President-elect Donald Trump and Dylann Roof, the 22-year-old who was found guilty Thursday on 33 charges related to the murder of nine black churchgoers in South Carolina, are “brothers in white resentment,” according to Slate.
Brothers in white resentment. https://t.co/ywWjfJLDA3 pic.twitter.com/klWUDiHV5i
— Slate (@Slate) December 15, 2016
Slate political correspondent Jamelle Bouie draws a parallel between Trump’s remarks while announcing his run for president on June 16, 2015 — “The U.S. has become a dumping ground for everyone else’s problems” — and the racist rantings Roof published before committing mass slaughter on June 17, 2015.
“Indeed, when read together, Trump’s announcement and Roof’s manifesto offer a duet in racial grievance,” Bouie writes.
Sure, there might be “no causal relationship between Trump and Roof,” and “no tangible link” between Trump’s election and Roof’s violent acts, but that doesn’t mean they are “unrelated.” There are several other ‘yes, but…’ formulations that follow.
“Trump did not cause Roof,” Bouie writes. “But their temporal proximity reveals thematic connections between the two.”
He continues:
Roof’s crime is so monstrous that it may rankle to put him on the same continuum as Trump. But to see both with clear eyes is to see the link between demonization and aggression, between Trump’s rhetoric, simmering with menace, and the wave of harassment, intimidation, and outright violence that followed his victory. It’s to see both Donald Trump and Dylann Roof as heralds of the darkest forces in American life, to see their common heritage in a rising tide of white identity and white nationalism.
People on Twitter, a social media platform, expressed shock and outrage at the suggestion of a link between Roof and Trump (and, by extension, his supporters).
@Slate This is SO off the charts mean and stupid. Now you know why you lost and may never win again.
— Lowdown Central (@RPedenko) December 15, 2016
@Slate comparing a mass murder to President-elect… keep it classy Slate. #2Edgy5me
— Deal With It (@HereComeDatPrez) December 15, 2016
@Slate Sad commentary on how low the far left is willing to go.
— David Zuckerman (@DavidZuckerma10) December 15, 2016
@Slate Y’all are idiots.
— Colonel (@laurakfillault) December 15, 2016
Some meltdowns are more fun to watch than others.@Slate
— Bernard (@schwartzieIII) December 15, 2016
@Slate this is exactly the kind of garbage the American voter is sick of! Keep it up and it will lock in 8 years for sure!
— Didi Hopes (@didi_hopes) December 15, 2016
@Slate you guys are really messed up in the head. Why are you polarizing people so much? Seriously why?
— NoFakeNews (@N0FakeNews) December 15, 2016
TAKE THE POLL
