Dylann Roof: Made in America

America must stop looking for scapegoats for Dylann Roof — his family, his friends, his many schools. We are all responsible for manufacturing Dylann Roof.

We must admit that Americans of European descent and Americans of African descent have been taught to suspect one another. We must accept that the original sin of this country, slavery, has had a profoundly negative effect on all Americans. This can only be ameliorated through honest and open discussion.

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Roof wrote in his “manifesto”: “I chose Charleston because it is most historic city in my state, and at one time had the highest ratio of blacks to Whites in the country. We have no skinheads, no real KKK, no one doing anything but talking on the internet.” He wrote that reading about the George Zimmerman case “prompted me to type in the words ‘black on White crime’ into Google, and I have never been the same since that day.… There were pages upon pages of these brutal black on White murders. I was in disbelief. At this moment I realized that something was very wrong. How could the news be blowing up the Trayvon Martin case while hundreds of these black on White murders got ignored?”

Did Dylann Roof not know why blacks — slaves — once outnumbered whites in Charleston? Was Dylann Roof not aware of the lynchings of black Americans? Was he not aware of the millions of slaves who died during the Middle Passages from Africa to the Americas? Does he not know that murder most often occurs among people who know each other, that white folk are more likely to kill white folk and black folk are more likely to kill black folk?

Had we confronted the demons of racial hatred that plague Dylann Roof, by correcting the kind of misinformation he was fed, he might have been exorcised of those devils. But we have sanitized our public discourse to the point that we accept all “truths” out of fear of offending anyone. Our public schools don’t allow real dialogue for fear of upsetting someone. Our teachers aren’t allowed to teach the hard facts about American history. We refuse to deal with the systematic problems plaguing our society, so young and old refuse to engage in honest discussion. We have become a nation of the politically correct, a nation of the offended. Many multicultural and diversity programs have added to this conundrum.

America is a family. Like all families, there are some members who believe that they are being slighted in favor of others. In a healthy family, there is a discussion about these perceptions, and how to deal with them.

It is time for the American family to have that discussion.

As the country becomes more diverse, groups will struggle to retain their identity as groups, which is how it should to be. Citizens must be allowed self-identity, and group-identity, in order to appreciate our larger American identity. We can only celebrate our commonality if we appreciate and understand our differences.

Jesus gives us this universal commandment: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” If we do not love ourselves, our own uniqueness, we can never accept Americans who are different from us as our equals. America did not teach Dylann Roof to love himself.

We might put Dylann Roof to death, but his demons will live on in American society, unabated, unless we are willing to confront and exorcise them. Roof was not a self-radicalized racist. America radicalized him.

God have mercy on the soul of Dylann Roof. God have mercy on the spirit of America.

This story was originally published January 8, 2017 at 6:00 PM with the headline "Dylann Roof: Made in America."