The Guardian overdid it a tad with the report on Dylann Roof's 'cold stare' as it looks to me like he is more vacant than cold. The description struck me as overly-dramatic and this is minor but they also called him a 'mop top' for his hair. That was a term used for The Beatles as they were 'those lovable mop tops' or so and there couldn't be a more inappropriate association if the writer designed it deliberately. (The Guardian: Dylann Roof: the cold stare of a killer with a history of drug abuse and racism)
The reason I read the article was to discover whether this was going to be painted as a Reefer Madness problem but that's not what the author was doing and was not the point of the mention of drugs. Those who knew Roof said XANAX was one of his preferences for 'pill-popping' and that's one of the most heavily-abused drugs in the country as it will turn a human into a potato faster than regular viewing of Fox News. The drug has valid applications but it's prescribed widely and that either indicates an endemic psychiatric problem in the country or laziness on the part of those who prescribe it so frequently.
He was described as an 'introvert with few friends' and this quite likely means he was not getting any sex or at best rarely. Roof said during the course of the killings 'he has to do this because you are raping our women' (among his other claims). That aspect struck me as the possible actual root of his rage and racism was what gave his twisted mind a target.
The larger aspect of how he got like this, in terms of racism, is his friends mentioned 'he often made racist jokes but I did not think anything of them.' This does not tell me how he came to the racist thinking but it does show me there was relatively little or half-hearted opposition to it. When a kid is losing his way, how will he really know unless he's getting positive guidance from somewhere and it sounds like it could have come but people were sloughing it off.
A long-time Texan will sometimes make comments which are not intended to be racist but which nevertheless highly-inappropriate and I will respond, in part because this person is my friend and also because I consider it a personal responsibility not to remain silent regarding such things. My response is not one of anger but rather a discussion and my friend recognizes the validity of it. That doesn't make me better than anyone else but it does make me wish more people would do it, particularly after hearing the story of Roof.
Not everything to stop racism is an actual battle but rather simple friendship. Sure enough there are battles to be fought but that won't settle it entirely because we all have different parts in solving the problem and not all of them are combative. In fact, most of them are not.
The reason I read the article was to discover whether this was going to be painted as a Reefer Madness problem but that's not what the author was doing and was not the point of the mention of drugs. Those who knew Roof said XANAX was one of his preferences for 'pill-popping' and that's one of the most heavily-abused drugs in the country as it will turn a human into a potato faster than regular viewing of Fox News. The drug has valid applications but it's prescribed widely and that either indicates an endemic psychiatric problem in the country or laziness on the part of those who prescribe it so frequently.
He was described as an 'introvert with few friends' and this quite likely means he was not getting any sex or at best rarely. Roof said during the course of the killings 'he has to do this because you are raping our women' (among his other claims). That aspect struck me as the possible actual root of his rage and racism was what gave his twisted mind a target.
The larger aspect of how he got like this, in terms of racism, is his friends mentioned 'he often made racist jokes but I did not think anything of them.' This does not tell me how he came to the racist thinking but it does show me there was relatively little or half-hearted opposition to it. When a kid is losing his way, how will he really know unless he's getting positive guidance from somewhere and it sounds like it could have come but people were sloughing it off.
A long-time Texan will sometimes make comments which are not intended to be racist but which nevertheless highly-inappropriate and I will respond, in part because this person is my friend and also because I consider it a personal responsibility not to remain silent regarding such things. My response is not one of anger but rather a discussion and my friend recognizes the validity of it. That doesn't make me better than anyone else but it does make me wish more people would do it, particularly after hearing the story of Roof.
Not everything to stop racism is an actual battle but rather simple friendship. Sure enough there are battles to be fought but that won't settle it entirely because we all have different parts in solving the problem and not all of them are combative. In fact, most of them are not.
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