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Shaun King's avatar

Comments are open to all, but you must be respectful or you will be banned.

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Sawsan Samara's avatar

EXTREMELY WELL SAID.

And this is how a genocide of a WHOLE group of people, the Palestinians is justified. With this racist, discriminatory lens.

I would add the war on Iraq. Iraq was destroyed because of September 11th. And guess what, the alleged perpetrators weren’t even Iraqi. So then… America destroys Iraq with frankly NO RELATION to September 11th.

They just use the hearts and minds of ppl to twist facts and destroy any group they want. And it seems they are targeting the Catholics now (in addition to all other minorities - which we know).

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Christine T's avatar

Same here! I converted to Islam and always get nervous when things like this happen. I’ve experienced hostility from strangers after certain events (such as attacks in France). It’s not fair that people should have to go through these fears of strangers doing things and getting somehow blamed for it.

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Jen C's avatar

These were my thoughts exactly when my 15-year-old queer daughter came to me in tears because there were already rumors that this was someone in the LGBTQ community

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Leslye Joy Allen, Historian's avatar

Well written and right on the mark. I taught College History for 7+ years. I stopped in 2015.

Get this. I had 2 students who had already been in 2 school shootings and they were only 19 years old.

I don’t know if you have read Christopher Ortiz here on Substack, but he brings some truth to what “whiteness” is that is rarely discussed.

His essay “The Empty Trauma of Whiteness: How Colonialism Stole Europe’s Soul” is exceptional.

And my piece “Baldwin, Gaza and Venezuela” piggy backs off of his piece.

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Dr. Sadaf Gilani's avatar

After hearing about this tragic event, I texted some Muslims friends "Praying the shooter is not a "Muslim." " It would be another "justification" for the slaughter of innocents in Palestine.

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Josey Lee's avatar

I am so incredibly sick of people in power automatically blaming whichever group they want as political propaganda. Truth literally means nothing when they see the smallest opportunity for political gain. But this is exactly how we got here in the first place. Many Trump voters were disinformed for their vote (though certainly not blameless) because disinformation and propaganda work.

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Jacqueline Kazel's avatar

The truth is terrible.

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Catherine's avatar

Bingo!

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Robert B Walker's avatar

Apparently the bullets were made by a company that stamps a diminutive of its name being TRN.

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Catherine Martinez's avatar

When violence in America happens today, every one of us is tarred with that brush. Most of us want to heal it, not to return to an imaginary day of glory for a handful of white people. As a social system right now, I compare the U.S. to a human body deeply vomiting to get the poison out. It stinks. But we have to do it. I am insulted all the time for being white, for being female, for being old, for being politically extremely progressive, for being a Boomer. It's not the same as being Black, Muslim, undocumented (how the hell can a human be considered undocumented wherever they are) - of course not. Mine is injury by a thousand tiny cuts, not a bullet in the back. I am not likely to be arrested or shot, but my U.S. citizen in-laws are. My husband and I joke that having married him, I am now an Irish Mexican. Still safe. Still with a thousand tiny cuts. Not a bullet.

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Ahmad Roshdy Abderrassoul's avatar

Wallahi every single time one of these incidents happens, I pray that the perpetrator is not muslim because we all know how the media will go overdrive to demonize all muslims. The sigh of relief when they announce it's "mental health issues", you know it's a "lone wolf" white man...

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Elenara Joubert's avatar

Couldn’t have said it better myself. You truly are an intelligent writer with quite an extraordinary ability of seeing through the smoke and mirrors to find the truth. Glad to see you’re able to type again. Don’t overdo!

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Mary Norris's avatar

Still praying for all in Gaza. Biden was no help and Trump could care less about the death and destruction happening in Gaza

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Aisha's avatar

Exactly…This is the exact feeling every time there’s a shooting and it shouldn’t be this way. The mainstream media should be blamed for this with their speculations always towards certain groups for all these years. They said the rifle and ammo were scrawled with cultural phrases which could lead people to think the shooter was Muslim. Now they changed the phrasing. Let’s see how long it stays in the news since he’s a white male, if he’s now deemed to have mental issues, or if Trump takes back his death penalty comment now. Will have to see if the typical pattern is followed.

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Claudette Tarrant's avatar

Perfectly stated as always you bring the truth. #blacklivesmatter

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