A few hours after five protesters were shot at a Black Lives Matter rally on Monday, the group's Minneapolis chapter decided to move ahead with calls for justice in the death of Jamar Clark, a 24-year-old black man shot by police this month.
The shooting, which police on Tuesday blamed on two white supremacists, comes at a pivotal moment, days after Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings said white men who shoot up public venues are way scarier than refugees.
“I am more fearful of large gatherings of white men that come into schools, theaters and shoot people up, but we don’t isolate young white men on this issue,” Rawlings, a Democrat, told MSNBC on Saturday.
After the recent terrorist attacks in Paris, many in Congress, as well as governors and Republican presidential candidates, have said they think it's a bad idea for the U.S. to accept Syrian refugees. A bill that would halt the admission of these refugees passed the House Thursday with overwhelming support.
Since the Sept. 11 attacks, "terrorist" has often been equated with "foreign Islamic extremist," even though self-identified Muslims have committed less than 2 percent of terrorism attacks in the U.S. and Europe in the past five years. White supremacists have always been more dangerous to U.S. citizens than foreign terrorists.
The first federal anti-terrorism law, passed in 1871, was a direct response to the Ku Klux Klan. A study released in June by the New America Foundation found that at least 48 people have been killed in the U.S. by radical anti-government groups or white supremacists since Sept. 11 -- almost twice the number killed by self-identified jihadists.
The threat from domestic terrorism prompted the Department of Justice to create a new unit last month. Local law enforcement agencies also have reported more concern with the activities of right-wing extremist groups than with Islamic extremists in their jurisdictions.
Black Lives Matter's Minneapolis chapter quickly deemed Monday's shooting "a planned hate crime and an act of terrorism against activists."
But white people, no matter what crimes they commit, usually aren't viewed as terrorists -- especially when their violence is directed against black people.
"I certainly don’t fear ISIS," Steven Thrasher wrote for The Guardian. "I fear the police and their tanks and their tear gas and their guns and the very real possibility that white men who look like them and walk around brandishing guns with impunity could start shooting.
"White supremacy has always been violent to peaceful protest by blacks," Thrasher added.
Minneapolis police charged a white man and a Hispanic man in Monday's shootings. Authorities continued searching for additional suspects.
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