Over the weekend, radio personality Charlamagne tha God addressed the mass shootings that occurred in the border town of El Paso, Texas, on Saturday which killed 22, and Sunday’s shooting in Dayton, Ohio, which killed nine.
The host of the syndicated New York-based morning show “The Breakfast Club” called out the endless excuses that are given to white Americans who commit these terrorist attacks. Charlamagne sparked conversation about race and injustice when he shared on Instagram a cartoon photo of an unarmed Black man pinned down on the ground by several white cops, who give a pass to a white guy strolling by carrying multiple firearms.
Instagram officials deemed the photo a violation of the platform’s community guidelines. But Charlamagne made note of this in a follow-up post, writing: “So @instagram just took down my post about them taking down my original post about “White males being the face of domestic terrorism in America.” What am I saying that nobody else is saying???,” he wrote.
He added: “YOU ARE MORE LIKELY TO GET KILLED BY A WHITE MALE THAN A MUSLIM TERRORIST IN AMERICA.” This is a statistical fact??? How is this a violation of guidelines and considered hate speech??? Somebody at IG is on the wrong side of history today…..”
The shootings were at the hands of young white males, officials in both cities say. Patrick Crusius, 21, is being held in connection with the El Paso shooting. Connor Betts, 24, was killed by police after opening fire in an entertainment district in Dayton. After the outrage sparked by the removal of Charlamagne’s original post, Instagram had a change of heart.
Charlamagne jumped on his account Sunday night to share how he personally reached out to the censors about his content. The hip-hop personality went on to announce that IG had removed the ban on some of the controversial posts.
“Spoke to some higher ups at @instagram today. They reposted my post that were taken down earlier. I want to thank them for that,” he wrote.
“We can’t allow truth to be called hate speech. The truth is If this system continues to allow the unrestricted radicalization of thousands of disaffected white men nobody in America will have peace anywhere and that’s my final answer,” Charlamagne added.