When I began Steinam’s article I was initially dismissive because the types of crimes she was talking about clearly involve serious mental illness, which I think calls into question how accurate it is to say they are motivated by race or superiority. But her explanation that follows is a revelation that is most shocking because I have never thought of it before. The fact that white males are performing a majority of this type of crime has gone much less discussed/critiqued/analyzed than it should. We are so quick to pick apart how race is involved when crimes are committed by minorities; but when they are committed by white men, it is as if race and gender are not involved whatsoever. Once again, our society’s reaction to these crimes is more indicative of our world than the crime itself. People have a tendency to view others as products of their environments and backgrounds (based on race, gender, class, etc.), but it is much harder to think of one’s self as a product of one’s own situation. Steinem thinks that a recognition of this fact and a deconstruction of the thought that masculinity requires dominance over something/someone is the only way we can put a stop to this dangerous addiction to supremacy our society is placing in white males.
I was not a huge fan of this article. While I understand what it is saying and I do think society looks passed the fact that many of these crimes are committed by white males, it is very difficult for me to get passed the mental illness aspect of everything. In high school, someone came to talk to our class about suicide prevention and depression. He told us that no one can understand suicidal thoughts unless you've had them. He told us that depression or mental health issues is the only cause of suicide because those who commit it are clearly not in the right state of mind. The human mind is designed to survive at all costs, so an attempt at suicide means that something is seriously wrong with that persons equilibrium. Many of the mass murders mentioned in this article ended in suicide, such as the Columbine shootings. So while it makes sense within the context of the article that there is a white supremacy issue involved, I am hard-pressed to blame it entirely on that. The people that commit these crimes have serious mental issues that go far beyond race and sexual orientation. I understand that it plays a role but Steinam makes it seem like this is the primary reason for these acts when I believe it is the serious mental instability and illness that leads these individuals to commit such horrible crimes
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