Wingnuts react to Charleston church shooting with thoughtful gravitas we’ve come to expect. Nobody in the church was packing heat like they should have been. You have to see how many more people are killed by guns in America to actually believe it. Think the Charleston shooting will lead to new gun control laws? It won’t. Without gun control, racism will keep killing black people. Half of American whites see no racism around them. Remember when John Roberts said there isn’t enough racism in America to justify the Voting Rights Act? Margarita Noriega on how Obama has made 6 speeches on mass shootings in 6 years. A living landmark: Jamelle Bouie on how Charleston’s Emanuel AME Church isn’t just a church — it is a historic symbol of black resistance to slavery and racism. Benjamin Park on how Charleston’s Emanuel AME Church triggered white Southern militarism. For Charleston’s Emanuel AME Church, shooting is another painful chapter in rich history. Jack Jenkins on putting the Charleston church shooting in the context of history: It's frighteningly common. Choire Sicha on three moments in white and black history in Charleston, South Carolina: “We actually have negroes in Council. It is the hardest thing we have yet had done to us”.
Shooters of color are called “terrorists” and “thugs” — why are white shooters called “mentally ill”? Anthea Butler wants to know. Here’s an opportunity to play White Terrorist Bingo. White supremacists worried Charleston shooting makes them look bad. The connection between terrorist Dylann Roof and white-supremacist regimes in Africa runs through the heart of US conservatism. As Cornell historian Edward Baptist explains in a series of chilling tweets, the Confederate flag isn't just a symbol of the pro-slavery rebellion, it's also a symbol of post-Civil War white supremacy: “SC may lower the pro-terrorism, proslavery, anti-religious flag to half mast for a day. But they plan to raise it again”. The Confederate flag isn’t budging from South Carolina’s capitol — because it’s protected under state law. Aviva Shen on how South Carolina is one of the only states that still doesn’t have a hate crime law. The ugly truth about hate crimes — in 5 charts and maps. We have, quite likely, found at 110 Calhoun Street, in Charleston, South Carolina, the place where Columbine, Aurora, and Newtown cross with Baltimore, Ferguson, and Sanford. Charles Pierce on speaking the unspeakable, thinking the unthinkable: In which we confront the dark heart of America — again.
