Research

The Washington Post - 'Shooters of color are called terrorists and thugs. Why are white shooters mentally ill?

https://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2015/06/18/call-the-charleston-church-shooting-what-it-is-terrorism/?utm_term=.549ae4610ae7

I chose to use this article because it gives us an understanding of how races are treated differently in the media when it comes to issues such as terrorism, and it gives us examples of when it has been shown.

This article in the Washington Post was written by Anthea Butler. It highlights a specific hate crime which took place in Charleston by a white man, Dylann Roof. However, the media have labelled him as 'mentally ill.' The article aims to investigate why when a white person commits a terror attack, its usually down to 'mental health' however, when committed by someone of a different ethnicity they're labelled as a terrorist usually straight away.

The article gets the point across that terror crimes committed by those who are white are dismissed, by stating 'listen to major media outlets, you wont hear the word "terrorism" used.' This shows that the mainstream media doesn't associate white people with terrorism and when someone of colour does commit such an act, assumptions are made straight away. At the end of the article, the writer states that Roof has 'admitted to killing those to start a race war, we should be calling him what he is. A terrorist.' This gets the main ideology across that despite the colour of your skin or your religion, you can't decide who is or isn't a 'terrorist' because of their race. I agree with the quotations used in the article. When watching the news or reading news on social media it is rare that you will see a white attacker labelled a 'terrorist', they're usually described as a 'lone-wolf' and the issue is put down to mental health problems.