Peter Giannaris

Caitlin Geoghan and Prof. Olga Torres

FIQWS 10113 Med 3

Dec 13, 2019

A Modern Form of Discrimination: Guns

A black man with a gun is dangerous. Guns have been a part of American culture since the nation’s founding, but in recent years, guns have become a polarizing subject. There is a split right through the heart of America, and it can further be seen as there has and still is a divide in how white people and minorities view and have experience with guns and gun violence. The reason for the difference that minorities and whites experience with guns in America is a result of the media controlling the narrative, the racist actions of certain groups in America, and white privilege. The narrative that has been created by society is that a minority with a gun is inherently dangerous as portrayed by laws, the media, and racist ideals.

The roots of the gun control movement in America can be traced back to May 2nd, 1967 when armed members of the Black Panthers entered the California statehouse, and used their right to bear arms to do this legally. The Black Panthers made guns an integral part of their organization that allowed them to “police the police” because of the police brutality in this time, as black people were treated poorly by police (Winkler). The Black Panthers used the 2nd amendment to their advantage in order to combat inequality that they experienced daily in their lives. In the aftermath of this legal protest many organizations and people began to promote gun control in the United States, the organizations and people involved range from the Ku Klux Klan to the National Rifle Association (NRA) to Ronald Reagan (Winkler). The roots of gun control come from racist origins as a gun rights advocacy group did not want black people to be able to carry guns. In 1967, the NRA supported a bill passed by the California Legislature that banned the open carry of guns in public. When black people decided to arm themselves using their constitutional given right, the government and gun advocacy groups were against the action. This is inherently dangerous as it shows the power that majority groups have over minority groups in America that lead to the oppression of that minority. It also points out a double standard, as Black people were restricted from having guns because of the color of their skin. But the ideals that were present in the NRA calling for gun control in the past are still present with respect to black people today being held to a different standard than white people.

In America there are a large number of Americans with guns. About 49% of white households contain guns as opposed to 32% of black households (Parker). This demonstrates that more white people in America have guns, bringing the first problem into question. Why do more white people than black people own guns?

To start, white privilege plays a large role in the American gun culture that has been established. White men are allowed to walk into bars and businesses with their guns out, while black men are killed for carrying guns. White people with deadly weapons are viewed as less dangerous than black people with the same weapons. In a social experiment conducted by a left-wing political party the Occupy Democrats, a white man and a black man separately walk down the street with the same rifle (Brantley). The video shows the white man being stopped by a police officer and having a conversation about his gun, while the black man is held at gunpoint by a police officer and is handcuffed. This is an example of white privilege as white men are allowed by society to do whatever they want with their guns whereas black men with guns are not viewed the same. It is evident that being white in modern America still affords one more rights and protection under the law. According to Ryu Spaeth,  white supremacy is what has led to gun problems and an inequality in who owns guns in America. Spaeth states “‘We have a problem. We have a white supremacy problem. They are increasingly intertwined.’ In fact, they are, and have always been, one and the same thing” (Spaeth). It is evident that gun problems are a result of white people asserting their right to bear arms whereas black people in America are not allowed to do this. Gun culture in America is thriving because white people are investing their time and money into developing and buying guns. Shootings have been performed by many different groups of people in America, but white conservatives are the people in America fighting Congress and fighting gun control, not black people. Black people are not able to fight in Congress due to lack of money and representation in Congress that doesn’t allow them to lobby government officials to support their side. Being white in America affords one the right to have a gun as it is inherently a white right to carry a gun.

A major contributor that has led to the development of guns becoming a white right is the media. The media in the United States takes a story or event and shapes it in how it is presented to the public in a way that is influential to many people. To begin, the media only talks about certain groups of people in regards to gun violence. For example in the journal article “The Role of the Media in the Disparate Response to Gun Violence in America” written by Wanda Parham-Payne, it is detailed how the media frames gun violence in different ways. Payne states gun-related crimes involving low-income persons and racial and ethnic minorities are framed by the media as a convergence of cultural, environmental, and individual shortcomings and immortality (Parker-Payne). People of color’s culture and environment are brought into question after a shooting, but after many mass shootings white shooters are described as having mental health issues. This was shown after the 2012 Sandy Hook shootings as Anne Coulter, a conservative commentator exclaimed “Guns don’t kill people—the mentally ill do” (Metzl). There is bias here, as when a white person performs a shooting it is not their fault in the eyes of the media, but it is the fault of their mental health and society’s failure to help them. According to the media, when a black man shoots someone it is a cultural issue and their environment is brought into question. The media blames black people for shootings and sees them as dangerous, but white people are not viewed this way for performing shootings.

