The digital magazine The Root was accused of racism Wednesday after publishing an article declaring “Whiteness is a Pandemic” in response to Tuesday’s deadly shootings in Georgia.
There was a rush to conclude that the shootings that killed eight people at three Atlanta-area massage parlors were hate crimes after officials confirmed that six of the eight victims were Asian-Americans. Investigators said Wednesday that the suspected gunman, 21-year-old Robert Long, told them he was motivated by a “sexual addiction”. They added that racism “did not appear to be the motive”. Long has since been charged with multiple counts of murder and assault.
In the piece, Root senior editor Damon Young argued that “Whiteness” is a “public health crisis.”
“It shortens life expectancies, it pollutes air, it constricts equilibrium, it devastates forests, it melts ice caps, it sparks (and funds) wars, it flattens dialects, it infests consciousnesses, and it kills people—[W]hite people and people who are not [W]hite, my mom included,” Young began. “There will be people who die, in 2050, because of white supremacy-induced decisions from 1850.”
