I don't know about you but "love" and "forgiveness" would probably not be the first words coming out of my mouth if an avowed white racist just murdered my family members.
I have to applaud the families in Charleston, S.C. who, in the midst of their pain, can find it in their hearts to forgive someone who perpetrated a fraud for the sole purpose of killing black folks. I admire those family members who sat quietly as the judge told them they need to pray for the suspect's family because "they are victims too." WOW!!!
As the days and weeks go on, we're going to learn a lot more about Dylann Roof. Trust me, there will be a media campaign to portray him as something other than a cold-hearted, thoughtless, racist killer. I know some people want to label this young man as "crazy" "deranged" "a lost soul" or whatever other pitiful name you can come up with for justification. But the truth of the matter is this 21-year-old went into a house of worship with the INTENT to kill some black people. I might have been convinced he was a lunatic had he just gone in with his gun blazing and fired off without warning---but he sat down for an hour with other church-goers, had time to think about his actions and re-loaded his weapon several times during the massacre.
Here are some lessons I've learned from Dylan Roof:
Racism is alive and well in the U.S: Despite the fact that Barack Obama was elected President, we do not live in a post racial America. White supremacists are like roaches. They came out of the woodwork in droves after his election to make a statement of discontent that a black man could lead this nation.
And we all know South Carolina is ever so proud of its confederate history with their flag flying on the State Capital grounds. Check out what former Governor Benjamin Tillman was quoted as saying:
“We of the South have never recognized the right of the negro to govern white men, and we never will,” Tillman said, from the floor of the U.S. Senate. “We have never believed him to be the equal of the white man, and we will not submit to his gratifying his lust on our wives and daughters without lynching him.”
White America does not want to deal with their white supremacy attitude issue: There are plenty of well-meaning whites who, I'm sure, are OUTRAGED over what happened in South Carolina but in the same breath they will also tell you they don't thinks it's fair to hold them accountable for the actions of their ancestors. But the truth of the matter is, unless they speak out LOUDLY, BOLDLY AND CLEARLY, nothing is going to change.
Dylan Roof is the product of BAD parenting: The Bible says "Train up a child in the way he/she should go, and when he/she is old he will not depart from it." I don't think you'll have to look too far to see where this suspect learned to HATE. And did daddy really buy him as gun for his 21st birthday? How well did daddy know his son and his tendencies? Did dad egg him on in some way knowingly or unknowingly? Inquiring minds NEED to know.
White Baby Boomers and Seniors have to bear the blame for the HATE: I'm a Boomer so I know, first-hand, the firestorm that prejudice, bias and discrimination some members of my generation have created. The older some get, the more conservative some have become---to the detriment of society as a whole.
We can only move forward practicing LOVE and DIVERSITY: Blacks have endured white Presidents FOREVER but you never saw anyone so angry that they chose to eliminate the white race because of it.
Young people will have to be the key that unlocks the door to the greater good of mankind---and weed out the likes of the Dylan Roofs of the world. I have to believe they can do it, otherwise, we are doomed.
