But – but – I’m a White Guy!

I have sooooo much I want to say about George Soldini’s shooting rampage in a gym near Pittsburgh, in which three women were killed. I have to give the press credit for correctly labeling Soldini a woman-hater, but I also want to point out Renee’s post on the shooter’s racist motives.

As Renee notes, Soldini’s online diary used plenty of racist tropes, particularly the passage she quotes with his rant about white women attracted to sex with black men. And the fact that he relates this so casually to President Obama’s election is pretty telling. For at least some Americans, black man in the White House = the black menz are comin’ to steal our lily-white womenz! The way he so naturally ties together his inability to get laid with the threat of black men – it’s as if he assumes that a connection is self-evident.

While it seems to me that perceived rejection by young, attractive women was Soldini’s primary obsession, we can’t deny that he was also wrapped up in an outdated understanding of his general privilege as an upper-class white man in America. What do you mean, black people are equal to me? What do mean, a 20-year-old doesn’t want to go out with me? I own a matching couch and chair set!

It’s all just so sad. Not just this man’s depression and crippling loneliness, but also the fact that he felt the need to take others with him. It’s also sad to know that Sodini isn’t the only person angry that the supremacy he was promised just didn’t happen. As much as I want to feel sorry for George Soldini, I also remember reading passages of his blog where he mentions dates, attending parties and neighbors who were nice to him.

As much as he despaired, his big worry was that these niceties would convince him to not carry out his murderous plan. George Sodini was lonely, and likely mentally ill. But George Sodini also wanted to kill people. He planned it for at least a year, and he fretted about losing his nerve. Planning and implementing this shooting was the only thing in Sodini’s pathetic life that made him feel complete, and there’s not much we can do to fix that.