Racism is Not a Mental Illness

As we all return to start a new week after yet another mass shooting that occurred last week there have been some interesting things said regarding what happened. Many politicians refused to acknowledge the racist motives the perpetrator Dylan Roof openly stated on his website that he harbored and instead tried to play down race and others tried yet again to blame it on mental illness when only about 22% percent of mass murderers suffer from mental illness (as mental illness is currently defined that is). There is some gray area as to what a delusion is and what it is not. In psychology, we typically define a delusion as a belief that has little to no foundation in reality.  For example, prior to Eric Snowden's leaks the belief that the government is recording all of your phone calls might have sounded like a delusion to many but after Snowden;s leaks we now know that such a belief would actually be grounded more so in reality. However, in the case of the North Carolina perpetrator it is clear that his actions were fueled by racist ideology and not mental illness based on his own statements and images. It is true in reality that minorities are growing in numbers in this country and based on his racist ideological hatred of them he felt the need to do something about it. If he said that little green men from Venus told him to kill black people than in that case we would probably be dealing with mental illness. I make this clarification because as a mental health professional it is my duty to fight against mental health stigma in all it's forms and to be a protector and healer to those suffering from mental illness.