America Has an Angry White Male Problem

Violence is a disease. Violence is learned behavior and can be unlearned.

When black males commit violent crimes the media goes up in arms about the trouble with black males. We are labeled as a menace to society. For generations this has been true. In reality, with 50% unemployment in some areas, gang violence and other sad indicators suggest there truly is a black male problem.

Similarly, when Muslims kill people in acts of violence then Islam, as a religion, and Muslims, as a people are blamed universally. Muslims are the problem. Islam is intrinsically at fault. The hard reality for most of us Muslims is to realize that we DO have a problem with extremism. 

When white males conduct mass shootings as they have become so famous for since Columbine, the world claims that these were isolated incidents and that these white males simply have a case of mental illness. When will white people, mothers, families, fathers, communities, have a serious conversation with itself? Why is it that mostly white males walk into schools and other places and shoot and kill and there is not a white male problem?

This was the sixth mass shooting in our nation in 2012. It is time for gun owners, NRA members, and white males to have a moment and figure out what the hell is going on and decide what they are going to do to stop the killing. 

Violence is a disease. Violence is learned behavior and can be unlearned.

 

Comments

[NKeph]

I'm a (privileged) white dude and I agree that the time has come for society to have a serious discussion about this. As painful as it is to think there is something about us or our way of life that brings out this kind of totally senseless, indiscriminate violence. But the reality is that when a person with no previous history of violence walks into a public place and kills at random, it is almost always a white male. The focus on race and religion in cases like the LIRR, Virginia Tech, and Fort Hood shootings only drives home the point how overwhelmingly white this particular type of crime is. Although questions of race and violence can often degenerate into racism, that should not scare us away from having honest discussions about these things. I'm glad you're talking about it and thanks for doing it in a sensitive way.

If you haven't already read it, you might find this article useful.
http://www.rolereboot.org/culture-and-politics/details/2012-07-why-most-mass-murderers-are-privileged-white-men