Kindly White Gentleman Speaks Searing Truths About School Shootings, Are We Listening Now?

SAY IT LOUDER FOR THE PEOPLE IN THE BACK! pic.twitter.com/kS64TvPUm0

— girl posts (@girlposts) February 16, 2018

We’ve said similar things to the opinions delivered in the above news clip. However, we know that here at The Mary Sue we’re mostly a staff of hysterical women (half of us of color!) and one white dude some might be suspicious of, because he spends all day working with hysterical women. So, here’s an older white gentleman preaching some truths about school shootings in America. Are you listening now?

Dale Hansen is a popular, award-winning sportscaster for Dallas News on their ABC affiliate WFAA. On yesterday’s morning broadcast on News 8, rather than talk about some area of sports in his “Extra Point” segment, he wanted to devote the segment to his thoughts on school shootings, saying some things that not only needed to be said, but that really, really need to be listened to.

He talks about the recent shooting in Florida being the 18th school shooting already this year, “and we have 10 months to go.” He then sarcastically talks about “thoughts and prayers” and that in our country there seems to be a general resignation to the fact that this is just how it is. That there’s “nothing we can do.”

“If it was a Muslim, or a Mexican doing the shooting,” he says. “How many new laws and how much money would we spend then to stop the madness? But since it’s almost always a white kid, there’s just nothing we can do. America has 5% of the world’s population, and yet 31% of the world’s mass shootings. We’re worried about people coming to this country? They should be worried about us going to theirs!”

After talking about Australia’s stricter gun laws (after only four mass shootings between 1987 and 1996) leading to exactly zero mass shootings in the past 22 years, “And here I thought: guns don’t kill, people do. Is this the people we are?”

He closes by talking about the last time he spoke about shootings, saying “‘we need to find a way to stop a nut with a gun,’ and that’s all I said.” A viewer sent him an email that read: I’m saving my last bullet to put it right between your eyes.

“Just another responsible gun owner in America,” Hansen continues. “And I’m taking all bets he’s a white guy…so there’s just nothing we can do.”

Hansen is no stranger to expressing progressive views during his segments. Back in 2014, he supported football player Michael Sam’s decision to come out as gay, comparing how “uncomfortable” that might make players to how decidedly not uncomfortable they are to share a field with alleged wife-beaters, or how “uncomfortable” certain white players or sports fans are with black players.

He closed that segment by saying, “I’m not always comfortable when a man tells me he is gay; I don’t understand his world. But I do understand that he is part of mine.”

Today, I’m grateful for people like Dale Hansen. People who understand their racial and gender privilege and use it, and whatever platform they happen to have, to speak directly to others with the same privileges about the changes our country needs. File this under “not all heroes wear capes.” Because telling the truth isn’t easy, but it’s necessary.

(via girlposts on Twitter, image: )

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