Just so that we are perfectly clear: I don’t believe that it is logical to determine the threat posed by a group based on demographic characteristics. Certain Republican Presidential Nominees disagree sharply with me, changing the rhetoric of “the greatest threat to America” from Muslims to Latinos to the Chinese to Black people. But if we’re going to play that game, I have to say that the scoreboard looks pretty…whitewashed.
44 of the last 72 mass shooters were white men. It gets even more significant when you recognize that the next highest concentration comes from Black men, who made up 11 of that 72.
In just the past few years, nearly every mass shooting reported occurred at the hands of a white man. 2015 Planned Parenthood shooting in Colorado (3 killed), 2015 Umpqua Community College shooting in Oregon (9 killed), 2015 Charleston shooting at a Black church (9 killed), 2014 Isla Vista, California shooting (6 killed), 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary shooting (27 killed), 2012 Oak Creek Sikh Temple in Wisconsin (6 killed), 2012 Aurora movie theater shooting in Colorado (12 killed), and so on.
In the past fifty years, the most infamous American serial killers have been, interestingly, all white men: Ted Bundy, Charles Manson, John Wayne Gacy, Jim Jones, The Son of Sam, The Hillside Strangler, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold (Columbine High School), etc.
Now I know what you’re probably saying right about now, “it’s just a coincidence that they’re all white men, why do we have to categorize them.” And the reason you’re saying that is because every one of the men I’ve mentioned thus far was painted by the media as a “lone wolf” of sorts, some poor misguided lunatic with a gun.
But if you think that it’s wrong to pigeon hole all white men into this box, tell me what do you say when you hear someone argue that all Muslims are terrorists? Or that all Black men are dangerous? When you hit us with that “All Lives Matter” discourse, do you take it to the white supremacists and tell them that all lives matter? Do you post on “Blue Lives Matter” Facebook pages telling them how everyone’s lives matter?
The reason you don’t, the reason no one does, is because the reality behind movements like “All Lives Matter” is not actually about all lives. Instead, it’s about trying to push back against the idea that the dominant group in our society, white (usually straight) cis-gender men, are the real threats.
All Lives Matter attempts to erase our differences when the target of difference is police or white men, but there’s no level playing field when the tables are turned. In fact, it’s those same people who are violently supporting Donald Trump’s joke of a Presidential campaign.
The point I’m trying to make is that choosing any one group as “the greatest threat to Americans” is ridiculous. But, if we’re going to go down that route, let’s make sure we’re pointing at the right group of people.
