"Nine people are dead. Nine black people are dead. They were murdered in a terrorist attack." (Gay) Directly from Roxane Gay's editorial, is this cold fact in wake of the shooting at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in which nine people were massacred by Dylan Roof on 6/17/2015 (CNN). It's a day that will go down in American history forever, for this event made an entire nation stop and question what we call society. Americans were forced to ask themselves a series of questions containing why, what, when, and how. Many had pondered over whether or not racism still existed, and how is it so violent? Roxane Gay's editorial answered those questions, but it wasn't until further research was conducted before a stronger, more sensible interpretation was made. It is through ignorance, the lack of recognition, passionate influences on the law, and immediate forgiveness of racism's existence, that allows it to reside and cause havoc amongst targeted ethnic groups.

"Forgiveness has become a requirement for those enduring the realities of black death in America.", according to Stacey Patton. "Black people forgive because we need to survive. We have to forgive time and time again while racism or white silence in the face of racism continues to thrive. We have had to forgive slavery, segregation, Jim Crow laws, lynching, inequity in every realm, mass incarceration, voter disenfranchisement, inadequate representation in popular culture ... " (Gay). Throughout the Christian history of African Americans and their independent churches, they have been to known to harbor qualities of forgiveness in hopes of there being divine intervention and/or freedom in the afterlife (Patton). Forgiveness has been essential to the black community, for it was there only means of atoning for and appeasing whites in terms of racial crimes/offenses. In a society where African Americans' rights are essentially limited and are twelve times more likely to die in the United States than in any other developed country, it's understandable for the African American community to be so ready to forgive (Silver). 

 Black families are often expected to grieve on camera and then surpass their hardships so they can forgive, because that's what they've done well, forgiving. Nearly 32% of African Americans killed by the police were unarmed in comparison to 15% of unarmed whites (theguardian). Loved ones of victims are asked by news anchors if they would forgive their perpetrators, advocates of police brutality, such as the parents of Trayvon Martin and Jordan Davis (Patton). "The  ... media... embraced that notion of forgiveness, seeming to believe that if we forgive we have somehow found a way to make sense of the incomprehensible." (Gay) But the problem with this display of forgiveness is that it'll eventually lead to white atonement and ultimately racial denial. (Patton)

Throughout the writings of Stacey Patton and Roxane Gay the use of the word "terrorist", not a, "crazed gunman" or anything of that euphemistic sort, is used quite widely throughout their own writings. Like many news sources, Fox News has denied all of the racial implications, is described as an "accident" by Rick Perry, and according to the FBI Director James Comey, Dylann Roof is not a terrorist. "Even in a slaughter of innocents, black people have to fight to have their humanity recognized." These nine people who were tragically killed don't even get the proper media attention they deserve, and when they're outraged it's seen as unmotivated or over exaggerating (Patton). It challenges the social stigma of were African Americans are expected to forgive rather than protests. According to Patton, this is why African Americans should, " ... embrace our full range of human emotions, vocalize our rage, demand to be heard, and expect accountability." This forgiving, almost hereditary seeming characteristic has only gotten African Americans so far, and they are still being oppressed. Their emphatic manner allows them to forgive before completely recuperating, mourning, or waiting for the final judicial systems to release a verdict (Patton) has only left them submissive. 

As with the relatives of victims of the Charleston Church shooting, they forgave Dylann Roof not even forty-eight hours after the attack. Whether or not their forgiveness stems from their Christian roots or is seen as customary, no apology ever came from Dylan Roof. For someone to be forgiven they must first feel remorse or regret for what they have done. Roxane Gay suggests that perceiving certain events as unforgiveable with atrocities needs to be taken into consideration. Strictly replacing hate with love isn't necessarily a good thing when the consequences are so severe and detrimental to a community and the nation as a whole. According to Chad Williams, Associate Professor and Chair, Department of African and Afro-American studies at Brandeis University states, "I think the expectation that blacks are always willing to forgive makes it harder to engage in radical transformative social justice work." and that    "Many people mistake black forgiveness for absolution of America's racial sins," (Patton). This elaborates on the fact that there is no social progression due to insinuations of varying races and the immediate sense of forgiving by the African American community. 

On the other hand, when the greater good of America, or White America, is at risk of Islamic terror attacks the United States has a no tolerance policy. There is no such thing as forgiveness, just targeting and death. Throughout every American news source the word, "terrorist" is used appropriately, when they are founded they are either killed or trialed through an appropriate judicial system as seen with Osama Bin Laden or Dzhokhar Tsarnaev. Tsarnaev was found guilty regardless of a basic sorry note and was sent to death. Whether or not he was truly sorry, he at least portrayed remorse to be forgiven, not like Dylann Roof. Dylann Roof was forgiven due to white sympathy and the fact that he was humanized. The judge at Roof's bond hearing stopped to mention Roof's family and how awful they must feel in combination with the other nine victims' families (Patton). In addition to that, Roof's arresting officers bought him food while he was under their custody, expanding on the humanity of this terrorist.

When an individual is labeled as a terrorist he is treated as such in accordance to the  United States law. Reza Aslan, a religious scholar and author depicts the law as "dispassionate" and not easily overturned. It is not something that can be influenced with heart felt sorrows, or lack thereof, but it was in Dylann Roof's case. "Mr. Roof's racism was blunt and raggedly formed. It was bred by a culture in which we constantly have to shout "Black lives matter!" because there is so much evidence to the contrary. This terrorist was raised in this culture." (Gay) Most people don't want to be seen as a racist, especially whites. That was something from our ugly past and it never lingered after the Civil Rights movement, right? Wrong, yes we implemented laws to correlate to the equality of all races, but socially we failed.   

Institutionalized racism exists at its finest, tainting the fragile egg shell-like minds of the young. We need to stop perceiving the idea of racism to be eradicated, but as lingering so it can be taken head on. "More than twice as many Americans have died from white supremacists or far right-wing zealots than from Islamic terrorism since 9/11." (Aslan) As a nation we seem to be preoccupied with foreign enemies when the main threat is eating us from the inside. If we can confront this stigma with this new reinterpretation of our stance and social interactions regarding race, then we can evaluate our ignorance and grow as a nation before something this awful repeats itself time and time again.    

