Terance Hare II
Mr. Sunday
English 12
11 December 2018
White Fragility and School Shootings
In America white men have been directly linked to mass shootings because of many having fragile egos and also entitlement issues which causes them to be the biggest terrorist threat in America today. In the United States we currently have had 136 mass shootings in 2018. The amount of these being school shootings is 23 which brings the average of school shootings to about one per week. The majority of these shootings came from a white male who did not have mental illnesses. Many white people in the United States have white male fragility which is caused from them not receiving the privilege they believe they deserve for having white skin in America. White fragility can be directly related to school shootings and shootings in general as a way to get back at American society for betraying them and not giving them a easy life and what they want because they are white. “We're 21 weeks into 2018, and there have already been 23 school shootings where someone was hurt or killed. That averages out to more than 1 shooting a week”(Ahmed and Walker, “There has been, on average, 1 school shooting every week this year”).
When Barack Obama was elected president there was much backlash to the thought of a predominantly white nation being led by a black man. Groups such as the Ku Klux Klan and the Neo-Nazis especially had something to say as on a few occasions many disrupted rallies in celebration of Obama. When seeing a man of color could do a job that was previously exclusive to white men only, many were furious and did not consider him to be a president they could support just because of the color of his skin. This hit many racist people hard with the realization that if he could be president than black people could do anything a white man could do if not even better. With this feeling came violence which evolved into mass shootings which started to make people feel worried to walk in a grocery store or even attend school.
White males are responsible for sixty-seven percent of the shootings that have occured in the United States this year alone. While white people are obviously the main cause of school shootings, schools that are predominantly black or located in the hood still have the most security and things such as metal detectors and random locker searches. This is not fair to only give schools in the hood or predominantly colored such treatment since the evidence shows a white kid is more likely to shoot his classmates on a large scale than a person of color is or even a mass shooting in general.
When reports of acts of terrorism occur such as the Las Vegas massacre, the reporters and journalists will try their best to protect the white men because they don’t want something like this to taint the white man’s “perfect” look in american society. They see themselves as the best and can’t do anything wrong because of their white privilege and if something does occur that could taint their image then they will stop at nothing to try to make it look as innocent as possible. This is a problem because it is very common that if a white man and a black man commit the same crime that the black man would be dealt with more severely.
Nikolas Cruz is the name of the Parkland high school shooter who caused much protest, walk outs, and marches after killing seventeen people and injuring seventeen people also. A few adjectives to describe him were troubled, lonely, a child. He is a nineteen year old man who knew exactly what he was doing and did not care about who he was going to harm once he started. A adjective used to describe Emile Daren, recently arrested for walking into Boulevard Mall with a fake gun, that stuck out to me was terrorist. Emile Daren did not kill anyone, he did not fire a single shot, and he did not injure anyone yet he was still called a terrorist. Nikolas Cruz killed seventeen people and was called troubled and lonely while Emile Daren was called a terrorist and being charged with one count of terrorism simply for having a fake gun and being black. “A Las Vegas man faces a terrorism charge after police accused him of entering the Boulevard Mall on Thursday evening while wearing a mask and carrying what appeared to be a long rifle”( Lacanlale, “Suspect accused of entering Las Vegas mall with fake gun ID’d” ).
In America, we need gun laws to change and evolve to help keep up with the weapons that are capable of killing many people in a matter of seconds. These gun reform laws should include the excluding of citizens with mental illnesses or history of violence from being able to purchase a firearm. Unfortunately, this will not solve all the problems involving shootings, but it can help prevent thousands of shootings and many lives from being taken that could have been prevented with better laws to better safety of the common man.. “One of the new Florida laws includes “red flag” legislation that allows law enforcement officers and family members to temporarily remove guns and ammunition from people who show warning signs of violent behaviour. Such laws existed in five states before the shooting, but ongoing efforts to pass them in other states received a boost after the shooting in Parkland” (Holpuch, “Taking guns from people who pose a risk”).
