Organize the South

Right now it looks like the media is hitting the mental illness aspect of the Virginia Tech shooting. What's fascinating to me is the gender aspect and how media and others are twisting into rhetorical pretzels to avoid mentioning that there might be something wrong with men. Of course, there's an instinct to see the racial dynamic. The day of the shooting my fiance' and I were getting our marriage license at the same office where others were applying for gun licenses. We heard about the shottings and literally said at the same time, "I really hope it's a white guy."

I'm sure every person of color in the US had exactly the same reaction. I mean exactly. I'm sure millions of people heard about the shootings, lots of people dead, and were positive that the shooter was a man but unsure about his race. Think of every school shooting in the last 40 years. Think of every shooting in a workplace. When was the last time you heard of a woman walking into a school and shooting? When I think of these shootings, almost all are white men. It isn't exclusively white, but it is exclusively male. I also remember that somewhere along the line the man shoots a woman, usually at the beginning. I've never heard of a guy walking into a sports bar and killing the men inside.

What's my point? I don't really know exactly. I'm thinking this reinforces the need for gender analysis in order to make true sense of what's going on. I believe patriarchy affects men as well as women, but that affect sure as hell ain't equal. I'm also questioning the role of violence as a whole. Fanon talked about the oppressed using violence as inevitable, but that doesn't figure right to me in this situation. Why aren't women of color be blowing holes in people? What am I missing?