First of all, be mindful of yourself. Be sure to take care of yourself. Know that there are people at school who are here to help you and they care about you. Seek out a social worker, counselor, dean or teacher. Don't be afraid to talk about and sort through the emotions you are feeling. Talk to friends and parents. Allow yourself the space and time to process the emotions. Get into nature. Fresh air and nature can restore you mentally, physically and spiritually. Take a walk in the woods. Lastly, feel empowered. You may not be able to change the country but you can change the space you are in. You affect your friends, family and classmates. You make a difference and there is no way to tell how far your sound travels.
Secondly, be mindful of your peers. Everyone will process the events of last week differently. Be compassionate. Realize that for some people there was an attack on their ingroup and that can feel like an attack on them personally. Try to be caring and understanding of the experiences that your classmates might be going through.
Background
From Teaching Tolerance,
It’s been a week filled with hateful violence in the United States of America.
Maurice Stallard and Vickie Lee Jones, both African Americans, were shot and killed at a Kentucky grocery store by an alleged gunman motivated by racial hatred.
For days in a row, high-profile Democratic leaders and other politically outspoken Americans received pipe bombs in the mail. The suspect is reported to be a right-wing extremist terrorist.
And then, today, news broke of a premeditated shooting at a Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, synagogue that left 11 people dead. The man believed to be the killer is a known anti-Semite.
These attacks were committed by men with hatred in their hearts.
Understanding the events sociologically
If you have an injury, if you are shot or stabbed, you go to a doctor because they are trained in how to save your life. They are experts at that. You trust them. If you want to understand white supremacy, hatred and violence you go to a social scientist. They are experts who have dedicated their lives to understanding society. The following sources are research-based ways that sociologists are talking about what is going on. These people have dedicated their lives to understanding racism, white supremacy hatred and violence.
If you have an injury, if you are shot or stabbed, you go to a doctor because they are trained in how to save your life. They are experts at that. You trust them. If you want to understand white supremacy, hatred and violence you go to a social scientist. They are experts who have dedicated their lives to understanding society. The following sources are research-based ways that sociologists are talking about what is going on. These people have dedicated their lives to understanding racism, white supremacy hatred and violence.
In order to understand the events, let's think about their similarities: all white males lashing out violently at outgroups.
Remember the research we looked at that showed that random violence is committed by white men who feel aggrieved. These are men who feel they are not taken seriously and are powerless. They are angry and frustrated. Masculinity norms allow only the emotion of anger and violence. But why are these men feeling powerless, angry and frustrated?
History
The 1940s was the last time that people were born who would overall live a more successful life than their parents. In the decades that followed, wages dropped, industrial jobs waned, and most Americans felt the difficulty of making ends meet. They would not live the same style as their parents. At the same time during those decades, women experienced more equality - in the workplace, in school, and in sports. They were allowed to have careers and laws like title IX created opportunities in sports that they did not previously have. Also during these decades, minority groups like African Americans experienced increased civil rights and the ending of Jim Crow laws. Rulings like Brown V. Board emphasized that it was not okay to discriminate against people of color and the US elected its first black President in 2008. Also during those decades, the US has gotten increasingly diverse. Many immigrants from Central and South America have diversified the US and Islam is the fastest growing religion. These changes in society combined with economic changes have left the white middle and working classes feeling that they are falling behind (rightfully so) while other groups have made gains. This group has been slowly stewing as detailed in numerous sociological works: Strangers in their Own Land, Hillbilly Elegy, White Working Class, Politics of Resentment. When this group stews, they get angry. Anger is the only acceptable emotion for men who feel that they are entitled to spoils that are not available to them anymore.
Why anti-Semitism?
Note that the hatred and violence is not just against Jews, but any group that is seen as disrupting the domination of white male Christians. That was the America of the 1940s. It was dominated by white male Christians. All others are outgroups. The majority ingroup does not trust them and instead they are seen as a threat to the dominant group. That is why the threats and violence is directed at Jews, Mexicans, Muslims, immigrants and African-Americans. They are all outgroups.
Why now?
The election of Barack Obama catalyzed the majority against the minority outgroups. Not only was Obama black, he was also from an immigrant Muslim father. This resulted in birtherism and distrust that ignited a right wing tea-party movement. During the 2016 Presidential race, some candidates seized on the outgroups as a way of firing up the traditional majority. Rather than acknowledging the difficulties faced by the white working class and putting forth a platform to deal with those issues, these candidates further demonized the outgroups. They also harkened back to a time when these outgroups were a silent and tiny minority and when the white working/middle class had optimism and hope.
