A Psychology of Liberation and Peace by Chalmer E. F. Thompson

Author:Chalmer E. F. Thompson
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9783030135973
Publisher: Springer International Publishing

Fear of Retaliation Violence by White Hate Groups

When the young gunman entered the church, the congregants there who were meeting for Bible study welcomed him, from the accounts of the three people who survived the massacre which took place on July 17, 2015 at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in the fellowship hall. The nine others who were killed by the gunman, a confessed white supremacist, had little chance for survival as they were repeatedly hit after he fired seven magazines of hollow-point rounds hitting each victim repeatedly (Blinder & Sack, January 10, 2017). The victims were the Reverend Clementa C. Pinckney, Susie Jackson, Tywanza Sanders, Cynthia Hurd, Ethel Lee Lance, the Rev. DePayne Middleton Doctor; the Rev. Daniel L. Simmons, Sr., and the Rev. Sharonda Coleman-Singleton. The gunman spoke of the murder and of his intentions showing little remorse in a courtroom where jurors sentenced him to death for the nine murders. Mother Emanuel, as the church is called, is the oldest A.M.E. congregation in the Deep South, and began when Black people met in secret before the Civil War. Their secret meetings were in defiance of a law forbidding any gatherings of Black people at the time. It also was the site of Denmark Vesey’s uprising in 1822 where 313 Blacks were arrested for conspiring, and 35, including Vesey were executed. The church was burned down. In subsequent years, Whites burned down Black churches throughout the U.S. South (Weisman, July 18, 2015).

These are chilling accounts that realistically raise fears for many about the people who harbor a deep hatred of Black people and who have the weaponry to carry out heinous, racial violence . Those who resist racial identity development may fear that crossing the threshold of learning can unleash an uncontrollable rage in Whites, a projection of this violence committed by these hate groups, and that they themselves will face harm as a result of their participation in struggles for liberation. In short, they fear retaliation based on their fear of these groups.

The sad reality is that militia and hate groups have existed for well over a generation and although they ought to be a concern to those who can address them, we know that such action has been a low priority for legislators. Recall in the last chapter that U.S. President Wilson helped foment the rise of the Ku Klux Klan , and reports have shown that Donald Trump has had strong and vocal support by hate groups since his presidency began. Rhetoric on uncontrollable immigration on the Mexican border has inflamed these groups (e.g., Grant & Miroff, 2018; Papenfuss, 2018). A rise in mass shootings by individuals with sympathies toward these hate groups have been directed at various groups like Muslims and Jews, is attributed to the president’s racial and sexist name-calling as well as Trump’s expressions of anger over Black National Football League players, like Colin Kaepernick or other athletes who protest about police shootings of Black people by failing to stand during the playing of the national anthem before these games (see timeline from Sandritter, 2017).

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