap 'career' cause you should be taken about as seriously as Joaquin Phoenix LOL!

Thordaddy said...

Anon,

What white serial killer has ever been given cover by the media?

Shiiiiii....! You must be living on a different planet. And anyway, what's the media lame-ass cover-up for Thornton OTHER THAN an expression of the black collective including the raving black lunatic?

Does ANON also "understand" why Thornton mass murdered whitey?




Raving Black Lunatic