Abria Dent
Pronouns: She/Her
Research Mentor(s): William Calvo-Quiros
Co-Presenter:
Research Mentor School/College/Department: American Culture / LSA
Presentation Date: April 20
Presentation Type: Oral5
Session: Session 3 – 1:40pm – 2:30 pm
Room: Breakout room 3
Authors:
Presenter: 3
Abstract
When racially-charged mass shootings occur, the communities in which they happen are posed with a rather important question, how do we move forward? What have these specific communities done to move past these senseless acts of violence? Within the past decade, America has witnessed countless acts of racism, xenophobia, and violence inflicted on minority communities at the hands of perpetrators of different identities. The mass shootings and implications which are being studied are: 2015 Charleston shooting, the 2018 Tree of Life Synagogue Shooting, and the 2019 El Paso shooting. The process of forgiveness is meant to be examined at a local and national level, what has moved some in the Charleston community to forgive Dylann Roof? Following these shootings, what is next for racial relationships, can we reconcile them? This study will serve to build on existing knowledge regarding psychological implications, and forgiveness in specific communities. Several research articles are reviewed and referenced in order to build upon our existing question. Moreover, we have also relied on finding accounts of family of victims, as well as manifestos of the perpetrators to conduct our research. In turn, we have found that religion has played a significant part in whether or not a community forgives the perpetrator, and chooses to move forward. In final analysis, reconciliation and forgiveness is based upon each individual person, however it is up to the community to make these decisions. Keywords: Forgiveness, Mass shootings, implications, racial+(ly), Charleston, El Paso, Tree of Life
Arts and Humanities, Interdisciplinary
