I have been trying to figure out what to say on this topic all day.  I purposely stayed away from the news about it….social media postings, etc. just trying to wrap my mind around this tragedy.  Used to be churches were safe places, off limits to guns,  but in the wake of the massacre that happened last night, there are no truly safe places when racists with murder in their hearts and guns in their hands live among us.

You have to have an ol’ hardened BLACK heart to go into a sanctuary, on prayer meeting night to boot, and kill the worshipers and the pastor.  And they said this racist killer didn’t just go in the church and start shooting.  No…he asked for the pastor by name and sat next to him for an HOUR during the service before standing up and announcing he was there to kill Black people.

I am wondering what the folks who always say there is no racism in this country, the “y’all got a Black president, so y’all should be good” crew think.  Should we still be good?  For the past several months, it has been open season on Black people by those who have been called to protect and serve.  Just a couple of weeks ago in my own backyard, a police officer went all Mortal Kombat on teens who were guilty of SWB – Swimming While Black.  It’s starting to become really clear that if you are a Black person, you’d better be careful driving, swimming, shopping, eating, and now, praying.

I can’t even imagine what it must have been like in that sanctuary when the shooting began.  I’m sure when he sat down, somebody there probably prayed for him.  Little did they know, there was a racist killer among them.  Because only a crazed racist killer would go into a CHURCH of praying folks and open fire.  There’s a popular argument that guns don’t kill people..people kill people.  Well, try arguing that with the survivors of last night’s massacre.

They showed that racist murdering bastard’s FB profile photo and he looked crazy!  He was also wearing anti-black clothin’ with a deep scowl on his face.  Just looking like a ticking time bomb ready to kill up Black people.  Said he actually told the worshipers as he was shooting “you rape our women….you’ve taken over this country…and now you have to die”.  Premeditated, cold, cruel, heartless, calculating and RACIST.

And let’s talk about how he was treated AFTER he killed 9 people who were mothers, sisters, brothers, fathers, friends in a church.  He wasn’t thrown to the ground.  He wasn’t shot in the back.  He didn’t have knees on his spine.  He wasn’t even the least bit roughed up.  It made me compare him to the guy behind on child support the police officer shot in the back after a traffic stop.  I also compared him to the guy whose spine was severed by police officers.  And of course, I compared him to the McKinney teen in the bikini who a police officer slammed so hard to the ground, she damn near bounced. Yet, you had this guy who went in a church, A CHURCH…GOD’s HOUSE…and murdered NINE innocent victims and he was arrested like he had just jaywalked.

I’ll be watching to see what leaders that don’t look like me have to say about this tragedy.  This HATE crime of terrorist proportions.  If they will speak out in support of the victims’ families.  If this will get as much publicity as Rachel Dolezal identifying as Black.  I have a question for her, by the way, being Black while interviewing on the top newshows and mulling reality show offers and book deals is one thing.  Try being Black when you get pulled over by the police.  When you are in a neighborhood and your neighbors don’t want you there.  When you go to church to pray and end up in a body bag.  Let me know how THAT goes for you.

My heart aches for the victims of this senseless hate crime and their families.  I don’t usually condone the death penalty but if it was ever warranted, this case is it.  I would volunteer to flip the switch or to get the needle ready.  So my Black face would be the last face he’d see.  Would seem fitting for a crazed racist killer who went into a Black church and declared that open season on Black folks is here to stay. Follow me on Twitter @staylorclark