Notes

The purpose of this paper is to assess whether public and media
reaction to mass shootings constitutes a type of racial project as
described by Omi and Winant

Racial project. In particular, we examine how the race
of the perpetrator influences the response of the media and the
public. The prominence given to the race of the perpetrator when
the shooter is anything but white and the deliberate omission of
race in discussions of white shooters invites discourse on the
marked disparity. Mass shootings, viewed through the lens of
racial formation theory (Omi and Winant 1994), are racial projects
that simultaneously reinforce white privilege and reconstruct an
opposing 'forever foreigner' status for non whites

Race plays in official and media responses to the killings. Because
most mass shooting involve perpetrators who are white, drawing
on the Virginia Tech and Fort Hood shootings provided a unique
glimpse into tragedies committed by non whites