Founder and Group Practice Owner Sarah Suzuki Explains How the “Mass Shooter Mental Illness Myth” Perpetuates White Supremacy
Check out Sarah Suzuki’s widely shared article on how psychological profiles of mass shooters perpetuate White Supremacy (You can find the full article here):
“And so, already — the media is pushing the false story that the Atlanta-area perpetrator was driven by “mental illness” — not racism. (See Reuters, Sex addiction, not racial hatred, may have driven suspect in Georgia spa shootings: law enforcement; See USA Today, Atlanta spa shootings suspect charged with murder; too soon to tell if killings were racially motivated, police say; See Forbes, Atlanta Shooting Updates: Police Say Suspect Claims To Be Motivated By Sex Addiction, Was Planning To Head To Florida).
I have had enough. BIPOC have had enough. We are tired. Aren’t you?
Aren’t you tired of endlessly reading about white men who can’t help but murder People of Color in our communities? Aren’t you tired of being made to feel helpless because of apparent untreatable mental health problems that apparently lead to mass violence?
I am.
I’m tired of baseless claims. I’m tired of reading psychological profiles written by white journalists who promote the idea of the white male “lone wolf” mass shooter — who conveniently ignore the weak relationship between mental illness and mass murder.
No licensed mental health provider would risk their license endorsing the mental illness mass shooter myth. In 2019, the American Psychological Association (APA) issued a statement warning us to stop perpetuating this lie, to see the real problem at hand— that mass shootings are a public health crisis requiring our collective intervention.”
The full article on Medium’s publication Noteworthy – The Journal Blog.
