The recent tragedy in Buffalo serves as a sad reminder of an ongoing American struggle.
The suspected shooter, Payton Gendron, a 18-year-old, has been charged with first-degree murder and has refused to admit guilt. He livestreamed his attack on Twitch and published a manifesto outlining his belief in "Replacementism," a white supremacist ideology that excludes Jews, Blacks, immigrants, and people of color. This dangerous ideology aims to exclude native-born whites from American society.
Gendron's attack was described by authorities as "directly racially motivated hate crime." John C. Garcia, Erie County Sheriff, called it "a direct racially motivated hate attack" that is being investigated by the Justice Department.
Buffalo is heartbreaking, and it shouldn't have happened. A country that stands by its ideals should not be entangled in a cold civil war, marked by a Supreme Court hostile to women's rights and a far-right wing that harbors hate against people of color and marginalized communities. If our civil rights were as important as our gun rights, voter suppression would be impossible. In a healthy democracy, gun control should be a bipartisan issue, not a tool for partisan gain.
According to FBI data, Black people are the most targeted victims of hate crimes in the U.S. The year 2020, which saw a major social justice movement, also saw the highest increase in hate crimes since 2008, with over 15,000 reported incidents.
While Black people are the most frequent victims, hate crimes against Jews, LGBTQ+, Latin American, Asian American, and Pacific Islander communities have also seen a significant increase in recent years. The Buffalo shooting marked the end of a tragic seven-year period that began with the June 17, 2015, shooting at Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, South Carolina, which resulted in nine Black churchgoers' deaths.
Buffalo represents a continuation of a long-standing American tragedy. Anti-Black racism, gun violence, social media-fueled hate groups, and domestic white terrorism have led to a wave of violence, death, and suffering. The political flames of white nationalism, fanned by former President Donald Trump's supporters and Fox News personalities like Tucker Carlson, threaten our democracy.
Tucker Carlson's support for "alternative theories" and other white supremacist beliefs, revealed in a New York Times investigation, contributed to his popularity and made him the king of cable news, as well as the cultural heir of Donald Trump.
Trump's claim that former President Barack Obama was not born in the U.S., making Obama an illegitimate president, served to excite the most extreme sections of the Republican Party and its base. White nationalists and white supremacists have found a politician in Trump that they view as an ally in their efforts to return the United States to its pre-1965 ethnic and racial composition.
The false information, lies, and racism spread through the echo chambers of far-right media outlets are fueling this unhealthy situation. A third of Americans believe in the "Great Replacement," a dangerous and entirely false theory that suggests Black Lives Matter activists, LGBTQ+ people, immigrants, and Muslims, among others, are conspiring to replace hard-working white Americans with an undesirable group of newcomers. This belief aligns with some party politics, as there are persistent, but unfounded rumors of a Democratic conspiracy to use non-eligible voters to steal future elections.
In the current era of white nationalism, appeals to racism, xenophobia, antisemitism, and queerphobia have reached new heights in party politics. In several states, legislation has been passed that bans the teaching of black history to maintain racial myths that could undermine the nearly 250-year American experiment in democracy. Efforts to suppress voting have also been disguised as voter security measures to protect against nearly non-existent voter fraud.
Florida is a prime example of a state that makes it difficult for Black people to vote or receive fair treatment in the criminal justice system. The state has even taken steps to punish those who teach parts of American history that could provoke discomfort in white people. Florida has fractured political loyalties and used opposition to diversity as a weapon. It even tried to pass laws against Disney, because Disney publicly criticized the state's "Don't Say Gay" law.
