Racist Right-Wing Erupts Online In Reaction To #CharlestonShooting
Following last night鈥檚 horrific shooting at a historic African American church in Charleston, S.C., where at least nine people were killed, the racist right responded with expected vitriol. The two biggest white supremacist message boards, Stormfront and Vanguard News Network (VNN) were alight with talk about the murders and the suspected shooter, identified by authorities as Dylann Storm Roof.
Predictably, the sympathies of Stormfront鈥檚 constituents were not with the victims, but presumed to soon be victimized whites.
鈥淚 pray for all the whites in that area and elsewhere that will be killed and raped using this as an excuse,鈥� wrote the user 鈥淛ohnny Simcox X.鈥�
Following rampant fear mongering concerning the future of the second amendment following another mass shooting, others took a more chilling course of action.
鈥淯gh heading to the 24hr Walmart to buy some 223, 9mm, and .40 S&W,鈥� claimed the user 鈥淲hiteandProudnOhio.鈥� 鈥淚 have plenty but if this is a White guy and not a light skin black, muslim, or Mexican expect the gun grabbers are going to g [sic] to cream their pants on this one.鈥�
According an eyewitness report, the shooter stated, "You rape our women and you're taking over our country. And you have to go,鈥� as he was reloading his weapon. Lamenting so called 鈥渂lack on white crime鈥� is a favorite talking point for white nationalists and the shooter鈥檚 statements are virtually indistinguishable from a headline from the Council of Conservative Citizens鈥檚 news engine, Top Conservative News.
A photo found on Roof鈥檚 Facebook shows him wearing a jacket adorned with an apartheid-era South African flag patch, as well as another patch that appears to be a flag from Rhodesia 鈥� a whites-only state that is now part of Zimbabwe.
In a thread started late last night on VNN titled 鈥淲hite shooter at large, kills 9 at black church in South Carolina,鈥� the user 鈥淰ijay Coomar鈥� wrote, 鈥淚 hereby nominate this man for the 2015 Nobel peace prize. ugly coons create menace filth entropy and destroy the peace serenity calm and equlibrium that my dear YT has created. so eliminating n------ is equivalent to ushering in peace calm and equilibrium. more power to this guy. just imagine the situation if all white men were like this. we would have eternal peace. Therefore, noble peace prize.鈥�
Many others on the VNN thread criticized the labeling of the mass shooting as a hate crime.
鈥淵es it's been stamped with hate crime already,鈥� wrote user 鈥淛ack Stanton.鈥� 鈥淓veryone knows that if the races were reversed then they would be reaching for the workplace violence or unintentional stray bullet from gang warfare stamps instead.鈥�
It didn鈥檛 take long for VNN users to turn to Jews as the source of the massacre.
鈥淭his all seems too scripted,鈥� wrote 鈥淭oneDeaf.鈥� 鈥淧ossibly Zionists are behind this ?? Who else would benefit from an all out civil war?鈥�
Reddit鈥檚 resident network of racist subreddits /r/CoonTown also chimed in with its usual venom.
鈥�9 n------ is a pretty large tally, though,鈥� wrote the user 鈥淣---hettoBolognese.鈥� 鈥淚t鈥檚 the equivalent to 5.4 humans.鈥�
Another user, 鈥淣othingWithoutWhite,鈥� took a different tack, playing the victim as a mouthpiece for the fictional victimized white majority while bemoaning a perceived media bias in coverage.
鈥淏lack privilege. Pure and simple. 鈥� Prepare for chimp outs. Prepare for Obongo to race bait. Prepare for the media to take pot shots, twist facts, raise 鈥渁wareness鈥� and such bullshit. Prepare for countless black-on-white acts of violence in 鈥渞etaliation鈥� that will receive ABSOLUTELY ZERO media attention in favor of the 鈥減eaceful protestors鈥� that we all know will be burning down another city.鈥�
Even during this time for mourning, the acrimonious screeds from these racists corners of the internet continue to flood in and, unfortunately, that comes as no surprise.
