Today your Twitter feed is probably full of frustrated responses to last night’s mass shooting in Las Vegas.
Riverdale‘s Cole Sprouse is a part of that desperate conversation, trying to spotlight the real issues behind America’s gun violence, while others try to write it off with thoughts and prayers.
Cole focuses the blame (because, yes, there is blame for white male violence other than possible mental health issues) on the complicit media and whiteness. He tweeted,
“Constant coverage and ‘in-depth’ analysis of the life of shooters…are all covered a great deal. Aside from the many other legal and institutional reasons guns need to be better controlled, news outlets need to recognize how they affect the minds of these villains hungry for attention.”
Cole’s argument has validity; national outlets have already put out articles about the “clean record” of the Las Vegas shooter and the “quiet life” he led before last night, and I’m sure in the coming weeks there will be more detailed coverage of this man who shouldn’t be given any attention at all.
Cole also tweeted,
“We also must address that these shooters are almost exclusively coming from a single socio-economic class and racial group and so also need to address what part of whiteness influences this kind of Petri dish for gun violence and killing.”
Again, he makes a justifiable point. White people have committed the majority of mass shootings in America. There’s a root in that. There’s a reason. And as much as some Americans might splutter and protest at that idea, we can’t afford to anymore.
We stopped being able to afford that a long time ago.
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