Yesterday on Phase Zero, Bill Arkin wrote a post about the Charleston murders and why they shouldn’t be called terrorism. I think he’s wrong. Wrong about making this horrible crime into an argument about semantics. Wrong about disenfranchising the black community yet again by claiming that it isn’t terrorism to intimidate a community of minorities through the specter of ever-present violence. But mostly wrong because I think words are powerful and important (and I know Arkin does as well).

I know that he is white. I know the history of attacks on churches. I understand how unfair our society is, how fucked up the debate and the media are, the gaping gulf that exists between black and white, red and blue, left and right. It’s still not terrorism.