This past Tuesday, a tragedy occurred in Manchester, Connecticut. A gunman by the name of Omar Thornton killed eight co-workers and then himself. He was an employee at the Hartford Distributors, who distributes beer, and was under investigation for stealing from the company. On Tuesday morning he was given the choice to quit the job or be fired. After choosing to quit, Thornton promptly went to his lunch box, grabbed two 9-millimeter guns, and then began shooting.
[pagebreak]When I first heard about this incident I was stunned. I thought, who would kill 8 innocent people? After further investigation in the case I obviously learned there was more to the story.
Christie Hannah, Thornton’s white girlfriend of eight years revealed employees had racially harassed him for a while. She said there was a drawing on the bathroom wall of a stick figure with a noose around it’s neck and the word n***** written on it. It was also reported that moments before he took his life and called his mother and said “I just shot the five racists who were out to get me. I took care of them, Mom.’
Finally putting the pieces into perspective I realized that Omar Thornton was one of two black employees at this company and felt backed into a corner. Unaware with how to deal with this harsh treatment Thornton resulted to an extreme. I am not trying to make him out to be the victim and I do have tremendous sympathy for the families who lost loved ones in the shooting. With all of this said, I think that this story should not be taken lightly and am confused as to why this isn’t a bigger deal. This is a huge problem because the racial harrassments that he was receiving pushed him to react this way. Why are people not disturbed by how much he was harrassed or the end result of it? Hypothetically speaking I believe if it was a white man who killed 8 black people the amount of uproar would be enormous within the black community.
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This disheartening occurrence was almost too touchy to speak upon but I was outraged and couldn’t keep quiet. The misfortune that occurred this week shows the abundance of racism that still occurs in this country. An abundance that the black community is still well aware of and because of it I am almost certain would raise hell if this happened. While violence is never the answer I am unsure to exactly what is when it comes to a racially motivated situation such as this one. This leaves me questioning whether our country notices the issues of race. If our country truly strives so hard to create equality then why are we not paying greater attention to a case such as this. I am left wondering, why has our communities let this story slide under the door?
