Van Jones: Only Suburban White Kids Shoot Up Schools

Here's more video to add to the Van Jones highlight reel.

Jones gives his views on race and gun violence in schools.

In Jones' world, it's only the white kids with guns who pose a threat at schools. He says black kids would never do something like shoot up an "entire school." He acknowledges that a black kid may shoot another kid, but not start shooting up the whole school. Their shootings are more targeted, as if that makes them less of a problem and somehow justified.

Of course, he's wrong about only white kids carrying out Columbine-type shootings. The Virginia Tech shooter wasn't white.

Video.



Transcript

VAN JONES: Our young white males are suffering in this society, profoundly. Profoundly! And nobody is saying a word about it. We'll criminalize the black student, criminalize the black child, the Latino child. We'll have this whole discussion about: 'Well, are they animals? Are they not animals? Should we abuse them? Should we help them?' Blah, blah, blah, blah. And that young white boy is sitting there suffering.

You've never seen a Columbine done by a black child. Never. They always say, 'We can't believe it happened here. We can't believe it was these, these, these suburban white kids.' It's only them.

Now, a black kid might shoot another black kid. He's not going to shoot up the whole school. 'My cousin's up in here. I ain't gonna shoot up the whole school. I might hit my cousin. I'm gonna shoot you, though.'

But these young white men will be in so much pain and so isolated, and so alienated, they'll shoot up the entire school.

Where is the concern? Where is the love? Where is the compassion for these young men? And it is doubly twisted because if there's anything you're doing that is wrong, we want to hurt you. We want to punish you. We're not going to help you. We're not going to love you. And so rather than punish you and attack you and jump on you like we do the black kids, we'll just ignore you and neglect you.

We have got to begin to look at this idea of criminality, of evil, of wrongdoing, of mistakes, as being a universal condition requiring a universally loving response and a universally embracing response so that our society, in trying to confront the evil and any level does in fact become evil. And it is just as evil, in my view, to attack these young black and brown men. It is just as evil to neglect and ignore these young white men who, as best I can tell, have very little now in the way of loving affirmative male leadership, that can put an arm around, wipe away a tear, and show a kind of masculinity that is not brittle or mean-spirited. And that I think is the problem that gets passed over by calling any community evil.

It's ridiculous for Jones to talk about black and brown young men being criminalized while white young men are given a pass. White young men who have carried out shootings in schools are either dead or in prison.

Although Jones speaks of love and compassion, that's really not what he's talking about. He's talking about alleged racial inequality.

Bottom line: It's not OK for any kids to shoot people, whether they're white, black, brown, or whatever, whether it's in school or out of school, whether the shootings are random or targeted.

It is becoming increasingly clear that Jones is a liability to the White House. What is Obama doing having someone so radical in his administration?

Surely, Obama could find someone better than Jones to serve as his "green jobs" czar.