Professor Jody Roy examines hate, South Carolina shootings

Jody Roy, professor of communication and chair of the department, shares her insight on hate as it relates to the recent South Carolina shootings. The piece was published in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel newspaper and can be read here.

Roy compares the hatred and violence that arose with the anti-Catholic movement from the 1830s to 1850s to the current issues surrounding the Charleston shooting.

“Hate is not a mental illness,” Roy writes. “It is an inversion of fear of the unknown other into an illusion of power.” She believes some of the conspiracies surrounding the anti-Catholic and white supremacy movements still are being used today.

“Hate sometimes seduces perfectly sane people,” Roy writes. “It is not insane to want to feel unafraid and empowered; it is human. That’s one reason hate-based counterconspiracy movements have persisted throughout American history.”


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