*updated* pic.twitter.com/tKAGxdTPYc
— ♛ℳelgeta Sama (@OGMelo_) October 2, 2017
#LasVegasShooting
On Monday, Oct. 2nd, around 5:45 a.m., I woke up and headed to the bathroom, grabbing my iPhone to check all my notifications. (I love me some notifications!!) Along with my notifications, there were a series of text messages from a cable news producer who wanted one of my clients on HLN’s “Across America With Carole Costelle.” Just when I thought it might be another police shooting of an unarmed African American, notifications from CNN were popping up as “news alerts” of a Las Vegas mass shooting.
By the time I brushed my teeth and turned on the tv, folks on cable news were reporting “Deadliest Mass Shoot in American History.” Apparently, another White man, loaded with guns, fired into a crowd of people enjoying an outdoor country music festival in Las Vegas. As of today, 59 (including the killer) are dead, and about 500 people were injured.
Who Is the ‘Lone Wolf?’
The shooter: Stephen Paddock. With meticulous planning, he made it rain in Sin City with bullets from the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino on the Las Vegas strip. And when his reign of terror was apparently coming to an end, he killed himself. As I continued to watch the news, anchors, reporters, commentators kept referring to Paddock as a “lone wolf,” and trying to paint this rosy picture of him not fitting the “typical” profile of a gunman.
He’s not a “lone wolf,” he’s a f*cking terrorist. And apparently, I wasn’t alone in my thoughts. Scrolling through tweets on Black Twitter, it became pretty obvious about my issue with the news coverage: White privilege strikes again! Well, if it walks like a duck, shoots like a duck, it’s a TERRORIST!
I know. I know. It’s difficult for some to digest that domestic terrorism can be found at the hands of a White man. Yet, it’s sooooo easy to believe that a Black man or teen or anybody in a hoodie can be a criminal. If the shooter was Black, Muslim or an immigrant, all hell would have broken loose in America. Heads would roll! Donald Trump would be tweeting his fingernails off about the gunman. If you think he doesn’t care about Puerto Rico now, if the Las Vegas shooter was a person of color, that hurricane-ravaged island would be an afterthought to him. Instead, Paddock was “a lone wolf.” **sigh**
If it walks like a duck; shoots like a duck; IT’S A TERRORIST! Can we put this #whiteprivilege aside & call it what it is? #stephencpaddock
— Wyllisa Bennett (@WyllisaBennett) October 2, 2017
I could go on, but I think columnist Shaun King conveys my sentiments in his piece, titled “The White Privilege of the “Lone Wolf’ Shooter.” I laughed when I saw a game of “White Terrorist Bingo” posted on Twitter.
