10/26 Leader
White guy killer syndrome: Elliot Rodger’s deadly, privileged rage
This article by Brittney Cooper discusses Elliot Rodger and the “white guy killer privilege” that led to him shooting and killing seven people near University of California, Santa Barbara. Cooper makes the argument that because “white male heterosexual middle-class privilege” are afforded a certain level of privilege and learn to expect that privilege, when those expectations aren’t met, then the public is expected to remedy the problem. Cooper continues to connect this singular incident of the consequences of this unmet privilege by placing it within the framework of the larger political atmosphere within the country. She writes that, “we have endured a mass temper-tantrum from white men that includes a mind-boggling war on women… and an attempt to decimate whole communities of color.” Through this connection, she critiques on an overall society that pits heterosexual white men against everyone who falls outside of this category.
Did ‘whiteness’ save the life of the alleged Planned Parenthood shooter?
This article written by Peter Holley discusses the differences in how police respond to white males and POC males when suspected of a crime. The author begins by describing how various white men have committed mass murder and constituted a very real threat at the time of apprehension, yet were safely led away by police while in handcuffs. Despite these instances, in cases where the alleged suspects are POC, they are not afforded the same privilege as the white men in being given the benefit of the doubt. The article confronts various inherent biases that could affect the different outcomes of these situations including how, “police not only perceive white suspects versus black ones differently, but may also perceive the existence of a crisis differently.”
Why Are Most Mass Shooting Perpetrated By White Men?
Discussion Questions
Elliot Rodger released a manifesto that said the reason for his killing spree was because he “had given women and humanity one more chance to accept me and give me a chance to have a pleasurable youth.” He writes about women, “Why do they give their love and sex to other men, but not me, even though I deserve them more?” This sense of entitlement is explored in the Cooper article that discusses heterosexual white male privilege. But Elliot Rodger was half-Chinese and described himself as a “beautiful Eurasian”. How does this complicate our understanding of white privilege and entitlement?
Both “Donald Trump and the Central Park Five” and “Did ‘whiteness’ save the life of the alleged Planned Parenthood shooter?” mention how young black adolescents are treated in comparison to their white counterparts. Often in these scenarios, the alleged white suspects are spared despite the level of their crimes, whereas the alleged black suspects are treated with a degree out of proportion to their alleged crime. Do you think this is explicit racism or implicit racism? How does this play into the concept of RSAs vs. IRAs?
Holley’s article mentions that, “the hashtag #WhiteTerrorism” was used to call attention to the “striking juxtaposition” between men like Timothy McVeigh and James Holmes and men like John Crawford III and Tamir Rice, who was only 12 at the time that he was shot and killed. In the Garza article we have read earlier, she says that “the use of hashtags such as #HandsUpDontShoot, #IfTheyGunnedMeDown, and #NoAngel speak to the long history of inaccurate and unfair portrayal of African Americans within mainstream media…”(9). How could these two different types of hashtags relate to each other and what does this say about the portrayal of white bodies in the media?
David Sirota says that, “We tend to individualize crime by Whites, while ascribing to entire groups of people the actions of individuals if those individuals are non-white… White privilege suggests that we should never asks those kinds of questions.” In what ways do we see this concept of “individualization” in the media? How are generalizations about non-white communities portrayed?