Just the way some people are talking about the Charleston Church shootings shows the depth of the problems this country has with race and guns.

First we have the gun nut crowd. They’re convinced guns had no bearing on this incidence. They ignore statistics and facts. Developed wealthy nations similar to the US all have much more stringent gun laws. They all have far fewer murders per capita. They all have far fewer mass murders. Australia. Canada. United Kingdom. France. Japan. Germany. Netherlands. Denmark. Sweden. Norway. Italy. Taiwan. Just look at murders per capita. Then look at what percentage of US murders are committed with guns. It is obvious where the problem is. And no, without guns people aren’t just as likely to kill. If that were true, Australia’s murder rate would not have decreased when they passed strict gun laws. They would still have mass murders.

This isn’t really all that surprising. Many Americans love guns. They really love guns. They will believe anything that helps them cling to those guns. Logic or facts be damned.

This is disturbing.

I find the inability to admit racism in this country even more disturbing.

Young men that riot when they are angry about (real) injustice are labeled as thugs when they are black. Young men that are white and riot when they are angry about a sports loss, or riot just because they wanted to are labeled as troublemakers.

A young Muslim that kills non-Muslims is instantly labeled a terrorist.

White cops shoot young black men after pulling them over for a tail light. White cops shoot unarmed kids for failing to comply. White cops throw fourteen year old girls to the ground for failure to comply. White cops calmly arrest a 21 year old terrorist that just murdered nine innocent people in cold blood. White people are treated differently than black people. THIS is racism people.

A young white man that kills blacks, says he wants to start a race war, accusing them of raping “our” women and taking over “our” country is labeled by those that refuse to admit our problem as a troubled young man. He is labeled as someone with mental health issues.

Make no mistake about it. He is a racist. He was not born with these attitudes. He learned them. And while we don’t know if it was his parents, his peers, or his community that taught him these attitudes, it is a safe bet that it came from all of the above. He told “harmless” racist jokes. Only they aren’t harmless. Every time someone tells a racist joke and others laugh, or fail to speak up, they are silently saying racism is acceptable.

The young man that shot those nine innocent people in the Charleston Church is a terrorist. He left someone alive so they could tell the story. There is no other word than terrorism to describe what he did.

The Wall Street Journal editorial board actually wrote a piece that said there is no institutional racism in America.

This myth is continuously propagated by the conservative right. It lives on in the Republican party. They tell themselves and their base these things to make them feel better about themselves.

This is truly upsetting. It is maddening. It is mad!

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/wsj-charleston-shooting-editorial