Freddie Gray

Joey Meek also stated that Roof was "obsessed" with the death of Freddie Gray and the unrest in Baltimore. This is an obsession I have seen and experienced first hand. After the death of Gray, I came face to face with the conservative white obsession over him and received thousands of hateful messages from all over the country.

Respected conservatives began flat-out lying about Gray.

One conservative reporter claims that Gray severed his own spine jumping from a three-story window eluding police and then running full force into a wall. Except that even the Baltimore police have claimed they simply spotted Gray on the street.

Other conservatives literally doctored a lead-paint exposure settlement that Gray and his sister received and claimed that it was for a severe spinal injury he received in a car accident.

Perhaps no lie is more disturbing than the one the Baltimore police have leaked to The Washington Post—that Gray injured himself in the van. It is irresponsible for the Post to advance this lie, and it's corrupt for the Baltimore police to be leaking it to advance a false narrative to protect their officers.

In America, far too many of us live in strange bubbles where we hardly ever hear viewpoints that conflict with our own. And, if we hear them, we immediately discount them as lacking credibility. It's likely that Roof lived in such a dangerous bubble where conservative lies about Gray and Martin caused him to think that these two young men not only got what they deserved, but also that people like them pose a real threat.

This isn't a guess. He told survivors of his terrorist attack his racist intentions. He told others he wanted to start a civil war.

But here's the thing—this is not some off-the-wall conclusion that Roof arrived at on his own. If he truly believed that six officers were railroaded in Baltimore, if he truly believed that Martin got what he deserved, if he truly believed that Mike Brown fractured the face of Darren Wilson (he didn't), as was reported in The Washington Post, then it all makes sense that this man, or any man or woman for that matter, could conclude that some white anger is in order.

But here's what pulls it all together more than Freddie Gray, more than Mike Brown or Trayvon Martin ...



The Confederate flag, in spite of decades of African Americans in South Carolina stating that it is an offensive symbol of intimidation and pain, flies freely and boldly on the grounds of the South Carolina capitol. By flying this flag, the white powers of the state are saying, in no uncertain terms, that their pride and power means way more than black pain and frustration.

In what world is this over OK? Don't be shallow about it. What does flying this flag in South Carolina really mean when so many African Americans have said so clearly that it hurts them to see it. What does it mean in any context when someone does something that is knowingly offensive to others?

Now, let's dig deeper. Symbols matter.

Here is Dylann Roof, in a photo he posted to Facebook this past May, possibly taken by a friend, in which he poses wearing a jacket with two patches on it. One is from the racist apartheid regime of South Africa and the other is from the racist colonial regime of Rhodesia—now Zimbabwe.

Roof wasn't celebrating his heritage. He's not from there. He's never been there. Those flags, long since discarded when black Africans came to power in those countries, stand for violent oppression. These resonated with Roof because he, quite obviously now, also believed in the violent use of force against Africans in America.

The Confederate flag means something to Roof as well. See him below posing in front of his car with it on the license plate. At its very best, this is a symbol of the Confederacy. Logically, tease this out. Is it truly outrageous for a young man to want a civil war now when the flag from the actual Civil War is displayed so boldly at the state capitol? Is the state not celebrating the Confederacy? Did the Confederacy not want to maintain slavery and subjugate African Americans to a sub-human status?

We're not even getting into the reality that the Confederate flag wasn't reintroduced in South Carolina until nearly 90 years after the Civil War as a tool to intimidate people during the Civil Rights movement.

We need to be honest. The murders of Trayvon Martin and Freddie Gray fundamentally degraded the value of black lives in the eyes of many Americans. The coverage of those murders doubled down on that degradation and presence of the Confederate flag, at the insistence of the state government of South Carolina, makes official that the humiliation and intimidation of African Americans is acceptable.

The truth is this. Dylann Roof is a uniquely and particularly American man. Birthed and hewn out of our violent culture. America made this man and many, many more like him. He is not the first and won't be the last.

