March 30, 2013

"White men have much to discuss about mass shootings."

An op-ed headline at The Washington Post.
Nearly all of the mass shootings in this country in recent years — not just Newtown, Aurora, Fort Hood, Tucson and Columbine — have been committed by white men and boys. Yet when the National Rifle Association (NRA), led by white men, held a news conference after the Newtown massacre to advise Americans on how to reduce gun violence, its leaders’ opinions were widely discussed.

Unlike other groups, white men are not used to being singled out. So we expect that many of them will protest it is unfair if we talk about them. But our nation must correctly define their contribution to our problem of gun violence if it is to be solved....
I would have thought white men were the one group that American elite media does feel free to single out... as evidenced by this article. And I didn't know we were calling the Fort Hood killer a "white man." But I'm sure you can find some other problems with this piece.

ADDED: This topic made me think of R. Crumb's "Whiteman":

79 comments:

damikesc said...

"Imagine African Americans are committing mass shootings month after month, day after day..."

Have the writers never heard of Chicago?

Detroit?

Newark?

Conrad Bibby said...

Does the WaPo really want to go there? The murder rate among whites obviously pales in comparison to that of some other races I can think of.

Hagar said...

All the grownups left town for Easter?

sakredkow said...

I would have thought white men were the one group that American elite media does feel free to single out... as evidenced by this article.

Good evidence. The *elite media* never single out blacks, women, or other groups at all.

damikesc said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
F said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Kylos said...

I think they're hoping for someone inarticulate to take the bait and say something stupid (an emotional response beyond what is supported by the facts) about race. Then, gun owners will be more easily dealt with as racist gun-nuts.

So, be careful, but don't stop exposing the lies.

F said...

And when party affiliation can be determined, mass shootings are committed overwhelmingly by Democrats. How could the WaPo have missed that important point? White, off their meds, Democrats. Let the conversation begin.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

Lets keep everyone neatly compartmentalized based on superficial features such as skin color.

Tank said...

The percentage of white men who commit this kind of crime is exactly the same as the percentage of white men.

End of stupid story.

God these people are stupid.

Unknown said...

" Have the writers never heard of" Camden, East LA, Philadelphia, etc. Virtually every metropolis in the county.

" How could the WaPo have missed that important point? " They didn't, they just decided to not report anything, indeed everything, that does not fit their preconceived notions.

The Godfather said...

I finally get to be a member of a persecuted minority group, condemned by twin bigots in a major newspaper, and I'm too damn' old to take advantage of the affirmative action to which I must now be entitled!

Unknown said...

But our nation must correctly define their contribution to our problem of gun violence

Lets talk about this one. The contribution of white men to gun violence in this country pales in comparison to the level of gun violence perpetrated by either black or hispanic males involved in gangs.

By all means, lets have this discussion.

History shows that they do not want to though.

Icepick said...

There are daily mass shooting?

Oso Negro said...

Among the pathologies of white men is that we do outperform in mass shootings. The world may lament this or be grateful that we don't go rogue more often. In the dishonest discussion of gun violence in general, the topic of race it is given a wide berth. I watched a segment lately in which Dana Loesch was thought to have "schooled" her opponents. The opponents naturally wondered why the UK and Japan have better looking stats than the U.S. Having examined global stats, I can tell you that normed for citizens of African heritage, there is no difference in the murder rate between the UK and the US. Pointing that out would, of course, lead to a super-unpleasant discussion.

Unknown said...

"Imagine if African American men and boys were committing mass shootings month after month, year after year"

They are. Is it significantly different that the shootings occur over time versus all at once? I don't think so if what we're discussing is the use of guns. Maybe, if we're talking about sociological or political factors.

virgil xenophon said...

As the above comments point out, this article says more about the studied collective mind of the LSM than anything else..

Icepick said...

Among the pathologies of white men is that we do outperform in mass shootings.

That's what it is. White men don't attempt them more than others, they're just more competent at it when they do it.

Competence - the real White Man's Burden.

