Let me help the news with their headline. “Disillusioned white man blows up successful Black and Latino people for no apparent reason other than spite and white supremacy.”
After the sadistic murders of Anthony Stephan House and Draylen Mason, and injuries to a third Latina victim, the news reported that all the victims of the Austin bomber were Black or Latino. The bomber then detonated a different styled bomb (a trip wire) in a white neighborhood with no casualties. As someone who lived through the DC sniper hysteria (including a job that involved driving around in a white van) I remember something about how serial murderers operate. Back then, when the news reported that children weren’t targeted by the DC sniper, he went and shot a child at a school.
It is still the beginning of the investigation into why this young man was such a malicious killer, but I am going to keep a close eye on how the news portrays his story. I’m cynically expecting him to be a “lone wolf”, despite having obvious connections to the historical and current white supremacist movement through his internet browsing and book collection. I’m expecting news anchors to be surprised that a white man would bomb his black neighbors for no reason. But don’t let anyone tell you that it’s ridiculous that a 24 year old white man, upset at his lot in life, decided to take his frustration out on the successful black people around him. This is prototypical white supremacy behavior, and has been carried out for years. We live under a president who rose to political prominence simply from challenging the legitimacy of the first black president without any evidence to back his claim. We are just at the beginning of typical, Epic, white supremacy backlash in America. We would well as a country to familiarize ourselves with this behavior by reading the deep dark history of American domestic terrorism. Hug your family tight, and make sure you’re always doing something you love or for the people you love. We will not be terrorized. Peace.
Bomani Armah is The Watermelon Man 