10 were shot dead in a supermarket in the heart of a historic African-American community

By Abayomi Azikiwe
Editor, Pan-African Newswire

Remark

A white racist gunman targeted and killed 10 African Americans in a supermarket in an African American community in Buffalo, New York.

18-year-old shooter Payton Gendron has been heavily influenced by the replacement theory white supremacist ideology that encourages violent attacks against African Americans and other nationalities in the United States.

According to reports, Gendron traveled over 200 miles in New York State to this location where he repeatedly visited the store in order to map out his deadly attacks on innocent people. A witness said he spoke to Gendron the day before outside the supermarket for more than 90 minutes.

This massacre follows numerous incidents in recent years in which racially motivated gunmen have carried out mass shootings aimed at killing as many of a particular target group as possible. The proliferation of racist and neofascist websites and other digital platforms serves as a conduit for exchanging views that are largely based on false notions of conspiracies to eliminate the people of Europe.

Those killed by Gendron were Roberta A. Drury of Buffalo, NY – 32; Margus D. Morrison of Buffalo, NY – 52; Andre Mackneil of Auburn, NY – 53; Aaron Salter of Lockport, NY – 55; Geraldine Talley of Buffalo, NY – 62; Celestine Chaney of Buffalo, NY – 65; Heyward Patterson of Buffalo, NY – 67; Katherine Massey of Buffalo, NY – 72

Pearl Young of Buffalo, NY – 77; Ruth Whitfield of Buffalo, NY – 86 years old.

In addition to those who died from their injuries, three other people suffered injuries that were assessed as not life threatening. Two of the injured have already been discharged from hospital. Those injured are Zaire Goodman of Buffalo, NY – 20 (treated and released from ECMC); Jennifer Warrington of Tonawanda, NY – 50 (treated and released from ECMC); Christopher Braden of Lackawanna, NY – 55.

An article published by CBS News points out that: “More than 600 pages of messages supposedly written on the social media platform Discord by the man accused of killing 10 people in a Buffalo supermarket appear to show his plan in progress since months. kill as many black people as possible. The messages, which begin in November, are peppered with racist and anti-Semitic tirades…. The posts continued until days before the attack, with the latest posts including photos of an assault rifle scrawled with racial slurs along with the names of other mass shooters. Ten people were killed in the shooting, including a church deacon, the mother of the city’s former fire marshal and a “beloved” security guard who tried to incapacitate the shooter. Upon meeting police, the suspect put his gun to his chin, police said – but officers at the scene convinced him to put the gun down and he was taken into custody. He was charged with first degree murder – the most serious murder charge under New York law – and pleaded not guilty. (https://www.cbsnews.com/news/buffalo-shooting-supermarket-new-york-suspect-alleged-plan/)

Interestingly, the shooter was apprehended alive with no injuries inflicted by the police. This scenario clashes dramatically with the continued deaths of African Americans in their interactions with law enforcement where often the victims were unarmed.

The city of Buffalo has an African American population of 36% compared to 47% for European Americans. This municipality has continued to lose population since its heyday in 1950 as an industrial magnate for the migration of African Americans and other nationalities.

Biden and First Lady visit Buffalo in failed bid to downplay growing racial divide

US President Joe Biden and First Lady Jill Biden traveled to Buffalo on May 17 to meet with family members of those killed in the May 14 race massacre. During his speech in Buffalo, Biden denounced white supremacist ideology and proclaimed that such beliefs had no place in the United States.

Nevertheless, he did not say that the United States was founded on the principles of white supremacy linked to the forced displacement and genocide perpetrated against the native American Indian population as well as the importation of millions of Africans for purposes. of slavery. The British colonies that later became the United States after a seven-year war of separation did not eliminate slavery as an economic system when they announced in the Declaration of Independence that all men are created equal.

Of course, Africans and Native Americans were not considered fully human and therefore had no specific rights that white interests in power were bound to respect. It would take another 90 years after the founding of the United States in 1776 as a republic for legalized involuntary servitude to be outlawed. The collapse of chattel slavery was a direct result of the Civil War of 1861-1865 which claimed an estimated 620,000 lives.

Even after the end of slavery and the advent of Reconstruction, within a decade the federal government had abandoned its congressional decisions to enforce civil rights laws granting African Americans the right to due process and to the right to vote. Extrajudicial executions of African Americans by mobs and law enforcement claimed thousands of lives between the 1880s and the Great Depression. Even in the third decade of the 21^st century, African Americans are disproportionately represented in the prison industrial complex as they are subjected to serious injury and death at the hands of vigilantes and police.

The Biden administration along with the Democratic majority in the House of Representatives and the Senate cannot pass legislation that benefits African American people and other oppressed groups. For example, the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act failed in the legislature despite millions protesting across the United States following his killing by Minneapolis police two years ago.

A news site called Black Wall Street has raised serious questions about the Biden administration over its commitment to ending institutional racism and brutality. Although Biden has denounced the use of racism and ethnic bigotry, no specific plan has been laid out to achieve these goals.

The Black Wall Street report pointed out, “Biden’s words sound good, but where’s the politics to back up those sweeping words? His administration’s inaction to do nothing more than announce a ban on ghost weapons leaves ample room for these murders to occur with regularity for citizens of all ethnicities and backgrounds. With racism fueling his shooting, an 18-year-old white man live-streamed his slaughter of innocent generations of black people simply seeking food for themselves and their families. While the President blames Congress for delaying gun legislation, domestic terrorism continues. Biden has done little to address the festering, outright racism that has only escalated since he took office. Whether or not Congress votes to ban ghost guns, implement universal background checks, or restrict assault rifles, Biden’s words come and go until action is taken to save the lives of Innocent Americans.

As black voters rage over Biden like America as a whole, another reckless racist mass shooting exposes the leadership gap in America that has seemingly been empty forever. (https://theblackwallsttimes.com/2022/05/17/biden-visits-buffalo-offering-words-in-face-of-domestic-terrorism/?shared=email&msg=fail)

Such articles from African-American author Ezekiel J. Walker of Charlotte, North Carolina, provide a strong indication of dissatisfaction with the Biden administration over the concerns of this central constituency of the electorate of Democratic Party. Amid the midterm primaries and runoff elections in 2022, it remains to be seen how the current race situation and worsening economic crisis will influence overall turnout and voting patterns.

Undoubtedly, victory over racism will require an independent struggle led by African Americans and their allies. There must be a total overhaul of the existing system to eradicate national oppression and economic exploitation in order to achieve a truly just and equal society.

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