The shooting at a Tennessee Waffle House and its aftermath, say everything about this Presidency:
A white shooter with an assault weapon.
(Police using restraint when apprehending said white shooter.)
People of color brutally murdered.
A black, gunless hero saving strangers.
A silent white President.
It’s all been on full display:
No calls by FoxNews to ban angry young white guys.
No white evangelical televangelists taking to social media to condemn the evils of racism and the danger of gun proliferation.
Silence from the NRA’s normally rabid mouthpieces.
Nothing about the victims of color.
Not a damn word from GOP leaders.
Barely even any cursory “thoughts and prayers” for the dead.
No Presidential praise for the black man who saved countless lives without a weapon.
(By the way , his name is James Shaw Jr, Mr Trump.)
All of this, a week after the arrest of two black men in a Philadelphia Starbucks, within hours of a Neo-Nazi rally in Georgia, and just days before the manufactured racist holiday, “Confederate Memorial Day.
This week is a microcosm of Trump’s America:
Contempt for people brown skin, by white people specifically emboldened.
White privilege expressed in violent rage, with a weapon far too easily procured.
A refusal to hold white, homegrown criminals accountable for the terrors they inflict—and to name them as terrorism.
A purposeful Right silence in the face of people whose lives dispense with their preferred false narrative about people of color and the dangers in the world.
A mass murder where none of the racist, Islamophobic, gun-loving GOP tropes fit, and so there is no high horse to mount, no soapbox to stand upon, no pulpit to pound, no fear to leverage—instead, only silence and hiding.
This week brings many fresh reminders.
It reminds us of the goodness within all people; of the similar selflessness that resides in disparate humanity, regardless of its pigmentation or orientation or nation of origin; of the incredible courage we are equally capable of.
It reminds us that people like James Shaw Jr are precisely what is making America great, and that we are called at all times to be prepared to stand up to the monsters when they appear—whether wielding weapons or legislation or bully pulpits.
It reminds us that white people rarely get painted as the villains here, even when they do everything to earn such titles—and that people of color rarely received a hero’s welcome, even when clearly being heroic.
It reminds us how far we have to go until Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness really are accessible to everyone.
It reminds us that we can’t rely on our elected officials and our paid clergy to champion diversity and equality; that we the people will have to do do that; repeatedly, loudly, passionately.
It also reminds us that our nation is not going to be made great because of this President and those like him—but in spite of them.
This week we are seeing who we are, America.
And we’re seeing who we could be—if more good people move and more good people speak.
Order John’s forthcoming book ‘HOPE AND OTHER SUPERPOWERS” here!
Oh, give me an effing break! You blow a gasket when Trump tweets. You blow a gasket when he doesn’t tweet. You complain that “thoughts & prayers don’t do anything.” Then you complain when “nobody” sends their thoughts & prayers. You shout down & demonize NRA mouthpieces whenever they speak and squawk yourselves blue when they don’t.
Fact of the matter is, this story went down the legacy media memory hole faster than my morning flush because it doesn’t fit the narrative. Neither did this same legacy media report the racial context of this shooting — big fail for an industry that is constantly twisting themselves into pretzels trying to prove how woke they are.
Cry me a river, snowflake.
evidently you dont HAVE to have a gun to stop a guy with a gun after all…
People of all races save life’s everyday and all religions. They don’t all get recognize at all stop thinking just cause u save life you need approval for the president we have soldiers of all races frighting for our freedom giving there life’s to protect the American way and they come home to nothing. Help them. Give food to the hungry. Give ur old worn down clothes to the homeless shelters.
Thank you James Shaw, Jr.! You are a brave, humble, honorable man!!
I love your posts. Thank you for telling it like it is.
Thanks for such a spot on article. I would not expect anything less from #RacistTrump
I can just feel the love.
It’s very interesting and quite telling that this article and other similar articles ignore one very important fact:
Travis Reinking was a home-schooled evangelical christian with a very outspoken “put prayer back in the schools” mother.
He’s also the 2nd VERY recent home-schooled evangelical christian mass shooter in the US.
This fact gets ignored by most media outlets, and is every bit as much the reason Fox News, the President, and the NRA are quiet on the issue as the shooter being white and victims black. Don’t say bad things about christians; not just don’t say bad things about white on black shootings.
