In the wake of the horrific terrorist attack that occurred in a Charleston church on Wednesday, the nation is struggling to come to terms with the racial divide that still manages to separate fellow American from fellow American.
Unable to "do his job," comedian Jon Stewart delivered a somber monologue in an attempt to come to terms with this all-too-familiar occurrence that our battle-scarred country has grown to accept as "normal."
Stewart passionately stated, "Sadness… Once again, that we have to peer into the abyss of the depraved violence that we do to each other. And the nexus of a gaping racial wound that will not heal, yet we pretend doesn't exist."
"We're steeped in that culture," Stewart said.
As the black Americans of the South drive down roads named after Confederate generals and attend courthouses flying Confederate flags, their anxieties are instantly dismissed as time and time again they're told "this was an isolated incident." An isolated incident that sure seems to happen a lot these days.
The terrorist who walked into that Bible study on Wednesday night was welcomed with open arms. He sat with nine lambs of God for an entire hour before he shot them down, reloading his gun five times before fleeing like a coward into the night. That terrorist, who proudly wore a jacket sporting the flags of apartheid-era Africa, who celebrated the "heritage, not hate" of those symbols of racism, was inspired by nothing more than simple mindless hatred and ignorance.
If these nine peoples' deaths could have meant something to a cause, if their nine deaths could have been a martyrdom for a better tomorrow, then perhaps it wouldn't feel like such a loss. But, as Stewart correctly says, "It's going to go down the same path… They're already using the nuanced language of lack of effort for this. This is a terrorist attack, this is a violent attack on the Emmanuel Church in South Carolina which is a symbol for the black community… This wasn't a tornado, this was a racist."
To Cynthia Graham, Susie Jackson, Ethel Lee Lance, Depayne Middleton, Clementa Pinckney, Myra Thompson, Tywanza Sanders, Daniel Simmons, and Sharonda Singleton, our thoughts and prayers are with you and your families, and we're so sorry. We can only hope that your needless deaths bring more clarity to the warped mindset of our national dialogue, and help to put an end to a problem that is still very much alive in our country.
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