Anonymous said...

I have collected, over the years, news clips of all my students who are murderers. I have their newspaper clippings laminated into several posters spanning decades. All of my students accused and/or convicted of single killings, drive bys, love killing, revenge killing, robbery gone wrong killing, etc., are African American young men. My one Anglo-American accused and convicted of murder killed six people. His wife, her best friend when she came by to visit, his father in law when he came by to check on his daughter, his crack dealer making a delivery, a pizza delivery guy when he came by with the pie and finally a bad check passer in prison where he was serving life without parole. we used to sit around the teachers lounge and wonder how many people Billy would kill one day...the answer was six...and counting.

Tank said...

Oso Negro said...
Among the pathologies of white men is that we do outperform in mass shootings.


Even this is not correct. White men commit this type of crime in proportion to our percent of the general population.

Now, an interesting article might have discussed why is this one area in which white men commit this type of crime as much as non-white men?

I don't think that's what they were looking for.

Rusty said...

The WP? The only high school news paper owned by the Tribune Company.


Good evidence. The *elite media* never single out blacks, women, or other groups at all

Never for criticism unless they're conservative.

Paddy O said...

"white men commit violence"

How is this new? Also sexist and racist.

Hitler was white.So was Stalin. And it's a well known fact that slave owners were white men too (at least most of the one's in North America).

The Romans were white. And they killed Jesus.

Gahrie said...

Tell you what...deal with the much bigger problem of innercity minority violence first (and you can begin by covering it accurately in the news) and then come talk to me.....

Anonymous said...

I have collected, over the years, news clips of all my students who are murderers. I have their newspaper clippings laminated into several posters spanning decades. All of my students accused and/or convicted of single killings, drive bys, love killing, revenge killing, robbery gone wrong killing, etc., are African American young men. My one Anglo-American accused and convicted of murder killed six people. His wife, her best friend when she came by to visit, his father in law when he came by to check on his daughter, his crack dealer making a delivery, a pizza delivery guy when he came by with the pie and finally a bad check passer in prison where he was serving life without parole. we used to sit around the teachers lounge and wonder how many people Billy would kill one day...the answer was six...and counting.

Tom said...

Open bigotry and racism exist America. White men and rednecks, in particular, are approved for jokes, accusations, and comments that would get the speaker "lynched" if these things were said about any other groups. Think about what gets said about NASCAR fans and of those things would be acceptable about Hip-Hop fans. None of its right - some of its just less wrong than others.

Anonymous said...

Hitler was white.So was Stalin.

Stalin probably would qualify as a "person of color" in America today. It's not certain because we don't have many Georgians in America, but we do have plenty of the physically similar next-door Armenians, and within the last couple of decades they've gone from white to non-white.

Peter

edutcher said...

Beltway Snipers ring any bells?

Rwanda?

Oso Negro said...

Oh, but Tank, when we white guys do go rogue, our casualty rate is higher per incident.

Rusty said...

Is this part of the "white privilege" thing? If it is I'n not seeing a plus side to this.

Oso Negro said...

Edutcher - Rwanda doesn't count, the majority of the work was done with machetes. Imported machetes, I would note. The Third World weapon of choice when guns are unavailable.

Patrick Henry was right! said...

Major Hassan is a white guy??.?

richlb said...

I was getting the feeling that a lot of recent large scale shootings had been committed by Asian men. Or maybe the are qualifying them as "white Asians."

Tank said...

Oso

Point taken.

Saint Croix said...

I didn't know we were calling the Fort Hood killer a "white man."

ehhhhhh, we'll take him

But only if we get to keep Beethoven.

This could be a game show!

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

So the one time the media mention "Major Hassan", the whack job Islamist who murdered our men an women in uniform out of Islamist rage, is suddenly "white"?

But of course.

Journalism is dead.

Patrick Henry was right! said...

Any NRA members in this list? Don't think so.

Crimso said...

My previous comment was deleted, as I saw I was scooped by Icepick.

