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From Quebec to Melbourne, we need to stop ignoring the radicalisation of white men

Celeste Liddle

Following news of a murder or mass shooting incident, there is often a meme I see floating around social media. On it is a chart with a number of colours ranging from black, through hues of brown, then on to pink, beige and finally white, held up next to a cartoon man with fair skin.

The lighter colours are labelled "mentally ill" on the chart, whereas the darker colours denote "terrorist". It's perhaps a crude demonstration of a phenomenon we see play out time and time again when violent crime is reported.

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Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau condemns the attack on a Quebec City mosque that killed six people on Sunday.

When I hear police or a news report confirm that they believe a murderous act was not linked to "terrorism", I go ahead and make the assumption that they mean the perpetrator is white. This is compounded if I further read that the perpetrator was a "loner" or there is a mention of a history of mental health issues. Racial motivations, sexist motivations, or indeed any motivations behind the crime are often a mere footnote placed at the end of the story.

This is not to make light of the impact that mental health issues can have on a person's life. It's just that when it comes to crimes committed by people of colour, their mental health status and social network seem to be of little importance. If they're Muslim, that fact will be highlighted. Terrorism will not be dismissed so quickly. Indeed, even if the police investigations conclude that the crime is not a "terrorist attack", the message that filters to the press and the public often remains the opposite.

Yet what about the crimes committed by white men which clearly fit the description of "terrorism"? Take the recent attacks on a mosque in Quebec which killed six people as they prayed and critically wounded another eight. As justice writer Shaun King details, for an entire day after the shooting, false reports circulated around the internet that the perpetrators were Muslim terrorists.

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Even as it came to light that the person allegedly responsible was 27-year-old, white, French Canadian man Alexandre Bissonnette, Fox News neglected to remove their false tweet detailing a "Muslim Moroccan" attacker. Indeed, it took the Canadian Prime Minister's office stepping in for this report to finally be removed.

And as King also points out, our Facebook profile pictures are not suddenly awash with Canadian flags. Why not? It seems that now we know the killer was a white man and the people he murdered were Muslims, people don't care. This is despite the fact that by Justin Trudeau's own description, this was a "terrorist attack".

Bissonnette has also been described by those who know him as a white supremacist and an anti-feminist with strong anti-immigration views, while also being a big Donald Trump supporter. He is has been vocal online about his views.

The question then becomes this: when are the dangerous views expressed by fascists and white supremacists – views currently being nullified by non-confronting terminology such as "alt-right" – going to be seen as the threat to life and liberty that they truly are?

When are these sorts of ideologies and allegiances going to be investigated as fully by the authorities? Despite clear evidence of a trend of ideologically-motivated mass murder by racist, sexist white men (Dylann Roof, Robert Lewis Dear, Elliot Rodger, Marc Lepine), US legislation continues to target people of colour who are religious minorities.

We need not look across the Pacific for examples of this. Only last week it emerged that 26 year old white supremacist Michael Holt, arrested in September 2015, had planned to walk into a Central Coast shopping centre and go on a shooting rampage. In a country that describes itself as "multicultural", it should be of concern to all of us yet this was the first I'd heard of him.

Again, he had been active online. Again, we see his mental health discussed in reports. But we need to stop viewing individuals like this as "lone wolves" whose motives are merely personal. We are currently in a political environment that tolerates the formation of far right groups and elects One Nation representatives to parliament. Indeed, Holt is part of a well-networked demographic in this country and his radicalisation should be of concern to us all.

It's also telling that the first right-wing extremist to be charged under anti-terrorism measures, Phillip Galea, barely generated a whisper amongst Melbournians. Reports on Galea, who had been active in Reclaim Australia and United Patriots Front, have detailed his plans to blow up both the Melbourne Anarchist Club and the headquarters for Socialist Alliance. Again, his mental health state has been focussed upon in reports and investigations despite him stating that he is well. Is this apathy due to Galea being a white man who was targeting left wing activist groups?

The people he was targeting are the same people I am likely to march with at protests for social justice causes; their wellbeing is important to me. I cannot understand the broader community's indifference.

Society, the press and our politicians through their legislation would have us believe that the "real" threat is a brown man from some other part of the world who is not a Christian. Yet there are very real threats right here. These individuals feel they are "disenfranchised" because they believe themselves entitled to space and place which was never theirs to begin with. They are not "loners"; rather they have groups and organisations and are well-networked online. They are, right now, also validated by our political system and systems overseas. Some of them are indeed radicalising, and willing to commit violence against innocent Australians.

As an Aboriginal woman who expresses left wing opinion, I know who the biggest threat to "my way of life" is. How many other lives are going to be threatened while we continue to ignore the radicalisation of right wing white men?

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