IF Rodger Hated Whites Why Isn’t This A ‘Hate Crime’? By Larry Elder

U.C. Santa Barbara Students
Photo: Reuters / Jonathan Alcorn

By Larry Elder, May 27, 2014

Why don’t media call the Isla Vista killing spree a “hate crime”? 

Elliot Rodger’s dad is white, his mother Chinese. Rodger felt “fully-white” people -- especially male and female blondes -- looked down on him. This is from his 140-page “manifesto”:

“When I became aware of this common social structure at my school, I also started to examine myself and compare myself to these ‘cool kids.’

“I realized, with some horror, that I wasn’t ‘cool’ at all. I had a dorky hairstyle, I wore plain and uncool clothing, and I was shy and unpopular. On top of this was the feeling that I was different because I am of mixed race. I am half white, half Asian, and this made me different from the normal fully-white kids that I was trying to fit in with.

“I envied the cool kids, and I wanted to be one of them. I had to make every effort to rectify this. I had to adapt. My first act was to ask my parents to allow me to bleach my hair blonde. I always envied and admired blonde-haired people, they always seemed so much more beautiful.”

How badly did he want to be white? At the age of 8, he talked his parents into letting him dye his hair blonde. Even the hair stylist thought him too young. From Rodger’s manifesto:

“My parents agreed to let me do it, and Father took me to a hair salon on Mulholland Drive in Woodland Hills. Choosing that hair salon was a bad decision, for they only bleached the top of my head blonde. When I indignantly questioned why they didn’t make all of my hair blonde, they said that I was too young for a full bleaching. I was furious. I thought I looked so silly with blonde hair at the top of my head and black hair at the sides and back. I dreaded going to school the next day with this weird new hair.”

Two years later, Rodger’s tried to dye his hair again. This time, success:

“I was eager to re-bleach my hair to a fully blonde color, after the disastrous failure of my previous attempt. This time, [my stepmother] Soumaya took me to the right salon, and they gave me a short haircut and bleached all of my hair blonde. When I looked at myself in the mirrior [sic], I felt an intense level of satisfaction.”

According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, Rodger had a history of racist postings on a misogynist hate site called PuaHate, a place for men who dislike “pick-up artists” and consider them manipulative hucksters who score attractive women over more deserving people like Rodger. Last January, Rodger posted this:

“Today I drove through the area near my college and saw some things that were extremely rage-inducing.

“I passed by this restaurant and I saw this black guy chilling with 4 hot white girls. He didn’t even look good.

“Then later on in the day I was shopping at Trader Joe’s and saw an Indian guy with 2 above average White Girls!!!

“What rage-inducing sights did you guys see today? Don’t you just hate seeing these things when you go out? It just makes you want to quit life.”

Elliot Rodger’s background, history and racial composition distort the typical media storyline: Another sick, untreated white killer who illegally acquired fully-automatic “assault weapons.” But Rodger was mixed white and Chinese, and raised in a life of privilege. He bought his firearms legally, and did not use a long-arm weapon, let alone an AR-15. He killed three by knife. He had been in touch with health-care professionals and apparently no one suggested involuntary psychiatric commitment on the grounds that Rodger was a danger to himself or others.  

We will learn more about Rodger. But blaming the NRA or “craven politicians” won’t stop bad guys -- in this case one filled with racial hatred -- from doing bad things. The old line still rings true: the best and fastest way to stop a bad guy with a gun is with a good guy with a gun.

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