This past Saturday, August 26, in the middle of the day, a young white man walked into a Dollar General store in Jacksonville, a city of 900,000 in northeast Florida. He carried an assault rifle with Nazi swastikas on it and a pistol. He opened fire and murdered three Black people—two men and a woman (one victim was shot in the parking lot outside)—as he reportedly shouted “nigger.” Those killed were Angela Michelle Carr, 52; Jerrald Gallion, 29; and Anolt Joseph “AJ” Laguerre Jr., 19.
The killer wanted the world to know: just before opening fire he called his parents and told them to look at his computer. There he’d posted three racist, white supremacist manifestos, one to his parents, one to the media, one to the FBI. These have not been released as of this writing.
This mass murder comes a year after 10 Black people were shot down by another racist killer in Buffalo, New York, and just eight years after the cold-blooded massacre of nine Black people in a Charleston, South Carolina, church—also by an avowed white supremacist.
Jacksonville, Florida community responds to shooting of three people by white fascist, August 26, 2023. Photo: AP
The System: Once Again Covering Up the Actual Causes of These Mass Murders
In the wake of this despicable slaughter, this system’s media and political representatives are once again rounding up the usual “suspects” to blame: “senseless violence,” lack of gun control, widespread mental health problems, etc.
There is also vague talk about the “legacy of racism,” but this talk stops way, way short of digging deeply to the actual roots of this racist violence. Those roots go back into this country’s history and founding documents, they are woven into the modern economic and political system of capitalism-imperialism, and they are reinforced by the countless ways this culture conditions people to think of Black people as less than human.
What does it say about how deeply violent white supremacy is woven into the fabric of this country and its capitalist-imperialist system that
- the day of the Jacksonville murders was the 149th anniversary of the lynching of 15 Black men in the town of Trenton, in Gibson County, Tennessee by a mob of about 200 white people?
- the day after (Sunday, August 27) was the 63rd anniversary of Jacksonville's "Ax Handle Saturday" when over 200 white rioters—reacting to lunch counter integration protests there—armed with baseball bats and axe handles, chased, beat and threatened Black residents, as cops stood aside?
- and that the next day (August 28) was the 68th anniversary of the abduction and lynching murder of 14-year-old Emmett Till?
And what does it say about how inextricably this oppression has been knit into the system that today—60 years after the high point of the civil rights movement—Black people still suffer intense discrimination, inequality and straight-up oppression in housing, health care, education and employment. On top of all that, Black people are the special targets of the police and system of mass incarceration. In fact, in many ways—including mass incarceration—things are even worse today than they were 60 years ago!
This Hatred and Violence Is Now Being Further Unleashed… and This Oppression Is Being More Deeply Entrenched
As if that isn’t bad enough, the Trump-led fascist movement is determined to reimpose naked, vengeful white supremacy against Black people, Latinos, Native Americans, Asian Americans, and immigrants, as violently as necessary. Already these fascists are striving to ban the teaching of the truths of America’s history, and spread lies like how slaves supposedly benefitted from slavery, as Governor Ron “Da Fascist” has done with school curriculum in Florida. Not even 24 hours after this sick killing, one of the politicians vying for the Republican presidential nomination, Vivek Ramaswamy, actually said that just talking about racism and granting some minimal concessions to the fight for equality are measures that “throw kerosene on that racism…” Referring to such concessions, Ramaswamy said, “I can think of no better way to fuel racism in this country than to take something away from other people on the basis of their skin color… I’ve been saying that for years and I think that is driving sadly a new wave of anti-Black and anti-Hispanic racism in this country.” Translation: Ramaswamy does not blame the racism so deeply dug into this country for lunatic acts like the massacre in Jacksonville; no, he blames even the most minimal measures taken against that racism!
Meanwhile, the other section of the rulers, centered around the Democrats, like to style themselves the champions of equality and the “political home” of Black people. But the only thing they do is try to channel any anger into defending the system itself. These Democrats have no answer but to try and preserve the “normal,” traditional workings of this system, which has always been a violent horror for Black people in this country and for people around the world. These posers have done nothing about the Supreme Court wipe-out of affirmative action that had opened doors for a section of Black people. And as Black people’s right to vote is being cut back and effectively stripped away in state legislatures throughout the land, the Democrats have largely confined their "resistance" to lawsuits;.. in courts that are increasingly controlled by the fascists. As for police brutality and mass incarceration? All these Democrats can do is parrot their leader, Joe Biden, who constantly chirps “fund the police, fund the police, fund the police.”
But There IS Leadership and a Path for STOPPING This Madness
The time for entreaties to powers-that-be that couldn’t care less, if ever that time existed, is long since over. The time for gathering in prayer circles (as people reportedly did in Jacksonville) to seek comfort from non-existent gods, if ever that time existed, is likewise gone. The time for taking action—and the chance to make that action count for something truly liberating—is here and now.
