The Day After

The day after the El Paso shooting we learned that a copy-cat killer took “heart” in the “courage” of Patrick Crusius to take action to restore the white order in America, this time in Dayton, Ohio—killing nine at a night club where police were conveniently in the vicinity to down the shooter a minute later. But in regard to what local police are calling a hate crime and the FBI a domestic terrorism act, there seems to be not just the usual denials of responsibility, but the usual profiling of the shooter and even the denial of the larger picture by members of the targeted demographic in El Paso. 

While some Democrats have directly accused Donald Trump of responsibility for stoking the flames of anti-Hispanic hate, most politicians have been silent on responsibility. Acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney denied Trump’s culpability, pointing out that according to Crusius’ manifesto, his anti-Hispanic ravings predated Trump’s presidency. Yet there is a difference between harboring grudges and actually acting on them, and as should be obvious, the “spark” needed to motivate such a person to act can often be when someone—like the President of the United States—is on television or tweeting everyday acting like Der Fuhrer stoking and feeding off the hate he inspires in his supporters. The question now is does Trump have the sense to “tone down” his racist rhetoric—or will he just do what he usually does: “denounce” bigotry, and then carry on as usual, because despite everything, his racist insults draw the loudest cheers from his supporters?

As expected. Crusius has been given the crazed, video-game obsessed “loner” label, as if this “explains” why he carried out the shooting. All “loners” are potentially crazed killers, aren’t they? That is what the media will tell you, rather than face the ugly truth of its own complicity. You know, I grew up in all-white neighborhoods and attended all-white schools in Wisconsin (a state that is complicit in the crime of Trump's election), and I can tell you as someone who didn’t “look” like everyone else that there is vast difference between people being “friendly” and being “friends.” My dysfunctional relationship with my mother did not help either, and I simply feel more comfortable not having to deal with domestic turmoil. I am a “loner”—who would rather watch his collection old movies and old televisions shows, listen to his “old” music—the kind that offers you the world as you wish it would be, not the way it really is. Otherwise, I don’t give a flip as long as I am left alone.

But also disturbing to me is the apparent failure of some Hispanics to realize that this isn’t just about illegal immigrants, as anti-Hispanic fanatics like Ann Coulter and Pat Buchanan will tell you. One El Paso resident, Karen Pena, demonstrated this blindness to the danger by claiming that the shooter had a wider agenda, calling the shooting “a warning to scare off Central American migrants.” The foolishness of this claim was attested to by Crusius himself after his arrest, telling police that he “wanted to kill as many Mexicans” as he could. Not Central Americans—Mexicans—and frankly to most Americans all Hispanics are “Mexicans.” 47 million Hispanics in this country are U.S. citizens and it doesn’t matter—they are all “Mexicans” and they are collectively a “threat” to white hegemony. 

The day after, the week after, the year after—it doesn’t really matter, does it? We will see more o the same.