The resurgence of anti-Semitism
The resurgence of anti-Semitism happened before the shooting in Pittsburgh. That massacre did not happen out of the blue.
From March of 2017, The Society Pages explained
...anti-Semitism has returned abruptly to the front page in recent weeks, with over 160 threats against Jewish community centers and synagogues since January. At times, such threats are paired with symbolic shows of force, as was seen when over 100 headstones in a Missouri Jewish cemetery were damaged or destroyed. For many this has been unexpected, but this is not necessarily true for social scientists who have been studying anti-Semitism over the last decade.
Charlottesville and white supremacy
Also in 2017 was the protest in Charlottesville, VA when white supremacists turned out to intimidate officials, denounce Jews and threaten public order. Here is a video from Vice showing it.
That same week, thousands of sociologists were in Montreal for the annual American Sociological Association (ASA) conference. They published a response on Contexts, a publication of the Society Pages,
When violence broke out between White supremacists intending to “Unite the Right” and counter-protesters in Charlottesville, Virginia. Counter-protester Heather Heyer was killed and nearly two dozen others sustained injuries, but in his belated second statement, President Donald Trump said that there was “blame on both sides.” Political pundits call this sort of statement “a moral equivalence.” We call it siding with racists. If a person blames both the racists and the people resisting the racists, it suggests that the person has no problem with racists. In a joint editorial effort, we have assembled a group of writers who specialize in research on race, racism, whiteness, nationalism, and immigration to provide sociological insights about how the public, politicians, and academics should process and understand the broader socio-historical implications of the events in Charlottesville. These writers include two ASA presidents, an editor of the ASA-sponsored journal on race and ethnicity, a professor who received his PhD at the University of Virginia, and two scholars who challenge the political elite and academics to do more to challenge the resurgence of White nationalism in the United States and around the globe.-Rashawn Ray, Fabio Rojas, Syed Ali, and Philip Cohen
- “‘Hilando Fino’: American Racism After Charlottesville,” Eduardo Bonilla-Silva
- “The Souls of White Folk in Charlottesville and Beyond,” Matthew W. Hughey
- “The Persistence of White Nationalism in America,” Joe Feagin
- “A Sociologist’s Note to the Political Elite,” Victor Ray
- “Are Public Sociology and Scholar-Activism Really at Odds?” Kimberly Kay Hoang
- “Sociology as a Discipline and an Obligation,” David G. Embrick and Chriss Sneed
What is white supremacy?
From The Society Pages
...sociologists have continued to track how more traditional white supremacists have evolved alongside changing social backdrops and history. These scholars have documented how white supremacist movements in the 21st century have been shaped by whites’ perceptions of victimhood following increased immigration, globalization, and diversity in America.
- Jackie Hogan and Kristin Haltinner. 2015. “Floods, Invaders, and Parasites: Immigration Threat Narratives and Right-Wing Populism in the USA, UK and Australia.” Journal of Intercultural Studies 36(5): 520-543.
- Rory McVeigh. 2009. The Rise of the Ku Klux Klan: Right-Wing Movements and National Politics. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
- Pete Simi, Kathleen Blee, Matthew DeMichele, and Steven Windisch. 2017. “Addicted to Hate: Identity Residual among Former White Supremacists.” American Sociological Review 1-21.
Sociologist examines white fragility
From the NYer book review
In a new book, “White Fragility,” DiAngelo attempts to explicate the phenomenon of white people’s paper-thin skin. She argues that our largely segregated society is set up to insulate whites from racial discomfort, so that they fall to pieces at the first application of stress—such as, for instance, when someone suggests that “flesh-toned” may not be an appropriate name for a beige crayon. Unused to unpleasantness (more than unused to it—racial hierarchies tell white people that they are entitled to peace and deference), they lack the “racial stamina” to engage in difficult conversations. This leads them to respond to “racial triggers”—the show “Dear White People,” the term “wypipo”—with “emotions such as anger, fear and guilt,” DiAngelo writes, “and behaviors such as argumentation, silence, and withdrawal from the stress-inducing situation.”