In fact, a society and world without exploitation, oppression and the destructive conflicts between people—including white supremacy and all the violence it spawns – IS possible. But it is only possible through revolution to overthrow this system of capitalism-imperialism… and through bringing into a being a fundamentally different system, based on the Constitution for the New Socialist Republic in North America, authored by Bob Avakian (BA)—the revolutionary leader, author and architect of a whole new framework for human emancipation, the new communism.
Right now, the intensification of this system’s horrors and the sharp divisions within society—from top to bottom—have created a situation in which revolution is more possible than ever before. There is a strategy to make the revolution needed to get to that society, and to do it in these extremely explosive times. There is leadership for that struggle, in BA and the revcoms.
The revcoms are organizing people to defend the people from the attacks of these fascist thugs in and out of uniform, as part of preparing for revolution. If you hate these attacks, if you hunger for a better world in which all of humanity is emancipated, you need to be part of that.
Again, the time is NOW. And as BA has said:
There is the potential for something of unprecedented beauty to arise out of unspeakable ugliness: Black people playing a crucial role in putting an end, at long last, to this system which has, for so long, not just exploited but dehumanized, terrorized and tormented them in a thousand ways—putting an end to this in the only way it can be done—by fighting to emancipate humanity, to put an end to the long night in which human society has been divided into masters and slaves, and the masses of humanity have been lashed, beaten, raped, slaughtered, shackled and shrouded in ignorance and misery.
Some Key Examples: An Epidemic of Fascist, Racist, Anti-Women and Anti-LGBTQ Mass Shootings
The following is a partial list of mass shootings in the past few years in the U.S. targeting Black and other oppressed nationalities, women, and LGBTQ people.
August 26, 2023, Jacksonville, Florida: Three Black people were murdered at a Dollar General store in a mainly Black neighborhood. The murderer had swastikas on his AR-15 and had issued a “manifesto” prior to the attack proclaiming his hatred of Black people and intention to kill them.
November 19, 2022: Colorado Springs, Colorado: Five people were killed and 18 wounded at Club Q, an LGTBQ club.
May 14, 2022, Buffalo, New York: A white supremacist youth opened fire at the Tops Supermarket, which he had targeted as a place to kill Black people. He drove 200 miles from his home in rural New York to carry out the attack. Ten people died, two were wounded—almost all were Black. The killer had said he hoped to “inspire” others to murder Black people.
March 16, 2022, Atlanta area, Georgia: A 21-year-old white man attacked three separate massage parlors that were staffed mainly by Asians. Fueled by Christian fascist hatred of these women for luring him towards “sin,” and in the midst of anti-Asian and anti-immigrant hate being spread across the U.S., he murdered six Asian women as well as two non-Asian customers.
August 3, 2019, El Paso, Texas: An attack at a Walmart killed 22 and injured 24, overwhelmingly Latinos. The gunman wrote that he was “defending my country from cultural and ethnic invasion brought on by an invasion.”
October 27, 2018, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania: Eleven Jewish people were killed, and two other congregants (as well as five police) were wounded when a white supremacist attacked the Tree of Life Synagogue. Robert Bowers entered shouting “all Jews must die.” According to his lawyer, Bowers believed that because Jewish groups provided assistance to Latino immigrants, they were guilty of preparing a “genocide” against white people.
February 14, 2018, Parkland, Florida: 17 high school students were murdered, 17 more injured, in an attack by a gunman known to talk about “white power,” and who had etched swastikas into some of the ammunition magazines used in the shooting.
June 13, 2016, Orlando, Florida: A gunman who claimed allegiance to the theocratic Islamic State organization stormed into Pulse, an LGBTQ-friendly Orlando club. Opening fire with an assault rifle and automatic pistol, he killed 50 people and wounded 53 others.
June 17, 2015, Charleston, South Carolina: Nine Black churchgoers were murdered inside the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal church during prayer service. Murderer Dylan Raoof was a white supremacist attempting to trigger a “race war” against Black people.
May 23, 2014, Isla Vista, California: Elliot Rogers, an avowed misogynist, racist and enemy of interracial couples, launched two attacks that he had been planning for months. First, he stabbed to death three Asian men in his apartment building. Then he went to a sorority house and pounded on the door; when he was not allowed in, he fired off some rounds and left. He then shot three young women from his car, killing two. Rogers continued to shoot at people in the street, killing one more man and wounding several others. In all, six people were killed and 14 wounded.
Sources include revcom.us and White Extremist Ideology Drives Many Deadly Shootings, New York Times, August 4, 2019.