Wednesday night at Emanuel A.M.E. Church in Charleston, South Carolina, nine people were shot and killed by domestic right-wing terrorist and white supremacist Dylann Roof—a horrible and terrifying act of pure hate and violence brought down upon the black community— and, while I absolutely and wholeheartedly share the feelings of disgust and sadness felt by many following this event, it’s time that we stop neurotically fixating our attention on these mass shootings, because it is unhealthy and creates the right atmosphere for further extremism to come slithering out of the mist and rear its ugly head.
Certainly, we cannot ignore these senseless acts of viciousness—nor should we avoid the much needed conversation on normalized racism and the fanaticism that stems from it in this country—but we need to have a dramatic shift in the way we deal with and report on occurrences like the shooting in Charleston, because, under the current system, we glorify acts of absurd violence and produce an environment of vicariousness, as, to most Americans, this tragic event is nothing more than a conversation piece.
Yes, it must be said that this was an absolute heartbreak and it should be reported on and discussed—especially in this case with the very poignant issues of racism facing the nation—but we should never allow stories like these to rise to the level of absurdity that they often do.