Prof: ‘White Privilege’ Behind Many Mass Shootings, Parts of the Tea Party

A professor from a public university on Wednesday claimed mass shootings, such as those in Newtown Conn., and Aurora Colo., are often the effects of jilted “white privilege.”

Robert Jensen, who is a journalism professor at the University of Texas at Austin, also suggested race-based alienation is a motivating factor behind some parts of the conservative Tea Party movement.

Robert Jensen

“Why are the men who commit mass murder disproportionately white?” Jensen asked rhetorically. “My guess is that it has something to do with the sense of entitlement that most white people feel.”

“When the world doesn’t deliver what those men feel they deserve, violence is seen as a reasonable response,” continued Jensen.

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In a separate interview with Campus Reform on Thursday, Jensen explained that while jilted privilege may not necessarily be the spark for massacres like Newton or Aurora, it can be part of a much deeper motivation.

“I wouldn’t even use the words causal or connected,” he said. “We’re talking about the underlying political moral framework within which people take certain kinds of actions.”

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“Do people who have a sense of entitlement and feel that society is not delivering to them what they are entitled to ever react out of resentment and revenge?”Jensen asked. “A lot of the Tea Party rhetoric seems to have that tone to it.”

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