Church massacre American terrorist threat

On Wednesday night June 17, nine innocent people lost their lives in Charleston, North Carolina, United States. In a place of that is considered holy ground and regarded as a place that is supposed to be safe from the violence and chaos in the wider world, terrorism struck. The massacre of nine during prayer service at the nearly 200 year old Mother Emmanuel Church founded by legendary revolutionary Denmark Vessey in Charleston has stunned the United Stated and tongue tied even Mayor of Charleston who has been working since Wednesday night to keep the calm throughout the town. Among the 9 people gone was a mother of two sons, Pastor Clementa C. Pinkey who was also the South Carolina state senator. The shooting by an equally young, 21 year old white American gunman Dylan Roof is now a hate crime. Although in most countries any church massacre would be terrorist attack. It occurred in the detailed definition of a terrorist attack. The attack has horrified the Carolinas and the wider United States. In a country infamous around the world for its long history of gun violence, Americans are now rechecking the ease of gun access and US cultural fascination with guns. The attack goes deeper than guns. It is hatred and racism it's horrific forms.

Liberation Radio: Racist Massacre-Spawn of an Empire of Violence

History of violence

The Carolinas and larger Southern United States has a centuries long history of violence and terrorism against African Americans that predates the war on terrorism. The Department of Homeland Security recently admitted that white and neo nazi organizations, other domestic terrorists are more of an immediate terrorist threat to the United States than ISIS. The Ku Klux Klan is one of the oldest terror organizations in the US (founded in 1865) that has murdered African American women, men and children for 130+ years on small but deadly scale. The KKK affiliates and neo nazis  around the South have burned churches, bombed children in Sunday schools, lynched hundreds of innocent and assaulted people. In the 1920s, the terror organization even managed to march down Washington DC's main the national mall without the then President Herbert Hoover batting an eye. The affiliates have taken responsibility for their terrorism shamelessly. Prior to the 1970s, most police based in the South and the Northern United States turned a blind eye and their backs to white terrorist attacks on African Americans. In the Deep South, many governors, police officers and the democratic politics as were members of Kkk and its affiliates. Their membership were often kept under wraps. The attacks even extended to Jews and white American human rights activists and lawyers who fought for a genuine justice, peace and real equality across the South and the wider United States. The KKK is smaller today than it's height the 1920s when it claimed to have some 20, 000 members.

A grounds view of the massive Ku Klux Klan march in front of Congress in 1925 prior to the Great Depression. This was part of a publicity stunt to show off the terror group's strength. World War I and its aftermath had fostered growing nationalism that went beyond patriotism into the realms of fascism and racist teachings that was tolerated well into the 1950s in United States and Europe. 

Liberation theology and resistance

A Revolution that horrified Europe and America, Haitians rose up against and the French colonialists and slave holders across the country and successfully defeated Napoleon's Army with the help of reinforcements from Africa.

Historical churches across the South particularly Emmanuel AME Church have serve as a refuge and a place of resistance against mainstream White American society's political, economic and social attacks against African Americans. Culture and community strength was protected and thrived in close knit African America.  The church and resistance plays a huge role as a light in the dark history of American racism. One of the most outspoken American pastors in the United States. Since the 15th century when Europeans sailed up and down the African coast, Europe has disregarded Africa as not only a strange Other but as a place outside of humanity. African Diaspora in the Americas for most of the 500 years they have survived the hell of slavery and the holocaust have been regarded as non humans. In the same vain as indigenous people, African Americans and their Brazilian and Caribbean cousins have been pushed to the bottom of society. For each time a Denmark Vessey and Nat Turner fought against white society and racist juridical system, African Americans were and are still punished disproportionately and backed into corners. African Americans and their cousins have fought back nonstop. By fighting back not just praying and fasting for some church goers but armed resistance which is necessary when non violent methods fail against nonstop violence from mainstream society and the state. Brazil had jihads (struggle not holy war) against slavery and brutality in Bahia, Brazil home to one of the largest African cultural centers in the Americas outside the motherland. Jamaica and many Caribbean countries also launched uprisings and attacks against slaving colonialists and on slave ships between Africa and Americas. The Haitian Revolution has been an inspiration for many African militants and freedom fighters although it is shamefully not taught in schools as it should. For African resistance there was no time to be weary or scared when life depended on survival at all cost. To exist is resistance for Africa and her children. It is a motto that is lived daily. 

America's preaching of Democracy, freedom, respect for the rule of law and human rights to the rest of the world is seen as outright hypocrisy by African Americans. The rest of the world has experienced the hypocrisy firsthand and understand it fully.