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Don Lemon, a journalist and CNN host, recently stated

the biggest terror threat in this country is white men.

and did not retract his statement "following the backlash", but rather, re-emphasized his position

“So,” he said, “we have to stop demonizing people and realize the biggest terror threat in this country is white men, most of them radicalized to the right, and we have to start doing something about them. There is no travel ban on them. There is no ban — you know, they had the Muslim ban. There is no white-guy ban. So what do we do about that?”

On Wednesday, following the backlash, Lemon doubled down.

“Earlier this week, I made some comments about that in a conversation with Chris,” he said during a broadcast Wednesday night. “I said that the biggest terror threat in this country comes from radicals on the far right, primarily white men. That angered some people. But let’s put emotion aside and look at the cold hard facts. The evidence is overwhelming."

Source: CNN’s Don Lemon doubles down after saying white men are ‘the biggest terror threat in this country’ by Lindsey Bever November 1, 2018.

Is there evidence that supports or refutes "the biggest terror threat in this country is white men."?

Oddthinking
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guest271314
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    I removed the strict definitions from the question. That the OP considers this to be the relevant definition of terrorism is not important. What is important is what Don Lemon meant when he said it. – Oddthinking Jan 04 '19 at 00:56
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    I've nuked about 30 comments of people arguing about definitions and general political ideology. This is a kind reminder that Skeptics is not the place where to discuss this stuff. – Sklivvz Jan 04 '19 at 08:26
  • Avoid accusations of racism, thanks. I've nuked a few comments like that. – Sklivvz Jan 04 '19 at 21:34

1 Answers1

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The official US definition of "white" is:

A person having origins in any of the original peoples of Europe, the Middle East, or North Africa

The September 11th 2001 attacks were by far the biggest terror event in the US.

All 19 of the direct hijackers were white (15 Saudis, 2 from UAE, 1 Lebanese, 1 Egyptian). Osama bin Laden was Saudi also. Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, being from Pakistan would be considered Asian according to US definitions.

After the September 11th attacks in severity, is the Oklahoma City Bombing, which was also by two white people.

The 2017 Las Vegas shootings were by Stephen Paddock who was white.

For the Orlando nightclub shootings, Omar Mir was a descendent of Afghans, and therefore white.

DavePhD
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    Pretty sure this is not the definition of "white men" intended in the claim. –  Jan 04 '19 at 02:55
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    @DavePhD the United States will not consider that the 911 attackers as white men, this is where your answer sways away form the normal words we use and confuses this matter. – daniel Jan 04 '19 at 02:58
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    @fredsbend Lemon seems to be adopting some discriminatory definition that tries to exclude Muslims from being white, when obviously Christianity, Judaism and Islam all originate from the same area, and people everywhere are capable of deciding which, if any, to believe. We need an objective definition, not a prejudiced one. – DavePhD Jan 04 '19 at 03:00
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    @daniel I total disagree. All the US government agencies would be required to consider all the 19 hijackers as "white". – DavePhD Jan 04 '19 at 03:03
  • @DavePhD The Stephen Paddock inclusion in the answer does not appear to meet the requirement of the question. What is your perspective on removing that sentence from the answer? As it appears users have voted to close the question, would accept your answer save for that item, where intend to adhere to the strict requirement set out at the question. – guest271314 Jan 04 '19 at 03:05
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    @Dave Yes, obviously, but here you are answering with this broad definition that virtually no modern american accepts. I voted to close as "duplicate". If not that, it would have been "unclear" because the claim is an aggressive and divisive polemic. –  Jan 04 '19 at 03:05
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    @guest271314 I'll think about it. I might add something about studies on his brain. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/09/us/las-vegas-attack-paddock-brain-autopsy.html Still, what I say in the answer is true "the 2017 Las Vegas shootings were by Stephen Paddock who was white". I didn't specifically say it was terrorism or that he would have been found guilty of a crime if he lived. – DavePhD Jan 04 '19 at 03:15
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    @DavePhD Fair enough. Your answer actually answers the question, with that one caveat. From perspective here the inclusion of that event and person is not necessary to add to the list at your answer, and allows critics to point at that list item as an allowed exception to the strict requirement stood on in the question and comments. – guest271314 Jan 04 '19 at 03:17
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    Removed a ton of irrelevant comments. Please focus on the answer and not on irrelevant back-and-forth, especially when you are not the author of the answer, who obviously needs to discuss comments at times. – Sklivvz Jan 04 '19 at 08:33
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    This answer would be *great* if it simply left the decision "what do you consider 'white'?" to the reader and highlighted the possible contention - that some definitions of 'white' would make the claim true, and others would make it false. As it is, it takes the dubious position that "White men perpetrated 9/11." Most people on hearing that claim wouldn't think, "Oh, they're using a definition of white that includes saudis", and instead think, "They're a 9/11 conspiracy theorist." – Kevin Jan 04 '19 at 21:26