Can we please talk about the Buffalo shooting?

Yesterday, a white supremacist teenager shot and killed 10 people, and injured 3 more in Buffalo. The victims he killed were predominantly black. The FBI is investigating this as a hate crime. The shooter left a manifesto that indicates he was motivated by racist replacement theory. <br><br>The shooter was armed with a Bushmaster XM5 rifle, a gun that Buffalo limits, but that was purchased in a nearby suburb. The shooter livestreamed the attack. He targeted a grocery store in a predominantly black neighborhood. He said in his livestream that he targeted black people. <br><br>I have seen some posts here saying that this shooter was mentally ill, or that he had many mental health issues and it was those that caused the shooting. I have not seen any reliable evidence that the shooter had any mental health issues, beyond being a racist piece of shit. This is not like the Sandy Hook shooter, who literally had multiple diagnoses and extreme neglect from his mother in the lead-up to his shooting. The Buffalo shooter had no such diagnoses that I have seen evidence for. And even if he did, being mentally ill doesn't make someone do this. Mental illness does not cause someone to shoot and kill 10 people in the name of a racist conspiracy theory. <br><br>I have seen some people argue that the shooter wasn't actually racist, as evidenced by the fact that he also said in his manifesto that he hated his white racist friends,, but also because the shooter said he didn't hate black people and it was just about replacement theory for him. It absolutely is possible for someone to be racist, to hate black people, but still say they don't hate them, or don't have a problem with them. The shooter was not a Christian, which is what some are using as evidence that his motivations were not racist. The shooter was an atheist. That doesn't change that his motivation for shooting and killing 10 black people was racist. He admitted in his own manifesto that he was motivated by racist ideology. <br><br>I have seen a lot of arguments about mental health and how it was the cause of the shooting, and I have also seen a lot of arguments about how the shooter wasn't racist, that his ideology was not racist, and that the motivations for the shooter were not racism. I don't know why anyone is trying to justify this. There is no excuse for what the shooter did. This was a hate crime. This was a racist mass murder. <br><br>We need to be honest with our students when we discuss this shooter and the ideology that motivated the shooter. A student pointed out the shooter's manifesto to me yesterday. Many of my students saw the livestream of the shooting before it was taken down. Many students are rightfully confused, angry, and sad. Many of my black students expressed that they were glad they didn't live in Buffalo, because this was their greatest fear; being shot and killed for being black. Many of my white students are confused about what to say. Many of them don't know how to express their sadness, their outrage, their horror at what the shooter did. <br><br>I think we need to be honest with our students. This was a hate crime. This was a mass murder. The shooter was motivated by racist ideology. He admitted it. Anyone who says otherwise is lying.