Tommy Juanso

Opinion contributor

I have spoken on social media for five years with the man police have charged in the Kroger killings, and I fully believe race was his primary motive.

Gregory Bush was a UK Wildcat fan. A superfan. A member of Big Blue Nation. I spoke to him on Twitter the same way many of us who affiliate as Cardinals and Wildcats do. In those interactions, the way the alleged killer viewed himself, and how he viewed others — with a surface categorization of their skin color, their race, their team — is significant.

When I learned the identity of the Kroger shooter, a man who is accused of murdering two wonderful people who happened to be black, it was clear to me that he did so because of his real team affiliation. It wasn’t a Wildcat vs. Cards rivalry. It was a deeper, more painful, and evil rivalry — a rivalry between a man who views himself as a member of the white team versus members of the black team.

I know this because he shared his views on race.

The latest:Man who shot back at Kroger shooting suspect has been identified

Several years ago, Gregory Bush made comments about black men on Twitter that were unforgivable. He saw black men as one homogeneous group and indicated that they were some of the most racist people he'd ever met.

I challenged him, and I told him that people of all races can be racist. This white man, married to a black woman, with a biracial son, hated black men. And he claimed he hated them because of comments black men made about his wife at Thunder over Louisville. He talked about “black dudes were pissed” he was with a black woman. He said they called his wife “a whore.” He said he would never forget those comments.

I explained to him that even if that was true, people in my own family have dealt with it. I tried to reach him, to change his heart, to open his eyes. It was obvious that he hated black men and would always hate them.

More:Kroger shooting suspect Gregory Bush indicted on murder charges

Maurice Stallard and Vickie Lee Jones were murdered because a man wanted to destroy that other team. Two pillars of their community — family people undeserving of their fate — had their lives stolen. Like so many of us, they were shopping for groceries. It was about 2:30 p.m. on a Wednesday in Jeffersontown.

After the murders, when the bullets finally stopped, and when so many traumatized, fearful and paralyzed bystanders were huddled for safety, one man asked another man what was happening in the parking lot. He was afraid. Turns out this bystander had asked the murderer, and the murderer said: “Don’t shoot me. I won’t shoot you. Whites don’t shoot whites.” He thought they were on the same team.

As a Kentucky Wildcats fan, a proud member of the #BBN, I’ve come to learn the painful lesson that there are so many people who cheer for black athletes, idolize these players, follow their recruitment, college careers and post-Wildcat NBA careers, and who practically worship these young black men, but still, their team identity doesn’t compare to their racial identity.

We now live in a time when people who wouldn’t otherwise view race as the main affiliation are being taught that it is. Their sources of information, their president, the people they idolize denigrate, insult and dehumanize fellow Kentuckians and fellow Americans based on their race.

Patriotism — that belief in a collective, proud, unified America — has devolved to nationalism. And race — specifically the belief in the superiority of one race and the inferiority of other races — is the team.

Gregory Bush already had that idea. It’s evident from what he said on Twitter: It didn’t matter if the person was blue or red. The only team that mattered to him was black or white.

Tommy Juanso is a Louisville attorney.

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