“Pro-gun rights high school students are walking out of schools in 42 states Wednesday for 16 minutes in support of Second Amendment rights” (Coaston, “Pro-gun rights high school students are staging a walkout of their own”). The argument that was suggested by a senior at Carlsbad High School was guns help to save lives everyday and the second amendment should not be repealed. The reason for the sixteen minute walkout was for the 91 lives on average that were saved by a gun since every year about 1.5 million lives are saved by a firearm. The argument here is he is not seeing the big picture and the fact that people are not trying to get rid of the second amendment, but instead the people of America are trying to improve upon the amendment. What many Americans are trying to accomplish in their protests and marches is to try and have congress realize there is a need for change and better regulation on firearms.
The citizens of America know we will never get rid of the second amendment, but we also know now we need better gun restrictions especially on rifles. These weapons have the capability of wounding hundreds and killing many all in a matter of minutes or even seconds. There has been success in passing gun laws in some states, but there is still a long way to go in order to make our schools, plazas, malls, and other large gatherings of people safer than they have ever been. For this to occur we will need the support of politicians and those with power to help express our concerns with people who have the power to make a change in America.
White Fragility is the title of a novel written by Robin DiAngelo. She attempts to shine light on the concept of white men in America and their “paper-thin skin”. She argues that in America today, white people are more protected in society which makes them protected from racial discomfort. When this occurs the slightest problem regarding to their race and their standings in America make them very upset and fall to pieces. Their defense to these feelings of discomfort are very often racial triggers such as “wypipo”, from the show “Dear White People”. These feelings and actions which take place are very detrimental to America as a whole and also people of color who are actually the ones who should be feeling this way.
White fragility can also be tied to racial tensions in America. When faced with racial discomforts most people will try to defend their race and belittle others race and ethnicity while doing so. The focus is white people and how they will become very defensive or try to state their dominance over a minority by making them feel insignificant. A example of this could be calling the police to defuse a situation they themselves started solely. When calling the police this endangers a person of color life more than someone who is white because colored people are seen as the aggressors. White people are aware of their standing in America and know they are given the benefit of the doubt when police approach a situation between people of color and white people.
When you are discussing mass shootings in America, you shouldn’t use mental illness as a crutch every time. When doing this you are allowing the people who commit these acts of terror to have a scapegoat so they won’t be held responsible for the conscience decisions they are making. Almost every time there is a shooting claiming the lives of many or also injuring them, not long after is there a report that he had a troubling child hood and absent parents which led him to do these unspeakable actions. If you look at the facts the most common trend is white men committing these shootings and people still sympathize with them after it is all said and done. If the color of skin was changed to anything but white no one would care about his past which has already been proven because you are never told about their pasts when they are suspected of doing such a thing.
In America, no one ever suggests white people(more specifically white men) of being the largest and most powerful terrorist threat in this country today. The reason they are the most powerful is because they have the whole country on their side defending their actions with mental illness or deflecting their responsibility to the actions they have done anywhere else. White men are the most powerful people in this country and also the most dangerous as how they can essentially be let off easier than any other group of people in America just simply for being white. The stereotype is muslims and other people of color causing the most terror in America, but if you check the stats white men are more likely to commit a mass shooting than any other group in America and it has been that way for many years now.
A negative effect that has started to occur from all of these shootings and gun violence is precautions taking place and also training and assemblies to help ready you for a situation like this. This is bad because now it is starting to be seen as routine and regular to happen in a school where parents send their kids expecting something like this to never happen. It is extremely heart breaking to know there are changes being taken place when this shouldn’t happen in the first place and wouldn’t happen if there were harsher gun laws and regulations. A assault rifle has been used in over eight mass school shootings yet no one wants to change the gun laws, but instead want to come up with new ways to lock doors and make them more secure and train dogs to attack a shooter.
In conclusion, white men have been directly linked to mass shootings because of many having fragile egos and also entitlement issues which causes them to be the biggest terrorist threat in America today. This fact is not changing unless they themselves see the issue in this and want to change it for the better to make schools feel completely safe from a shooting once again. School shootings should never be a norm and should never have begun, but they have and the best we can do is change gun laws and stop using mental illness as a crutch for such distasteful actions that have been taking place in the country we live in and love.