When a shooter is an atheist or a muslim, look at all the media attention and hatred that gets poured out. Where’s that here?
http://www.patheos.com/blogs/progressivesecularhumanist/2018/04/waffle-house-shooters-mom-claims-lack-of-school-prayer-causes-mass-shootings/
Amazing ain’t it. The highly touted fundie cough syrup for all American evils does not work.
There is a swell of awareness of this hero…It’s inexplicable no reporter thought it would make their career to report such an incredible, almost unheard of, heroic act, by a ‘man on the street’….Whatever race…
No doubt the race killed the reporters desire for the story. That makes me sick. I’m sharing the story daily. This man deserves a medal!!
Another racist headline, another writer race baiting and making fake news. . Do Not Blame Trump for the Media blackout on this. The events that happened here, do not fit the left’s/media agenda.
This article is an example of why liberals always lose in the end. Take a lesson from this next time you wanna race bait your readers, talk about politics, or spew libtard propaganda. You don’t need approval from the White House every time something happens.
“It reminds us that we can’t rely on our elected officials and our paid clergy to champion diversity and equality.” Ironic that this is called whitewashing. What’s wrong with being paid clergy? Not all of us are pariahs. What about William Barber III? Traci Blackmon? Some of us aren’t paid a living wage and yet still champion diversity and equality. I am one of the fortunate ones who pastors a church that compensates me well enough and encourages me to champion diversity and equality; a church that also does its best to do the same.
Everybody is carrying on about race and trump while ignoring the Elephant in the room. This was done by another psycho with a criminal history that the feds had and had taken away his guns but released him back into public and gave back the guns. Can no one see a pattern here?
I agree with your comments, 100%. However, I am focusing on James Shaw Jr. I am so happy he is receiving recognition and he needs nothing from trump or his cronies
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Why do black people ignore the racist hate crimes that black people commit against white people because they are white?. Like the crowds of thugs who attacked groups of white people. especially those attacks at events where they came and attacked or when they attacked a white man with hammers. and then there was that time when those four thugs tortured that disabled white guy yelling “F**k white people!” The worst part of all this is that they have in their mind that they can’t be racist because they are black.
If people would leave the race card of of every single thing that happens, this world would be so much better. This shooting has/had nothing to do with race, why can’t people get that thru there dam minds.
as usual you left wing nuts only see what you want, there a hundreds of events that are just the opposite of this and never get any media attention either. its another way you are dividing this country . with articles like this because they show only 1 view that is missing half the facts
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What do we expect from someone who thinks the neo nazis are very nice people?
For what it’s worth, I feel someone should mention the small fact that James Shaw Jr. has been invited to the White House.
You’re right; it is a small fact. I have not seen or heard anything about this invitation, on the news and it’s no honor to be invited to the once sacred house, especially for people of color.
Everyone’s a ‘race baiter’, aren’t they?
LIAR. Shaw was NOT invited to the White House. You must be thinking about the WHITE PEOPLE who helped the woman stuck in the broken airplane window.. you know the event that happened AFTER Mr. Shaw stopped a shooter with his bare hands? Those white people have already come and gone from Oval Office press pics with trump, but Shaw? Nyet.
And please don’t lie, like my FORMER conservative friend did, and say Shaw refused the invite. Rightwingers need to stop being so damned dishonest in their zeal to defend trump’s racist words and actions.
Wow! I think you stated everything, quite perfectly. In my opinion, Mr. Shaw will NEVER be invited to the White House AND
I believe he SHOULD DECLINE THE INVITATION, if he was invited! WE don’t consider an invitation to be photographed with trump, any great honor or privilege. He’s a racist bigot.
Great post John! I could not have said it any better myself.
The first face we saw from the after math of all this was James Shaw Jr, the media was after him for a story soon after he was released from the hospital. Poor guy had been out all night, just wanted to get something to eat and go home. He became a hero in an instant. Regardless of what people think, the shooting was not racially motivated. Antioch is a very racially diverse area..so the chance of shooting someone non white are higher in this area. We didn’t get to see the shooters face until later in the day when the intensive search was underway. If you don’t live in the area, you don’t know what was said or seen right from the start. Mr Shaw has been the hero all along… and our area is thankful for that and always will be.