Call the Austin Bomber a Terrorist

We've seen it happen countless times. When there's a brown-skinned bomber, he's immediately labeled a "terrorist," and hate crimes against innocent Americans with brown skin go up. But when the bomber is a white male, he doesn't get called a terrorist — he gets a series of human interest pieces written about him that focus on what a quiet or nerdy guy he was.

The fact is, Mark Anthony Conditt terrorized the city of Austin with five exploding packages, killing two people and injuring five more. And now we're calling on the Austin Police Chief Brian Manley to call Conditt's crimes "terrorism."

The United States has a serious problem with white males committing mass violence. According to a report by Mother Jones, the majority of the country's mass shootings have been committed by white males — and yet they always seem to get a pass. Politicians and the media are quick to humanize white male killers by calling them "mentally ill" or "unstable," but once the perpetrator has a darker skin color, we immediately hear "terrorism."

We must change that now.

In the coming days, we'll hear more from Austin police about Mark Anthony Conditt and their investigation of the bombings. Please sign this petition urging them to call the bombings acts of terrorism!

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