SomeoneHasToSayIt said...

If the "# of killed per incident" can be thought of (perversely, of course) as a measure of "quality", then is it really a surprise that there is a quality achievement gap? And why single out White guys. Didn't an Asian put up a pretty big number within the past several years, on a campus no less?

Mr. D said...

I never saw that cartoon before -- hilarious!

Henry said...

White men are also used to being scapegoats.

Conrad Bibby wrote: Does the WaPo really want to go there?

Do their writers read their own paper?

Cedarford said...

AprilApple said...
So the one time the media mention "Major Hassan", the whack job Islamist who murdered our men an women in uniform out of Islamist rage, is suddenly "white"?

===============
Hasan, and fellow Semitic peoples have been classified as Caucasian for over 100 years. Same with most Indians, N Africans, Pakistanis, Iranians, Turkic peoples.
Unless April Apple and others want to create a new race to put them in.

(It wouldn't be without precedent. Two Jewish lawyers LBJ hired to create his EEO rules created the "Hispanic race" and the "Pacific Islander" race. The two Jews even determined that "Native Americans ended at the Rio Grande and those south of that were Hispanics." And people from Spain are not Hispanic, but European, unless thay are born in South and Central America or certain Caribbean Islands..)

Temujin said...

Stop the madness already. Every dead or dying city in this country is the result of unending years of liberal policies policed by Democratic lifers (and their cronies) who prefer to stay in power rather than actually make productive, positive corrections.

The mass murderers in this country are the Democrat party leaders, the liberal academicians, and the mass media lemmings who foist their policies on the black community, keep it pushed down on their necks, and then when the people ask 'why'?, they are told: "It's because of Republican White Men."

The sad thing is that this has gone on for so long now- multiple generations- that its fully engrained into the marrow of society. People can look at Detroit to see who has run that thing into the ground. Chicago. Baltimore, Newark, LA, etc...yet don't believe your lying eyes...believe the people sitting on top of your cities telling you to look out there at those other bad people doing this to you.

It's fucking nuts. And it's time everyone looked at the reality of it all and called people out on it. We've lost generations of Black Americans for what? To allow the Democrat Party to keep voting itself in? Who would vote for their own enslavers? Time and time again?

Let me ask one simple question: if we can all agree that education is the key: Which party backs the teachers unions over the kids and will not allow vouchers- anywhere? Then- Which party wants to allow inner city families to use vouchers to get their kids out of the horrible prisons called "Public Schools". Answer that question and you have the answer to this bullshit.

WaPo 'JournoLists' need to go back to their universities and ask for their money back.

Patrick Henry was right! said...

Asian mass murders - Mao, Pol Pot, Tojo, just for starters.

William said...

The highest body count on an American college campus happened at Virginia Polytechnic Institute. The shooter was Seung Hui Cho. Interesting that WaPo neglects the contributions made by Asian Americans to this phenomenon.......The article itself is stupid and bound to arouse invidious comparisons and ill will. For shame on the WaPo.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

Blinded by the white

MSNBC - The freak show network.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

Yes Cedarfod, I often witness the media refer to Iranians as Caucasians.

Big Mike said...

Three years ago tomorrow three black men opened fire on a crowd of black teenagers in a drive-by shooting. The driver of their car was 14, and the semi-automatic handguns two of them fired were supplemented by a fully automatic AK-47.

Four dead, six wounded.

Even though the guns were illegally acquired and fully automatic firearms have been illegal in this country for decades, it only made the local news. Just another case of young black men killing more blacks.

JAL said...

Hasan does not count as a white man.

Nor does Malvo and his murderous mentor whose name I forget, (but that's okay, we shouldn't remember these guys by name).

Meanwhile details for point made by damikesc:

CDC 2010 report
>11,000 homicides by firearms.
>5,500 were black males.


Duh.


I did not read the article, but how do they define "mass shootings?" Workplace violence where the guy takes out 3 of his co-workers?

