As we are all aware, a terrible tragedy happened at Emmanuel AME, a historical Black church in Charleston, SC. Nine people lost their lives to a cold, calculating domestic terrorist whose name doesn’t even matter to me. These people were worshipping and minding their own business when they were brutally gunned down.

For many Black people, the church is a sacred, safe space where they can be free. This coward violated a special place with his intense hatred toward Black people. The media can spin the story around and make him out to be a “troubled soul” and a “good guy gone wrong,” but let’s be 100% real. If he was Muslim, he would be called a terrorist. If he was Black, he would be called a thug. But he’s not…so he was peacefully arrested in North Carolina (my home state) this morning.

For the Black people who still believe that we will stop being murdered if we act like “respectable Negroes,” this incident proves that your educational background, salary, job title, and nice home in the ‘burbs do not make you immune to race-incited violence. This is a problem that stems from a system that allows cowards to murder Black people and get away with it because our lives don’t matter. Say what you want but there is a clear problem in America and it’s getting worse…

For White people who think White privilege doesn’t exist, how can a man who murdered 9 people be arrested and alive while Mike Brown, Eric Garner, and other Black men are gunned down when they are unarmed and have not killed a soul. And while Black victims of violence suffer from post-mitten character assassination, White perpetrators are humanized and their irrational actions are somehow “rationalized.” 

I couldn’t go one day without expressing my thoughts. I try to keep the happy going on my blog, but today I’m weary…

-Tai Gooden