Black residents of Buffalo, NY were set up
Another massacre. Another Black neighborhood intentionally sought out to commit mass murder. The history of this gruesome anti-Black violence runs throughout the fabric of US history. The unsurmountable riches held by a few today were made possible in
Tulsa,
Rosewood,
Elaine,
Atlanta,
Wilmington,
Colfax,
Charleston,
Buffalo. (1)
They were made possible through terror, dehumanization, and control. Policy sets the stage for hate-fueled fire storms. Tops Friendly Market grocery store was the only grocery store serving the community. And that was weaponized by an individual on Saturday, May 14th, but it’s been weaponized by policy for generations.
“We have dubbed it “food apartheid,” because it is a policy decision... there is no food on the East Side of Buffalo and there’s not the availability of these basic services... there are people who actively chose to not provide services in this community,” (2) said India Walton (3), organizer with RootsAction and former Buffalo mayoral candidate on Democracy Now. “This is not only a question of a lone actor who is a white supremacist; it is a conversation that has to be had and a policy that has to be made to undo the systemic harms that have been caused by a structure of white supremacy that has not only permeated the United States of America, but it also has trickled down into cities just like Buffalo. Like, you know, we know that 80% of the population of the East Side of Buffalo are people of color, are Black people specifically, and they have one place to shop.” (2)
Control is all about land (4). The racist theories that all the news outlets are reporting on (5) are based in demographic changes and land access. When terror strikes at the intersection of land and resource deprivation, it’s impacts reverberate through the entire community.
India Walton continued:
“This is not an isolated incident. This is more than half a century of oppression, of systemic racism. And now is the time to renew the call for reparations. I think we need bold, reparative action on the forefront of all of these conversations. Prayers and thoughts are not enough. We live in communities that have been redlined, people who have been intentionally left out of our economic system, people who have been preyed on, extracted from. And if we’re going to begin to heal as a country and really beat back what is systemic racism that causes these extremist ideas in homegrown terrorists — our people have been terrorized for generations in this country.” (2)
Rest in Power:
Pearly Young,
Aaron Salter,
Ruth Whitfield,
Katherine “Kat” Massey,
Heyward Patterson,
Celestine Chaney,
Roberta Drury,
Geraldine Talley,
Andre MacNeil and
Marcus Morrison.
Listen to India Walton’s full interview on Democracy Now here:
https://www.democracynow.org/2022/5/16/india_walton_reaction_to_buffalo_shooting
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https://www.bet.com/article/fqn50c/five-other-race-massacres-that-devastated-black-america
https://www.democracynow.org/2022/5/16/india_walton_reaction_to_buffalo_shooting
India Walton on Twitter
Pollution is Colonialism, Max Liboiron.
https://nypost.com/2022/05/17/wh-blasts-replacement-theory-as-biden-visits-buffalo/