Newtown, Aurora, Fort Hood, Tucson and Columbine AND the D.C Sniper(s): So out of the 6 biggies in recent years 1/3 were done by non whites (for lack of a term which comes to mind easily).

But as for them being mostly "white" perps, apparently math in general does not come easily for the WaPo writer.

JAL said...

New Orleans has a *very* high murder rate. I believe it skews the state of LA. (Higher than NYC.)

Saint Croix said...

Interesting to compare the Washington Post of 2013 with the New York Times of 1873: Troublesome Negroes.

But the New York Times in 1875 really takes the cake, with The Similarity of Chinamen.

Anything to raise hostility and make a few bucks. Way to go, you Democrat papers. Still vile after all these years.

JAL said...

And you're right -- how could the WaPo writer (Washington D.C. -- sliced out of Virginia) "forget" Virginia Tech?

My adopted granddaughter graduated the year.

Good grief.

(And Indians & Pakistanis are often described as "Asians" -- especially in Britain. With "East Asians" being Japanese and Chinese and the like.)


But anyone the WaPo wants to indict will simply be "white fill-in-the-blank." As Zimmerman is (was).

JAL said...

Hunger Games redux.

Unknown said...

Whether or not the perp is "white" depends entirely on who is citing the "facts".
This shouldn't be much of a surprise anymore.

Bruce Hayden said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Unknown said...

Icepick said...

Among the pathologies of white men is that we do outperform in mass shootings.

That's what it is. White men don't attempt them more than others, they're just more competent at it when they do it.

Competence - the real White Man's Burden.

3/30/13, 9:08 AM


I am reminded of the Whit Stillman movie, "Barcelona" in which a Spanish woman says, "You cannot say Americans are not more violent than other people."

To which Chris Eigeman replied, "No."

"All those people killed in shooting in America?"

"Oh, shootings. Yeah, but that doesn't mean that Americans are more violent than other people. We're just better shots."

Fernandinande said...

MSM = hilarity.

Sam L. said...

Chicago? That's raaaaacist!!!!!1111!

Progressivews are sooooo behind the times. By choice. And preference. And self-deception.

jr565 said...

Tom wrote:
Open bigotry and racism exist America. White men and rednecks, in particular, are approved for jokes, accusations, and comments that would get the speaker "lynched" if these things were said about any other groups. Think about what gets said about NASCAR fans and of those things would be acceptable about Hip-Hop fans. None of its right - some of its just less wrong than others.



Just look at Eddie Murphy's Norbitt where he plays Asian or one of his movies where he plays white.
He can do that, but have someone like Ted Danson do black face at whoopi's birthday party (back when they were dating and she put him up to it) and out come the racism charges.

I'm perfectly ok with Eddie playing stereotypical White or Asian, but lets at least have a standard for all. If its good enough for blacks, it's good enough for Whites. And if its' not good enough for Whites, then blacks shouldn't do it either.

jr565 said...

Here is Mr Wong in Norbit giving a toast:

http://movieclips.com/QwG3-norbit-movie-mr-wongs-toast/

jr565 said...

Saint croix wrote:
Interesting to compare the Washington Post of 2013 with the New York Times of 1873: Troublesome Negroes.

But the New York Times in 1875 really takes the cake, with The Similarity of Chinamen.

Anything to raise hostility and make a few bucks. Way to go, you Democrat papers. Still vile after all these years.

see this is around the time i would say that it shows a bias of the media how they will say things now about wihtes that if they said about "chinamen" or blacks in inner cities they'd be vilified, namely htat there's a double standard.

And it would be about hear that PHX would essentially argue that white guys need to stop complaining about the bias, that's all we talk about.
When what is more important is that the media has this bias. Why should whites have to answer for these crimes?
How common are these mass shooting? Compare the numbers killed in mass shooting versus people killed in inner cities. Where is the real problem?

Maybe blacks need to answer for inner city violence and the media should be pushing THAT narrative.

Smilin' Jack said...

