Elliot Rodger, the 22-year-old who police said killed six people and then himself in a murderous spree in Santa Barbara apparently because he was ignored by the opposite sex, had a decidedly racist bent to his world view as revealed on a website dedicated to spewing hate at “pickup artists.”
In the predictable ritual that now accompanies these mass killings, as officials and the media comb through the killer’s life to find clues as to what might have made him snap, Rodger showed considerable hate directed at nonwhite males. While his Youtube videos — which prompted his mom to contact law enforcement because she was concerned about his potential for violence — focused on his anger at the young women who had rejected him all his life, Rodger’s post on the website puahate.com showed a racist side.
The postings were published by the Southern Poverty Law Center, which tracks hate groups, on its website, HateWatch blog.
In a January message titled “Saw a black guy sitting with 4 white girls,” Rodger wrote:
Today I drove through the area near my college and saw some things that were extremely rage-inducing.
I passed by this restaurant and I saw this black guy chilling with 4 hot white girls. He didn’t even look good.
Then later on in the day I was shopping at Trader Joe’s and saw an Indian guy with 2 above average White Girls!!!
What rage-inducing sights did you guys see today? Don’t you just hate seeing these things when you go out? It just makes you want to quit life.
Rodger had an exchange with an Asian poster, who asked if wearing certain shoes would help him attract women, where he said, “Shoes won’t help you get white girls. White girls are disgusted by you, silly little Asian.”
Rodger later wrote: “Full Asian men are disgustingly ugly and white girls would never go for you. You’re just butthurt that you were born as an asian piece of s—, so you lash out by linking these fake pictures. You even admit that you wish you were half white. You’ll never be half-white and you’ll never fulfill your dream of marrying a white woman. I suggest you jump off a bridge.”
Clearly, though Rodger felt powerless, he derived some feeling of authority by deriding others.
Richard Martinez, the father of one of Rodger’s suspected shooting victims, 20-year-old Christopher Michael-Martinez, directed his anger at elected officials, warning that similar rampages would continue until lawmakers took action on guns.
“We’re all proud to be Americans. But what kind of message does it send to the world when we have such a rudderless bunch of idiots in government?” Martinez said on CNN.
“I can’t tell you how angry I am. It’s just awful, and no parent should have to go through this.”
Police said Rodger, the son of a Hollywood director, fatally stabbed three people in his apartment before shooting three people dead near the University of California at Santa Barbara.
Michael-Martinez’s father said the young man was “articulate” and “tough.”
The father said his son died because Congress had failed to act after a mentally ill gunman killed 26 people in December 2012 at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut.
“These people are getting rich sitting in Congress. And what do they do? They don’t take care of our kids,” he said.
