Jamie Utt wonders why is no one asking what’s wrong with White Men in the United States?
Originally appeared at Change From Within
With the newest mass shooting in Aurora, CO captivating the nation, it seems someone should ask the question. After all, if we had a pattern of Women walking into public places, heavily armed, and killing everyone possible, you can guarantee the headlines would read, “What’s wrong with American Women!?”
I mean, when Nidal Hassan opened fire at Ford Hood in 2009, the media and politicians were taking Muslim Americans (particularly Muslim members of the armed services) to task, questioning their loyalties, questioning if they were part of an “inherently violent” culture, questioning every aspect of their identity. The same sort of questions were asked when Seung-Hui Cho killed 32 people at Virginia Tech, only directed at Asian American Immigrants.
When Black on Black crime is brought up, few question the realities of concentrated poverty in which the violence is occurring. Instead, people ask, “Why are Black people so violent?”
One of the powerful things about White Privilege and Male Privilege is that those of us who benefit from membership in these privileged groups do not have to worry that our individual actions will be attributed to everyone who looks like us. Well, that’s not true. When our actions make us (and others of our group) look good, it might be attributed to our race or gender.
But when the vast majority of mass murder shooters in the last 25 years fit one particular description, what questions do we ask? What happens when the shooters look like this:
Or this
Or this?
Are there questions we should be asking about masculinity? Should we be investigating White culture? What about White masculinity?
Because if everyone in those pictures were Black or Latino or Female or Muslim, you know their identity would be central to the conversation. And every person who looked like them would pay a price.
Editor’s questions: What do you think? In what ways do race and sex play a role in how we conceptualize these killings? Do you believe any insight will be gained as to why this happened since Holmes did not kill himself at the end of his rampage?
Lead Photo: Karl Gehring/AP
About Jamie Utt
It’s a great question (“What’s wrong with white males?”), but it cuts both ways; if 95% of the prison population was female, that would be a headline. If 95% of people sentenced to death around the world was female, that too would be a headline.
White men are both highly central, and highly invisible. Men weren’t born as killers, so the next question needs to be “What are we doing to our men to make them behave like this?”. We’re reasonably good at asking that question when women step out of line; not very good at doing it when non-whites step out of line.
No one will ask “what’s wrong with white men?”. I’ve noticed when it comes to this type of subject with whites you get broad explanations. “It’s a mental issue, not all of us are killers, etc” plus, when white males are responsible for sick acts like this its always a “mental” issue. Any other race its deliberate and cold blooded. No on asks cause whites are the majority, and they have the loudest voice. Now, who do you know wants to wear the hat of “mass murderer” no one, but when its not someone who’s white its a race thing…always. it really is a double standard, and its sad and cowardly. That’s America for you, hypocritical to no end. In crime, race matters until the perp is white, which usually ends in a spin doctor job of “he/she had mental issues, or they were abused” but a minority…never. Minorities always know what they’re doing…you won’t hear about a study on whites, that’s racism and ignorance for you. Sad.
I would say what’s wrong with males of a certain age. Not only whites. Prisons are full of them, all over the world. It seems concentrated on a certain age group. Around 17-27 years of age. Do men need certain special education to become good MEN? Crime, murder, rape, mass shootings, terrorism, gangs, concentrated in a segment of the population. Parents unaware of what is happening or unable to say something about it. Relatives and parents not being able to recognize who is prone to violence? somebody like that will show signs that everybody should be able to spot and correct, while there is still time for prevention and yes, re-education. We are too focused with the words: mental problems!!! most of these so called mental problems are behavioral problems that can be corrected with a multitask education and guidance programs which are, well, non existent. These problems begin with children who abuse animals, girls, or children who were abused as children. Is time to think outside the box and change the system to the core. Now we have a new mass shooting done by another young men, which showed signs of being a misfit for a long time. Those misfits are there, all over the place, just waiting to snap. We all know who they are. They are our kids, our neighbors, our relatives. There is still time to do something about it before some of these young men, white, yellow, black, brown, red, it doesn’t matter, there will be soon another mass murder rampage, unless we do something about it. Correction, education, guidance, faith, Multitasking education is the key.
First I blame white women and women of color for choosing assholes to mate with. Women from modern industrialized nations have no guidelines (heritage) for choosing an appropriate mate – or not choosing one. Primitive cultures are way ahead of us – they mate with a long term plan in mind.
Western divorce rates prove I’m right and the poor quality of the offspring that are being raised proves I’m right again…that’s where all these young white killers originate. We are a culture out-of-control and it’s going to continue to increase society’s stress to a breaking point – maybe it’s here already.
Every single white young killer was from a broken home? Blaming women for poor choices is pretty fucked up, considering how many other women raise perfectly healthy sons n daughters in such circumstances. You might be able to argue poverty and lack of a good male role model is harmful but unless a significant number of males born from such broken homes commit such a crime then how the hell is it even linked?
She was my Ex Ben was our son. I am still reeling from this. I can’t process it, Had I showed up at the house she would have killed me too.