Unlike other groups, white men are not used to being singled out. So we expect that many of them will protest it is unfair if we talk about them. But our nation must correctly define their contribution to our problem of gun violence....

I have a feeling that if anyone actually does that, the results will not be reported in the Washington Post.

tiger said...

1) The guy at Foot Hood isn't 'white' but rather of Middle Eastern descent.

2) Black kill each other at a near Newtown rate EVERY MONTH in Chicago alone so the WaPo can go peddle their racist nonsense somewhere else.

Anonymous said...

1. Black murder far out paces white murder. This is as plain as day. As does Black mass murder.

2. This is just a smokescreen to cover the rising crime rates and probable riots this summer from blacks as the Obama economy continues it's free fall and Big Chief Government runs out of dough.
Concentrate on hating whitey!

Enjoy the decline, morons!

n.n said...

The American Left exploits differentials and gradients in order to advance their political, economic, and social standing. The Left in general seeks to establish monopolies and monopolistic practices enforced through indoctrination and coercion in order to consolidate capital and control in minority hands.

It's interesting that they no longer maintain even a pretense of good faith actions. They only won by 1% in the last election. Americans have suffered under progressive corruption, and there is a progressive dysfunction, but the corruption is not conclusive, and we have not yet experienced a dysfunctional convergence.

As for mass shootings, how many people died? How many people are the victims of government agents, gangs, and suicides using a gun? How many people are murdered using scalpels and vacuums every every year, before they have a voice and arms to protest their premature termination?

As for "White" men, first, judge them by the content of their character, not by the color of their skin. Second, judge them as individuals, not as a collective. The judgment of The Washington Post is corrupt.

Synova said...

"And you're right -- how could the WaPo writer (Washington D.C. -- sliced out of Virginia) "forget" Virginia Tech?"

I think the lady authors are from Oregon.

Paddy O said...

white men are not used to being singled out. So we expect that many of them will protest it is unfair if we talk about them

But they're still not "singling" them out. They're generalizing.

That's a huge distinction, and it goes to a lot of racial discussions (including the Obama phone lady). If you see skin color as a collective, then describing one person of that color describes all. You're generalizing the traits and expect protest or pushback.

That's also the myth of the "anglo" identity. White people don't generalize on skin color as historically white people have separated from each other based on all manner of other reasons, such as religion, or geographic region. We have unique derogatory names for the Spanish, Irish, Italians, English, Germans, etc. The Swedes and the Norwegians have a running set of insults about each other, and they are as white as they get.

But that's besides the point. Generalizing the traits of "white" people based on some collective issue or blame is a very Modern approach.

If you actually particularize individuals, then you can see someone of a particular race as a particular person not actually representing others of that race.

With this, then, you can also begin to address more ecological/contextual problems that arise in particular settings. If all you do is generalize, then you will never get around to addressing those particular contexts because you're always trying to protect/blame based on protecting/blaming the race as a whole. It's a ludicrous way to assess a problem or a solution.

Which was precisely MLK jr's point.

vbspurs said...

This inflammatory Op-Ed headline reminds me of President Lula's famous accusation, during a G-20 gathering, that it was 'white, blue-eyed bankers' who caused our economic woes in 2008.

That it is pathological, and hyper-racist, there can be no doubt, else the Op-Ed would've stopped at "male" and not included the race.

Cheers,
Victoria

Mark said...

This is yet another "Look! A squirrel!" move. We do have a murder problem in this country, and the laws proposed to do something about it won't change the environment at all. The two-pronged approach (which doesn't have to be understood by the tools at all) is to:

(1) Marginalize and demoralize flyover folk, and

(2) Lay the groundwork for more draconian controls when the current wave of controls inevitably fail.

The ideal that the Pelosi and Reid crowd see is to totally remove guns from the hands of citizens. I will grant that they think this will make our country a better place, but I think they are worse than wrong in believing so; they are being stupid.

The writers of the article in question deserve their own set of angels in hell to reward them, but hey, I'm a half-hearted atheist so I'm pretty sure that won't happen. More's the pity.

