When media and political elites frame racist violence as a matter of individual hatred or mental illness, they obscure its systemic nature and global reach. Seeing racism only as hatred is not only deadly. It serves as an excuse that only benefits those in power and allows systemic racism to flourish indefinitely.The coverage of Robin Westman, the 23-year-old white transgender woman who killed herself on August 27 after committing a mass shooting in Minneapolis, Minnesota, is yet another example of this wrongheaded paradigm. Westman shot through the windows of a church on the grounds of Annunciation Catholic School, wounding 17 people (including 14 children and three elderly parishioners) and killing two children.It should not be difficult to grasp that one’s gender identity and worldview do not have to align. White transgender women like Westman can be drawn to white supremacy, just as it is often embraced by cisgender white men and women. Yet in a New York Post op-ed, pundit Karol Markowitz responded with transphobic and ableist overtones, writing: “If any other mental condition produced a pattern of murder, we would collectively discuss and decide on strategies to help those ailing. But there’s no discussion allowed about what to do when a child decl …
