Black pain in the wake of the Charleston church massacre
The crowds gathered around Emanuel AME Church were a mix of Black and White, all grieving and shaking their heads in disbelief. “How could this have happened in Charleston?” many ask; not our city. There was very little anger at the situation and more of a piteous forgiveness for the 21-year-old killer who took nine innocent lives during Bible study.
In front of the church, the pile of flowers and tributes steadily grew in the sweltering sun as news media rushed to get some reaction from the crowd. But there was a moment when you had to respect the grief of the community. The dead were fathers, grandmothers and aunts taken suddenly in the “House of the Lord.”
Once again, Black pain was on full display for all of America to see. Black lives taken by a White man deliberately letting all of Black America know you are never safe from racial hatred. But he was not successful in starting a race war as he planned, instead he caused a love war to break out in Charleston. Charleston has become a city too grief-stricken to allow hate. Despite the heinous nature of the crime there were no protesters calling for the death of White people or even for the killer.
There were some who spoke of the negative racial climate in Charleston
What was your reaction to the killings here at the church?
It was shocking but not uncommon is SC,
Why do you think we are still victims of abuse?
It is embedded in the mindset of the people here. We are substandard citizens and we don’t matter. That’s why this happened.The thing about that is he was not a 50-year-old Caucasian male who did this. Racism is a learned trait and they get this from their family. [There’s] an upswing in racism. What happened is a drastic , outward show of their racism. This is the mindset of the young people here. It’s 2015 and we are still dealing with racism in America.
As Christians how do we go on from this?
Prayer. People are forgiving him but you have to have that spiritual background and love for God to forgive. It was a bad act, it’s just ironic that something like this happened in a church. He did this because this was his upbringing. This is the culture and atmosphere of SC .
My father was an AME minister for 40 years, and I have attended this church many times. I had a slogan “Ain’t it good to be loved by God?” Pastor Pinckney was loved. He was a brother, a father an all around good person. This is so sad that he (Killer) would do something like this but he is not going to stop God’s work.
How do we get beyond this?
We as Black people should be thankful because we did not have much in this country but look at all we have accomplished. We are more honestly loving than others because of our history in this country. You got to have God in your heart.
