I found Gloria Steinem’s article, “Supremacy Cimes” to be fascinating and highly thought provoking. Steinem discusses the social epidemic of privledged white male violence today. Instead of killing to elevate their statuses or to obtain food or other material objects, this class of individuals seems to kill “just because they can.” Of course, at times, white male murderers have a reason behind their actions, or have serious mental impairments that disable them from viewing their behavior correctly. However, it is no coincidence that this class of people are continuously the constituents behind college shootings (I retract my argument- the Colorado shooting’s murderers had a motivation behind their campus-wide shootout- find the blacks and athletes!), fraternity gang bangs, or other hate crimes.

This article reminded me of another horrific death that occurred earlier this year at Rutgers University. A gay student, Tyler Clementi tragically committed suicide after his roommate and another student secretly used a webcam to record a sexual encounter between Clementi and another student, and broadcasted it online. While these two students may not have directly murdered Clementi, it is their treatment of a minority (who they must of felt dominant over) that is the underlying problem. As a society, we cannot let any individual get away with this form of malicious behavior or feelings of social supremacy.

Similarly, as Enloe points out in, “Whom do you Take Seriously?,” women cannot stand for violence as social dominance in any form, be it rape, domestic abuse, or office harassment. Silence within these issues only sparks further intolerance and social injustice. We can only await the day when those who feel invincible to political and social law are put in their places by the voices of those who are marginalized and abused.