Anti-Semitism in the US
From the ADL,
Our most recent report on anti-Semitic incidents in the United States showed a significant year-to-year increase: In 2017, anti-Semitic incidents surged nearly 60 percent, according to the 2017 ADL Audit of Anti-Semitic Incidents. This was the largest single-year increase on record and the second highest number reported since ADL started tracking such data in 1979. The sharp rise was due in part to a significant increase in incidents in schools and on college campuses, which nearly doubled for a second year in a row.
It might be interesting to look at all of these racist things or look at these instigations of violence and see where they fall on the pyramid of hate from the ADL above.
Jonathon Weisman's book, (((Semitism)))
And from Time, why anti-Semitism is thriving in the age of Trump.
Jonathan Weisman, an editor at the New York Times, thought America had largely moved past anti-semitism, confining it to a more prejudiced history. During the 2016 presidential campaign, he learned that he was very mistaken. After he shared a popular op-ed titled “How Fascism Comes to America” on Twitter, Weisman soon became a favorite subject of harassment, receiving a surge of bigoted and threatening messages directed at him. During that time, Jewish journalists received thousands of anti-Semitic messages on Twitter. Out of more than 800 journalists sought out, Weisman was the fifth-most targeted, according to a report from the Anti-Defamation League’s Task Force on Harassment and Journalism. Weissman explains how his book got started here:
From NPR's Fresh Air
After linking to an article about the rise of fascism in America, Jonathan Weisman, became the target of neo-Nazi trolls on Twitter barraging him with anti-Semitic insults and threats. Weisman is a former congressional correspondent for The New York Times and is now deputy Washington editor, handling Time's coverage of Congress as well as some political coverage. In his new book, he describes his encounters with white nationalists, writes about some of their leaders, looks at the connections between white nationalists and the Trump campaign and administration, and examines some of the history of anti-Semitism in America. The book is called "(((Semitism))): Being Jewish In America In The Age Of Trump."
From rhetoric to violence and back. When will this endless cycle of hate stop?
From the Southern Poverty Law Center
As our nation grapples with yet another mass shooting we must look closely at why this hate-fueled violence is contaminating our society.
The social media postings of the alleged shooter provide a chilling, but unfortunately expected, answer.
They show an adherence to the anti-semitic conspiracy theory that Jews are trying to destroy the white race through immigration – which they believe is "white genocide."
The alleged shooter, Robert Bowers, reaffirmed his belief in this absurd conspiracy while receiving medical treatment after slaughtering 11 people and injuring others including four police officers. He said he “wanted all Jews to die” and also that “[Jews] were committing genocide to his people.”
In the case of this mass killing at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh — believed to be the deadliest attack on the Jewish community in the history of the United States – the alleged murderer is, once again, emerging as a man who was deeply steeped in the racist and anti-semitic conspiracy theories that run rampant on unchecked social media platforms such as Gab.
These conspiracy theories are perpetuated and elevated by the increasing amount of hateful rhetoric flying from the mouths, or keyboards, of a growing cast of characters, up to and including, President Trump.
The antisemitic “white genocide” conspiracy has been smuggled into wide circulation with terms like “globalists” and the constant vilification of George Soros. This includes a popular lie that Soros – a Holocaust survivor – was a Nazi. And just this past week several commentators on the mainstream right have insinuated Soros’ involvement in the migrant caravan.
This irrational fear that “the other” — minorities and people of color — will take the country away from whites is the through line connecting a spate of violence targeted at houses of worship across different religions in just the past six years.
In 2015, it was “fear” of blacks that led to the murder of nine African Americans at Charleston’s Mother Emmanuel Church. In 2012, it was “fear” of Muslims that spurred the killing of six at a temple in Oak Creek, Wisconsin.
But this violence doesn’t just come down to fear of “the other.” It is organized hate and targeted hateful rhetoric – online and in the real world – that moved the plots forward.
Anti-Semitism in the age of Donald Trump
From the Financial Times
When it comes to Jews, however, Mr Trump deals in euphemisms. As I say, he may not be fully aware of it. But his alt-right fans see the green light. To take three examples. Mr Trump initially refused to disown David Duke, the pro-Nazi leader of the Ku Klux Klan. During the 2016 campaign, Trump ads demonised George Soros, a leading target of anti-Semitic campaigns from Viktor Orban’s Hungary to America’s alt-right. And he forgot to mention Jews on Holocaust remembrance day in his first week in office.
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