Mark said...

By the way, their website is a hoot:

Clueless at the top

The name of it is kind of self-descriptive.

And it never ceases to amaze me how often the transnormative are absolutely sure about how everyone should think.

The Godfather said...

I used to live in Washington, DC. I was there when the "Beltway snipers" were at work. The police insisted that the perpetrator or perpetrators must be white, because this 'isn't the kind of crime' that non-whites commit. That, and the erroneous identification of the vehicle the snipers used certainly delayed their apprehension. While this was going on, regular non-hysterical folks like me were constantly nervous when we (or our loved ones) were out doing normal everyday things, like going to the super market or gassing up the car. Some (white) guy 200 yards away might put a bullet through your (her/his) brain. The killers were black.

In other words, the kind of racism exemplified by these twin twits can cost lives.

While I'm here, let me mention that the anthrax attacks in DC also affected me and my family, because we lived in the same town house community as Sen. Tom Daschle, who was one of the targets of the attacks. Our mail box was quite close to his. I don't think they've ever definitively determined who did the anthrax attack, but it may not have been a whitey.

Some commenters have mentioned Virginia Tech, but don't forget Appalachian Law, also in Virginia. "Only" three people were killed, but one, Tony Sutin, the Dean, used to work at my law firm in DC; we weren't close friends, but I certainly knew him and felt the loss when he was murdered -- by an African, as I recall.

So, the more I think about it, the less I'm inclined to treat the racism exemplified by the op-ed as mere harmless stupidity.

Nomennovum said...

The op-ed piece has got to be satire.

JAL said...

@ Synova "And you're right -- how could the WaPo writer (Washington D.C. -- sliced out of Virginia) "forget" Virginia Tech?"

I think the lady authors are from Oregon.


You're right. But the WaPo let all their editors go?

tom swift said...

"and fully automatic firearms have been illegal in this country for decades"

Not so. They've been heavily (and expensively) regulated since the 1930s. BATF maintains a registry of legal machine guns in the US but not in military or police hands. There are about 780,0000 of them. These are NOT guns possessed by criminals. They are perfectly legal and (since the 1986 Firearms Owners Protection Act essentially cut off further supplies) increasingly valuable - in fact, very good investments. Of course, the BATF list, being the work of career government types, is widely believed to suffer from major errors. The error rate could be as high as 50%. So the actual number of full autos could be a mere 400,000, or more like 1.5 million. In any case, a considerable number, and none with any crime history. Whether or not all the owners are those despicable and murderous white guys, I can't say.

Indigo Red said...

Since 1982, 62 mass shootings (4 or more victims) have occurred, 44 of which were by white men. That's 71% of the mass shootings were committed by white guys which shouldn't surprise because white guys are 78% of the American population.

Anonymous said...

Another day another mass-slaying by Planned Parenthood. I'd love to see the Childress twins identify which social group is responsible for the carnage. Face it, women are the most prolific killers in the nation. Meanwhile we're debating whether they should be in combat roles, ha! it should be mandatory.

Dan said...

From an EEO/AA perspective, Arabs and other middle eastern people are not people of "color" and are considered "white" by the law for purposes of EEO/AA.

Scott M said...

Unlike other groups, white men are not used to being singled out.

Oh, a-hahahahaHhAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHA

Television advertising says otherwise. Just take any random Brinks commercial, for instance.

Tyrone Slothrop said...

I'm surprised at all of you. You correctly point out that black men are eight times more likely to commit murder than white men, but you fail to recognize that that's the fault of white men, too. At least I'm pretty sure that's what the Childresses would say.

zefal said...

This is a must read WaPo Executives Make Millions While Paper Cuts Staff, Benefits

I'm guessing most of if not all are white.

Wonder if wapo will write editorial on the ethnic make-up of most Wall Street scammers like Milken, Boesky, Maddoff etc.

"Jewish men have much to discuss about mass financial scams"

Can't wait!!! If they can figure out a way to point the finger at Israel I'm sure they will one day.