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Video from last night’s Daily Show of Jon Stewart speaking of yesterday’s South Carolina church shooting, watch it.
‘Honestly, I have nothing, other than just sadness. That once again that we have to peer into the abyss of depraved violence that we do to each other in the nexus of a just gaping racial wound that will not heal, yet we pretend doesn’t exist. I am confident though, that by acknowledging it, by staring into that and seeing it for what it is, we still won’t do jack shit. Yeah! That’s us. That is the part that blows my mind.’ – Jon Stewart
Ta-Nehisi Coates links the heritage of the confederate flag with the legacy of plunder in his article at the Atlantic this morning, Take Down the Confederate Flag—Now:
‘The Confederate flag’s defenders often claim it represents “heritage not hate.” I agree—the heritage of White Supremacy was not so much birthed by hate as by the impulse toward plunder. Dylann Roof plundered nine different bodies last night, plundered nine different families of an original member, plundered nine different communities of a singular member. An entire people are poorer for his action. The flag that Roof embraced, which many South Carolinians embrace, does not stand in opposition to this act—it endorses it.’ – Ta-Nehisi Coates
Felicia Sanders, mother of shooting victim Tywanza Sanders, is quoted in the NY Times:
“We welcomed you Wednesday night in our Bible study with open arms,” Felicia Sanders told Dylann Roof, the suspect in a massacre that officials said was racially motivated. She was in the room when the gunman fatally shot nine people, including her son, Tywanza, and Ms. Sanders survived by pretending to be dead.
“You have killed some of the most beautiful people that I know,” she said. “Every fiber in my body hurts, and I’ll never be the same. Tywanza Sanders was my son, but Tywanza was my hero.”
But like some of the others, she added, “May God have mercy on you.”