6 Compelling Insights Into the Charleston Shooting

Racism, terrorism, mass shootings: The church massacre in Charleston combines several of the most troubling issues facing America today, and it has led to some forceful insights. A roundup of six that are worth a read:

1. "The Deadly History of 'They're Raping Our Women.'" Jamelle Bouie at Slate uses Dylann Roof's alleged justification for the shooting as the starting point for a look at the long and ugly history of rape accusations being used to justify racist violence.
2. "The Racist Flags on Dylann Roof's Jacket, Explained." At Vox, Zack Beauchamp looks into the Rhodesian and apartheid-era South African flags the suspect wore in a Facebook photo: the symbols of two racist regimes that ceased to exist before he was born, but which are mythologized by today's white supremacists.

3. "The Charleston Shooter Killed Mostly Black Women. This Wasn't About Rape." At the Guardian, Rebecca Carroll observes that the choice of victims made a mockery even of Roof's own twisted logic, and "somehow, protecting the world from black men has, far too often, meant killing, beating, and raping black women and girls."
4. "Take Down the Confederate Flag Now." At the Atlantic, Ta-Nehisi Coates makes the case for taking down the flag that still flies on SC Capitol grounds, arguing that Roof's crime "cannot be divorced from the ideology of white supremacy which long animated his state nor from its potent symbol."
5. "The Ugly Truth About Hate Crimes—in 5 Charts and Maps." Christopher Ingraham at the Washington Post has some troubling statistics on hate crimes in America, including the fact that they have remained steady for a decade.
6. "Emanuel AME Shooting May Be Most Deadly Hate Crime in South Carolina History, Historian Says." Deanna Pan at the Charleston Post and Courier looks at the state's history of hate crimes—and at the reasons why it's one of only five states without hate crime legislation.

(More Dylann Roof stories.)