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Guns, Not Race, Are at the Root of the Wave of ‘Trespass’ Shootings Guns, Not Race, Are at the Root of the Wave of ‘Trespass’ Shootings
(about 2 hours later)
On April 13, Ralph Yarl, 16 years old and Black, rang Andrew Lester’s doorbell in Kansas City, Mo., by mistake, Yarl’s family said. According to prosecutors, Lester, 84 and white, shot Yarl at the door twice. Thank God Yarl survived, but his injuries, including one to the head, were severe.On April 13, Ralph Yarl, 16 years old and Black, rang Andrew Lester’s doorbell in Kansas City, Mo., by mistake, Yarl’s family said. According to prosecutors, Lester, 84 and white, shot Yarl at the door twice. Thank God Yarl survived, but his injuries, including one to the head, were severe.
Enlightened American wisdom suggests that race must have had something to do with this. Or even that race is the heart of the story, as Princeton’s Imani Perry argued: “At least in Jim Crow-era sundown towns, there were ostensibly safe hours to be Black on the street. Now? Each day and every hour, we are balls bouncing along a roulette wheel.“ Enlightened American wisdom suggests that race must have had something to do with this. Or even that race is the heart of the story, as Princeton’s Imani Perry argued: “At least in Jim Crow-era sundown towns, there were ostensibly safe hours to be Black on the street. Now? Each day and every hour, we are balls bouncing along a roulette wheel.”
However, it is hardly unreasonable to first ask: Do white people also get shot when someone mistakes them as invading his property? One might suppose the question to be an idle one. But in the following days, further events confirmed that white people very much can be shot under similar circumstances, almost as if packaged as a message.However, it is hardly unreasonable to first ask: Do white people also get shot when someone mistakes them as invading his property? One might suppose the question to be an idle one. But in the following days, further events confirmed that white people very much can be shot under similar circumstances, almost as if packaged as a message.
In Hebron, N.Y., a group of young adults driving three vehicles late at night were seeking a friend’s house. But when they mistakenly drove into Kevin Monahan’s driveway, he fired shots into one car, killing a passenger, Kaylin Gillis. Monahan is 65 and white. Gillis, 20, was also white.In Hebron, N.Y., a group of young adults driving three vehicles late at night were seeking a friend’s house. But when they mistakenly drove into Kevin Monahan’s driveway, he fired shots into one car, killing a passenger, Kaylin Gillis. Monahan is 65 and white. Gillis, 20, was also white.
The Yarl and Gillis atrocities happened just a few days apart. And tragically, there was more to come.The Yarl and Gillis atrocities happened just a few days apart. And tragically, there was more to come.
In Columbus, Ohio, police said a homeowner found a homeless man who had likely been sleeping in the owner’s detached garage around 6 a.m. and shot him dead. The victim was a 60-year-old white man named Kevin J. Smith, and has been described as harmless. (The homeowner’s name has not been released.)In Columbus, Ohio, police said a homeowner found a homeless man who had likely been sleeping in the owner’s detached garage around 6 a.m. and shot him dead. The victim was a 60-year-old white man named Kevin J. Smith, and has been described as harmless. (The homeowner’s name has not been released.)
In Elgin, Texas, after a late practice, a cheerleader mistook which car in a parking lot was hers. She opened its door, saw Pedro Tello Rodriguez Jr. in the passenger seat, closed the door and walked away to her friend’s car. Then, she said, Rodriguez pursued her to the friend’s car and shot into it as they drove away. The most severely injured cheerleader, Payton Washington, is of color. But the woman who had opened Rodriguez’s car door and been pursued was Heather Roth, who is white, and was grazed by another bullet.In Elgin, Texas, after a late practice, a cheerleader mistook which car in a parking lot was hers. She opened its door, saw Pedro Tello Rodriguez Jr. in the passenger seat, closed the door and walked away to her friend’s car. Then, she said, Rodriguez pursued her to the friend’s car and shot into it as they drove away. The most severely injured cheerleader, Payton Washington, is of color. But the woman who had opened Rodriguez’s car door and been pursued was Heather Roth, who is white, and was grazed by another bullet.
