charleston shooting

The United States is a place with binary opinions. In that spirit of drastic over-simplification there are two wars being carried out on in the United States in 2015, a war on foreign terrorism and a war on American citizens carried out amongst themselves.

The Western world defines terrorism through an almost exclusively Islamophobic narrative. In 2002, the first terrorism case tried under the newly-created anti-terrorism law charged a black man with terrorism for attempting to shoot fifteen people and rub Chick-fil-A sandwiches on their faces. Yes. He was charged with terrorism.

I am not black, but I too­ — am tired. As a person of color in this country, from a background that may not scream Rockwell and apple pie, I am tired of explaining and trying to coherently lay out what it is to be the “other” to people who have not had the experience of having a background story, and destiny written for and about you ‑ before you are ever met.

Is racism the only reason that nine people died in Charleston last week, or is there something more going on here?

While this is not about my or White people’s feelings, this is about White people’s violence. As White people in this country, it’s on us to dismantle White supremacy. Both the problem and the solution lie with us. This involves talking to other White people in our communities, having hard and uncomfortable conversations, examining and confronting our own privilege.

There is a lot on the Internet to read about the tragic Charleston shooting that took place late Wednesday night. Here are a few noteworthy tweets to get started with.