Let’s Play ‘White Terrorist Bingo: Planned Parenthood Edition’

December 2, 2015 / Franchesca Ramsey

With the horrific Planned Parenthood shooting in the news, one thing is clear: the media and society as a whole tend to humanize white people, including terrorists, and demonize people of color, even victims of violence.

How else can you explain descriptions of Robert Lewis Dear, who killed three people and wounded nine others in a Colorado Springs clinic, as a “gentle loner”? There are endless examples of the media’s bias – from characterizing Muslims as terrorists to derailing the conversation about police violence against victims like Laquan McDonald to talk about “black on black crime.”

Franchesca “Chescaleigh” Ramsey has gathered these examples and more for a round of “White Terrorist Bingo: Planned Parenthood Edition.” Watch what happens when you tally up these awful ways people perpetuate racism in our conversations about violence.

This will give you some important info to pay attention to when these conversations come up in your life.

With Love,
The Editors at Everyday Feminism

Click for the Transcript

Speaker 1: B, he was a loner. Kay. G, he had a dog. G, he had a dog! O, he wasn’t a Muslim. O, he was not a Muslim. I, quiet/soft spoken. I, quiet/soft spoken.

Speaker 2: Oh, I have Bingo!!

Speaker 1: All right, let’s hear it.

Speaker 2: So, I did the Planned Parenthood terrorist, so B, the media calls Robert Lewis Dear a “shooter” instead of a terrorist. I, the Daily Mail interviews a lady, she describes him as, “very quiet.” N, white privilege free space. G, New York Times calls him a, “gentle loner.” O, he killed a cop and managed to stay alive. B, “he must be mentally ill,” from a girl on my Facebook page that I used to go to high school with. That’s bingo.

Speaker 1: We’re actually playing doubles, so what you’re going to need is the white terrorist card and the police brutality card in order to win.

Speaker 2: Here! I’ve got B, demonize the victim. CNN’s headline says “abused and in and out of foster homes, Laquan McDonald’s tragic life.” I, Cop feared for his life. It says in the initial report that Laquan “lunged” at the police, but then the dash cam footage shows that he was clearly walking away before they shot him 16 freaking times and police cover up. N, the cops deleted the video from the nearby surveillance camera at Burger King that showed the entire thing going down. G, previous complaints against the cop that shot Laquan McDonald, 20 complaints, 10 for excessive force. Well, I’ve got tons of stuff here for Eric Garner, Jamar Clark, Walter Scott, Samuel DuBose, the list goes on and on.

Speaker 1: That’s more than enough. I believe you! Did you cover the black on black crime free space?

Speaker 2: Yup. I’ve got the Youth Awareness Peace Rally held at North Chicago High School this past summer, the Peace Up, Guns Down march just this past October and of course, you can’t really counter the black on black crime argument without mentioning Chicago’s finest, Ameena Matthews. She’s an interrupter with the CeaseFire group. She actually goes into the middle of gang disputes and mediates so that they don’t escalate into violence. It’s incredibly dangerous work, but it actually has incredible results and there’s also a documentary about it called The Interrupters that is so good.

Speaker 1: Okay. Now you’re just showing off. What about an All Lives Matter rally?

Speaker 2: Oh, I do have Trump supporters beating up a black guy and shouting “All Lives Matter.” Does that count?

Speaker 1: You know what? I’ll take it!

Speaker 2: Yes!!

Speaker 1: That’s Bingo. That’s a wrap everyone. We’re done here. We’ll just continue to demonize black people and humanize white terrorists, all while not taking responsibility for our nation’s gun problem and lumping all Muslim people together as dangerous, all in the name of patriotism. Everybody loses! Well, except white supremacy.

Speaker 2: This isn’t really fun at all, huh?

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Franchesca “Chescaleigh” Ramsey is a graphic designer and video blogger based out of New York City. With over 100k subscribers on her two YouTube channels, Chescaleigh and Chescalocs, she and her videos have been featured on numerous style and entertainment blogs and news publications including MTV, The New York Times, Essence.com, and The BBC. In January 2012, Franchesca had her first viral video “Shit White Girls Say…to Black Girls” which accumulated 1.5 million views in 24 hours, 6 million views in a week and over 9 million views to date. Follow her on Twitter @chescaleigh.