In Gaston County, N.C., a basketball rolled into the yard of Robert Louis Singletary. He allegedly responded by shooting at his neighbors, striking a man and his 6-year old daughter, who was grazed by a bullet along with her mother. All three of them are white. Singletary, for the record, is Black. In Gaston County, N.C., a basketball rolled into the yard of Robert Louis Singletary. He allegedly responded by shooting at his neighbors, striking a man and his 6-year-old daughter, who was grazed by a bullet along with her mother. All three of them are white. Singletary, for the record, is Black.
These shootings all took place within the course of one week.These shootings all took place within the course of one week.
So what happened to Ralph Yarl in Kansas City was, in all of its horror, just one facet in the story of gun violence in America this month. The point is not that racism doesn’t exist. The point is not that race doesn’t matter. The point is that we can overplay how much it does in assessing what ails America in a general sense.So what happened to Ralph Yarl in Kansas City was, in all of its horror, just one facet in the story of gun violence in America this month. The point is not that racism doesn’t exist. The point is not that race doesn’t matter. The point is that we can overplay how much it does in assessing what ails America in a general sense.
There are certainly legitimate questions one might ask. Would Lester, who was reportedly under the sway of MAGA-style Fox News ideology, have been less likely to shoot a white teenager at his door? Maybe. One might surmise that race was more likely to have played a role for Lester than it was for Monahan, who was just shooting blindly into a car in the dark, perhaps not knowing the skin color of whomever he was shooting at. But those remain just surmises. Crucially, Rodriguez, Singletary and the person who killed Kevin Smith saw white faces before they pulled the trigger.There are certainly legitimate questions one might ask. Would Lester, who was reportedly under the sway of MAGA-style Fox News ideology, have been less likely to shoot a white teenager at his door? Maybe. One might surmise that race was more likely to have played a role for Lester than it was for Monahan, who was just shooting blindly into a car in the dark, perhaps not knowing the skin color of whomever he was shooting at. But those remain just surmises. Crucially, Rodriguez, Singletary and the person who killed Kevin Smith saw white faces before they pulled the trigger.
There is a larger picture here. What happened to Ralph Yarl was gruesome and unforgivable, but so was what happened to all the other gunshot victims cited.There is a larger picture here. What happened to Ralph Yarl was gruesome and unforgivable, but so was what happened to all the other gunshot victims cited.
Might there not be a performative, circular and even idle quality to fashioning that week’s message on guns as one about racism? The ultimate takeaway was not that what happened to Yarl must be seen within the context of the history of violence against Black people in America. Too much else happened. Whites, too, were injured and even killed for being in the wrong place. That their whiteness had rendered them, in a statistical sense, somewhat less likely to have suffered agony or death seems rather trivial, given that they did in fact suffer agony or death.Might there not be a performative, circular and even idle quality to fashioning that week’s message on guns as one about racism? The ultimate takeaway was not that what happened to Yarl must be seen within the context of the history of violence against Black people in America. Too much else happened. Whites, too, were injured and even killed for being in the wrong place. That their whiteness had rendered them, in a statistical sense, somewhat less likely to have suffered agony or death seems rather trivial, given that they did in fact suffer agony or death.
There is indeed a context within which what happened to Yarl — and Gillis, Roth, Washington, Smith and the Gaston County parents and daughter — must be seen. And that context is the grisly prevalence of guns in this country and how readily people use them given the allowances, and general moral and legal assumptions, of the Stand Your Ground framework, regardless of whether it may necessarily apply.There is indeed a context within which what happened to Yarl — and Gillis, Roth, Washington, Smith and the Gaston County parents and daughter — must be seen. And that context is the grisly prevalence of guns in this country and how readily people use them given the allowances, and general moral and legal assumptions, of the Stand Your Ground framework, regardless of whether it may necessarily apply.
A naïve observer of these five cases would be perplexed at the idea that what happened to Yarl is a summation of America’s racist soul while what happened to the others were regrettable but sideline anecdotes. The takeaway from that week of bloody gunplay is not that America has too much racism, but that it has too many guns.A naïve observer of these five cases would be perplexed at the idea that what happened to Yarl is a summation of America’s racist soul while what happened to the others were regrettable but sideline anecdotes. The takeaway from that week of bloody gunplay is not that America has too much racism, but that it has too many guns.
John McWhorter (@JohnHMcWhorter) is an associate professor of linguistics at Columbia University. He is the author of “Nine Nasty Words: English in the Gutter: Then, Now and Forever” and, most recently, “Woke Racism: How a New Religion Has Betrayed Black America.”