The White Privileged Criminal Class

I in no way mean to diminish the tragedy visited upon the innocents that wanted to enjoy The Dark Knight Rises on its opening night--many were killed, scores more injured.  Stories of the lives cut short that emerged in the wake of the disaster made the senselessness of it all even more terrible, while the bravery of others during the shooting was inspirational.  What can never be disputed, overall, is that what happened that night in Aurora, Colorado, was reprehensible and absolutely terrible.

What most assuredly IS debatable, however, are the merits of treating Mr. James Holmes, the shooter, like a sympathetic figure.

The New York Times just published a 3,804-word piece on Mr. Holmes, and I could barely stomach reading it.  My heart-rate jumped at reading the headline, and by the end I'm sure I developed an ulcer from stifling rage.  I'm not sure if that's even possible, but that's what it feels like has happened.

Simply put, this needs to STOP.

You see, my people are unlawfully stopped and frisked on a regular basis, often to the humiliation of regular people minding their own damned business; my people don hoodies and are presumed criminals, and are gunned down by zealous idiots who are then buoyed by a chorus of shameless halfwits not-so-subtly implying that the boy had it coming; my people can't find jobs and must alter their resumes so that employers will not discriminate against them; my people are prejudged by impressionable children who will grow to spread their pathogenic, poisonous prejudices to their own children.  I could go on.  

When my people are vocal about the lopsided treatment they receive, they are told that they are crazy, or making it up, or injecting race into the situation.

Well here, I am absolutely "injecting" race into the scenario, because the coverage given to Mr. Holmes is a prime example of the dangerous ignorance and vanity that contributes to what Mr. Tim Wise calls the "Pathology of White Privilege".  And it makes me sick to my stomach.

Just like Robert Bales, who slaughtered innocent citizens in Afghanistan (you had to go to Al Jazeera's website to find out who died); just like Jared Loughner, who killed many and shot a senator in the head; just like the Columbine shooters, who were the victims of Marilyn Manson's music; or our "brave" drone pilots, who rain death from the skies, but only on brown people on the other side of the world; just like Ted Kaczynski, Tim McVeigh, Charles Manson, Ted Bundy, Jeffrey Dahmer, the list goes on--James Holmes is painted with an air of sympathy, and/or singled out as a loner, or someone abnormal; he is painted as "different" from everyone else, clearly psychotic (Holmes was indeed, apparently, dealing with mental illness).  

Even the recent midtown Manhattan shooter--the tall white man in a grey suit--wasn't referred to as "the assailant" or "the suspect"; and if he was, it was always within the context of him being a "disgruntled employee".  We are immediately made aware of his motives, so that we may somehow "understand" why he decided to murder his boss in cold blood.  

On the other hand, the only comparable black assailant I can think of, the D.C. Sniper, was simply angry and evil.  And we've seen that mental disability--so often used as a cover for white criminals--is meaningless when the assailant is black.  

This is the pathology of a people who either refuses or is incapable of seeing itself in a negative light, casting stones at others inside a house that can only be made of breakaway glass.  It is reprehensible, inequitable, and delusional.

Yes, I am angry.  I am outraged by this vanity.  As a black man I am given messages that I am "other", I am "bad", I am "unwanted" (except for my sexual prowess or athletic skill), I am stupid, I am violent, I am poor, I am devoid of culture.  People shrink away from me on elevators; they refuse to sit next to me on buses and trains; they scoff at me when I say hello; they hover around me in retail outlets.

White settlers slaughtered Natives; White Southerners enslaved & murdered millions; Hitler killed millions.  The criminals named earlier committed heinous, heinous, shocking crimes.

And yet you call US savages.

UPDATE:

As I suspected, I am not the only person who has written about this...in fact, I am extraordinarily late.  Check out this editorial, and then read this effective breakdown by Daily Kos' Chancey Devega.