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White folks, say it out loud: “We perpetrate hate crimes”

White folks, say it out loud: “We perpetrate hate crimes”

Last updated on: September 2, 2023 at 9:26 pm by Kathryn Shihadah

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White folks, say it out loud: “We perpetrate hate crimes” 2023-09-02T21:26:44-04:00 Kathryn Shihadah

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White hate crime is nothing to play around with.

White hate crimes: nothing to play around with.

The hate crimes cycle happens like clockwork in this country:

We get news of a mass shooting that has just occurred – details are sparse.
Soon, we’re told the perpetrator was a white male, and the victims were non-white.
Soon, a manifesto, or a pattern or evidence of racist attitudes, is discovered, and the shooting is labeled a “hate crime.”
Immediately, there are white people on social media who say “hate is hate, violence is violence, why bring race into it?” and/or “why is it only a hate crime when a white person kills black people, but not when black people kill white people?”

The Jacksonville, FL killing spree was, of course, the most recent such example (unless another incident happens as this post goes to press – which is not unlikely).

This actual quote from a post in my Facebook feed is a typical response:

I deplore racially motivated violence and my heart hurts for those killed in Jacksonville…Please explain to me though why when a white person is killed by a person of color there is no news story?…Please tell me why the news anchor never says ‘racially motivated killing today against white people’?”…

Prayers for the families of the victims of this crazy guy!…

One doesn’t have to “manifesto” to show racism. If a bunch of black kids are beating on a white person and they are yelling racial slurs it’s NO DIFFERENT….

Only God can heal our Nation now, but until our country repents there will always be violence and turmoil against each other. Doesn’t matter the race or color. The world needs Jesus!

Let’s break this down a bit.

Selective reporting on hate crimes?

Some of us want to believe that, if white people aren’t better than Black people, at least we’re not worse. We can’t be the only ones committing this heinous crime – the media must be holding out on us.

See, the liberal elite have a vendetta against white folks. Liberal media is doing its part to destroy America by demonizing its best and brightest (and whitest). Nobody else can see it because they’re already caught in the web of deceit – they already think white people suck. It’s left for the last few enlightened folks to clear things up – the ones willing to courageously ask the hard questions.

“Why doesn’t anybody report on the multitudes of ‘black-on-white’ hate crimes?”

When pressed, my friend offered two “examples” of such crimes, both about two years old, both reported on sketchy, far-right websites (this and this, if you must know) – but neither turned out to be racially motivated. The clickbait-y headlines highlighted the races of the perps and victims, but the articles themselves made no case for the incidents being hate crimes.

It’s easy to imagine Black people hating white people and wanting to kill us after all we’ve done to them – but apparently that sort of thing just doesn’t happen much. Do Black people commit crimes against white people? Of course. But generally, they’re just crimes, not “black-on-white hate crimes.”

This FB writer points a finger not at the white guy perpetrating a freaking hate crime – but at “liberal” media for “pushing their agenda” (which is to make white people look bad). This same media conglomerate also apparently has an absurd requirement that a perp isn’t racist unless there is proof. (People in the know understand that “you don’t need a manifesto to be racist.”)

(Commercial: if you question “business as usual” in Christianity – or want to question it – subscribe to my newsletter, and we can journey together!)

White racial slurs?

This bit deserves a closer look:

One doesn’t have to “manifesto” to show racism. If a bunch of black kids are beating on a white person and they are yelling racial slurs it’s NO DIFFERENT.

Certainly black kids beat up white kids sometimes. It’s not particularly newsworthy, though, is it? Why is black kids yelling racial slurs while beating up a white kid the same as a white man writing a multi-page manifesto about his hatred for black people, and then shooting a bunch of black people?

This is a scramble, again, to defend white people from the obvious conclusion one would reach after seeing yet another hate crime with Black victims: that white people suck.

Newsflash: white people do suck. We have committed more abominable crimes (Google “worst genocides in history”) by far than any other group. It’s a wonder that no group has risen up against us to take us down. Oh, wait. They can’t because we have all the best weapons.

BONUS INFO: The only “racial slurs,” I could think of against whites were “honkey” and “cracker” (neither of which is incendiary – and I’m not even sure about the spelling of honkey). Thinking maybe it was white privilege that kept me ignorant of the more horrific racial slurs used against white folks, I checked the ultimate source, Wikipedia.

To my astonishment, I learned many new, offensive labels for us pale folks: “haole” (sometimes used by Hawaiians against non-Hawaiians), “ofay” (used in the 19th century), “peckerwood” (used by Black and upper-class white people, referring to poor, rural white people), and “mayonnaise monkey” (self-explanatory, lol). Scandalous, right?

“Prayers”

Moving right along, we come to this statement – proof that the writer is definitely not racist –

Prayers for the families of the victims of this crazy guy!”

See what happened here? – by calling him “crazy,” my friend invoked the mental illness defense. If it sounds familiar, that’s because it’s the same defense used after any gun “tragedy.” If the perp was mentally ill, it’s not a hate crime or a 2nd Amendment issue – it’s just an unfortunate, one-off incident. Nothing to see here.

Also, offering thoughts and/or prayers for the families of the (Black) victims is how we “do something” about the problem.

If we would only spend more time learning about racism, and less time lecturing about how innocent we are, we might begin to actually understand the problem of hate crime. It’s not constructive to deny its existence or fall into what-about-ism. It certainly doesn’t put us on a path to forgiveness.

By the way, the “racism isn’t my problem” argument doesn’t work in Jesus’ book.

(Also, let’s just agree to not let white men lecture us on racism, ok?)

“Come, Lord Jesus”

And finally, let’s unpack this one:

Only God can heal our Nation now, but until our country repents, there will always be violence and turmoil against each other. Doesn’t matter the race or color. The world needs Jesus!

This statement serves the dual purpose of solidifying one’s position as a Good Guy and leaving open the option to walk away from the discussion. I don’t have to do anything about racism and violence. It’s all on God. White people do not need to repent or repair or even reflect – we just need to remain in a holding pattern till Jesus returns to fix everything.

“Doesn’t matter the race or color” is code for “I know white people commit more hate crimes against Black people than the other way around, but let’s not talk about that.” It’s something only people with privilege can say.

When we say, “the world needs Jesus,” we imply that we already have Jesus, so we’re good to go.

When the next hate crime occurs, and the next manifesto manifests, we can stay in our easy chairs and say, “Satan, your days are numbered. Come, Lord Jesus.” Over and over and over and over and over again.

(If you are energized by challenges to the evangelical status quo like this, please subscribe to my newsletter! If you would like to comment on this post, please pop over to my Facebook page. All of my posts are there and open to constructive comment! I welcome your thoughts.)

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About Kathryn Shihadah

I was raised as a conservative Christian, and was perfectly content to stay that way – until the day my stable, predictable world was rocked. A curtain was pulled back on conservative Christianity, and instead of ignoring the ugliness I saw, I confronted it. I began to ask questions I never thought I’d ask, and found answers I’d never expected. Old things began to fall away, and – behold! – the new me has come. What a gift to be a new, still-evolving creation. I found out that it’s better to look at the world through Progressive Lenses, with Grace-Colored Glasses. You can read more about the author here.

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