America's Mass Shooting Crisis Emboldens a Racism Crisis Too

The overlap of policing and racism is devastating to BIPOC communities and we must call it out

Systemic racism in our policing imposes a dangerous and disparate impact on how law enforcement addresses gun violence based on the the skin color. While legacy media is largely complicit in enabling this disparate impact, the impact itself is fatal for Black and brown communities. We must actively counter it to uphold true justice and security. Let’s Address This.

A disturbing trend

Think about this.

In Apalachee High School, Georgia, Colt Gray murdered 4 people—he was arrested alive and unharmed.

In Atlanta, Georgia, Robert Aaron Long murdered 8 people while ostensibly targeting Asian Americans—he was arrested alive and unharmed.

In Charleston, South Carolina, Dylan Roof targeted a Black church and murdered 9 people—he was arrested alive and unharmed. The officers even took him to Burger King after his mass murder.

In Buffalo, New York, Payton Gendron targeted a grocery store in a Black neighborhood and murdered 10 people—he was arrested alive and unharmed.

In Aurora, Colorado, James Holmes murdered 12 people—he was arrested alive and unharmed.

In Parkland, Florida, Nikolas Cruz murdered 17 people—he was arrested alive and unharmed.

In El Paso, Texas, Patrick Crusius murdered 23 people while targeting Latinos—he was arrested alive and unharmed.

Each of the aforementioned white mass shooters committed mass murder in broad daylight—often targeting Black, Latino, and Asian communities. And despite being heavily armed, each mass murderer was arrested alive. Meanwhile Black Americans Tamir Rice, Aiyana Jones, Breonna Taylor, George Floyd, Eric Garner—all unarmed and innocent of any wrong doing—were killed immediately by law enforcement.

The question is not to ask why didn’t law enforcement also kill white mass shooters, but rather, why won’t law enforcement exercise the same restraint on unarmed Black people, that they exercise on armed white mass murderers? And while some may critique my observation as anecdotal, the data proves this racism is systemic.

Data confirms you’re not imagining the racism

A comprehensive study by The Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) published in the medical journal The Lancet reviewed 30 years of medical data on police violence. They report both the exponential rate of Americans killed by law enforcement, and the disproportionate rate of Black Americans killed by law enforcement:

According to the study, between 1980 and 2018 there were about 30,000 deaths from police violence across the country. On average, that’s the equivalent of 2 people in the U.S. being killed by police officers every single day. Researchers also found that Black Americans were as much as 3.5 times more likely to die from police violence than white Americans. Though other studies in the past have found similar rates of under-reporting and racial disparities, the IMHE’s report is the most expansive with regards to the timeframe covered.

Media remains complicit in elevating racism

And even when Black people are victims of mass shootings or police violence, media often demonizes them as villains. Consider this most recent case of the Apalachee high school shooting. Colt Gray, who is white, was the shooter. Yet @wsbtv tweeted to their 1.2 million followers a photo of Mason Schermerhorn—the Black child who was murdered—with the caption, "A 14-year-old suspect, Colt Gray, was arrested."

And again, far from anecdotes, the data shows that media’s characterization of Black people is consistently mortifying. A recent study by Color of Change, a racial justice organization, and Family Story, an advocate of diverse family arrangements reports that,

Major media outlets routinely present a distorted picture of black families — portraying them as dependent and dysfunctional — while white families are more likely to be depicted as sources of social stability.

No doubt you have personally seen examples of this media bias throughout instances of police violence against Black people. After police officer Darren Wilson killed Michael Brown the New York Times described Brown as "No angel." After George Zimmerman cosplayed a cop and murdered Trayvon Martin, media relentlessly reminded everyone that Martin smoked marijuana. After police officer Timothy Loehmann murdered 12-year-old Tamir Rice, police and media described Rice as “A thug.” In each case media went out of their way to further dehumanize an already murdered Black child. This is sadly one way legacy media continues to enable and perpetuate white supremacy in the public discourse.

In Conclusion

As I’ve written before, the solution to these injustices are comprehensive gun safety laws, meaningful police reform, and holding legacy media accountable. The injustices emboldened and perpetuated in our current systems are a painful reminder that a system cannot fail those it was never meant to protect in the first place. We must challenge this injustices and build better systems on the tenets of justice. Only then can we ensure future generations do not suffer the same cycles of violence that continue to devastate our nation today.

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