A meme containing the words: “The first thing people say when a mass shooting is announced” plus an image of “Golden Girls” star, Betty White has gone viral on different social media platforms, from Instagram to Twitter and also Facebook.
The meme which was reposted by American comedian Chris Rock on his Instagram account appears to suggest that most perpetrators of mass shootings in America are White males.
The “Betty White” reference comes from a play on the saying: “Bet he White”, suggesting that is the first thing people say on hearing about a mass shooting.
Rock, 56, received some backlash after he posted the meme with some calling him “a racist”.
However, there is some statistical data suggesting most mass shootings in America are indeed carried out by White men.
According to statista.com, 66 out of the 124 mass shootings recorded in the United States between 1982 and May 2021 were carried out by white shooters, compared to 21 Black shooters and 10 Latino shooters.
“According to statista.com, 66 out of the 124 mass shootings recorded in the United States between 1982 and May 2021 were carried out by white shooters, compared to 21 Black shooters and 10 Latino shooters.”
So who were the other 27?
Math is rarely the strong suite of a liberal arts major (assuming this author even managed that much “education”) so let me try to help on the off chance you are genuinely interested in what the Statista stats tell us…
66 of 124 empty human beings that perpetrated a mass shooting are white (53%). But 21 of the 124 were black (17%). So watch out for whitey… except not quite. According to the 2020 US Census, blacks only make up 12.4% of the population white whites are 61.6% of the population. So sure, pick any random person in the population for any reason and they are more likely to be white because the country is still mostly white. But when you realize 61.6% of the population only commits 53% of these atrocities while the 12.4% that is black commit 17% you can trivially see that blacks are 37% more likely than the average human being to become a mass shooter while whites are 14% less likely than average. So if you’re going to look at someone and get concerned based on color, those are the facts you should probably be aware of. Unfortunately a guy like Chris Rock (and this author) can’t help but try to get a headline by misrepresenting race and violent crime risks in the middle of an inexcusable tragedy, even if their implications are completely fictional.