The media furthers this narrative by calling shooters of color “thugs” and “terrorists” while white shooters are called “mentally ill” (Butler). White shooters are humanized by the media and are talked about as being left behind by society in a way that led to them performing such heinous acts, they are victimized. Black/African-American/People of color shooters being called “thugs” and “terrorists” by the media are vilified automatically. This plays into how minorities with a gun are viewed as dangerous in America. The media influences the minds of citizens by the words they use and people of color are talked about in a more negative light than white people when talking about shootings. By the media doing this, they make it as if white people are less dangerous than people of color. It contributes to the formation of the narrative that minorities with a gun are viewed as dangerous.

Gun violence is something that all Americans experience in different ways. But, the white and minority experiences with gun violence are greatly different. Compared to terrorism people in the United States are 128 times more likely to be killed by gun violence whereas black people are 500 times more likely (Mitchell). Being black in America and living in a city tends to lead to a higher likelihood of being killed by gun violence. There is gun violence every day, labeled inner city violence and this is being ignored by the media and the American public. Whenever there is a mass shooting for a week or two, entire news cycles are dedicated to this covering this event. Terrorist attacks also have the same effect on the media. But the violence that takes place in cities must be portrayed into the media in order to get the attention of citizens and politicians to promote change. Furthermore, after the Parkland shooting students organized peaceful protests, marches, and rallies and were given positive support from the media. But, in Ferguson, Missouri black people were called “protesters” and “rioters” for opposing gun violence (Mitchell). This further shows how in America black people do not have voice when it comes to guns, and it is white people who control the narrative. In America, white people have the power to control guns and it contributes to the narrative that black people shouldn’t have guns because it is a white privilege to own guns.

As a black man, Dave Chapelle talks about his perspective on guns in America and who is really dangerous in his stand-up comedy special Sticks & Stones. Chapelle begins by stating “Shooting up schools is a white kid’s game,” showing the disconnect in America in how white and black people view guns (Chapelle). Chapelle states “I don’t see any peaceful way to disarm America’s whites,” as he sees that white Americans would fight instead of giving up their guns (Chapelle). This shows how a black man in America views white people and guns, Chappelle believes that white Americans love their guns so much that they defend the mass shootings performed at schools by white people. The narrative in America is that a minority with a gun is viewed as dangerous and it is acknowledged by Chappelle toward the end of the segment when he states “Every able-bodied African-American must register for a legal firearm. That’s the only way they’ll change the law” (Chapelle). Though this statement is from the point of view of a comedian, it is evident that if minorities purchase guns specifically, black people purchasing guns then America will begin to enact gun control laws. This happened in the past in America and would happen again as minorities, brown and black people are seen as threatening with guns.

A black man with a gun is not dangerous. A minority with a gun is not dangerous. Anyone with a gun can be dangerous no matter what their skin color. White privilege, legislation, and the media all help to ring true the narrative that a minority with a gun is dangerous that has seeped into society and led to a difference in how white and black people with guns are treated. This narrative is not true and has contributed to the criminalization and demonization of black people in society and helps contribute to the issue of gun violence in America as white people are not perceived as dangerous with a gun.

 

 

 

 

Works Cited

Brantley, Kayla. “US Experiment Shows Police Reaction to White vs. Black.” Daily Mail

Online, Associated Newspapers, 8 Oct. 2017, https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4960872/Social-experiment-shows-police-reaction-white-vs-black.html.

Butler, Anthea. “Shooters of Color Are Called ‘Terrorists’ and ‘Thugs.’ Why Are White Shooters Called ‘Mentally Ill’?” The Washington Post, WP Company, 1 Mar. 2019, https://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2015/06/18/call-the-charleston-church-shooting-what-it-is-terrorism/.

Chapelle, Dave. “Sticks & Stones” Netflix, 2019

Metzl, Jonathan M, and Kenneth T MacLeish. “Mental Illness, Mass Shootings, and the Politics of American Firearms.” American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, Feb. 2015, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4318286/.

Mitchell, Yolanda T., and Tiffany L. Bromfield. “Gun Violence and the Minority Experience: National Council on Family Relations.” Gun Violence and the Minority Experience | National Council on Family Relations, https://www.ncfr.org/ncfr-report/winter-2018/gun-violence-and-minority-experience.

Parham-Payne, Wanda. “The Role of the Media in the Disparate Response to Gun Violence in America – Wanda Parham-Payne, 2014.” SAGE Journals, https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0021934714555185?journalCode=jbsa.

Parker, Kim, et al. “The Demographics of Gun Ownership in the U.S.” Pew Research Center’s Social & Demographic Trends Project, 25 Oct. 2018, https://www.pewsocialtrends.org/2017/06/22/the-demographics-of-gun-ownership/.

Spaeth, Ryu. “Gun Culture Has Always Been About White Supremacy.” The New Republic, 4

Aug. 2019, https://newrepublic.com/article/154652/gun-culture-always-white-supremacy.

Winkler, Adam. “The Secret History of Guns.” The Atlantic, Atlantic Media Company, 6 Oct. 2017, https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2011/09/the-secret-history-of-guns/308608/.