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5/19/2022

The Buffalo Massacre

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I’ve resisted writing about the mass shooting in Buffalo, N.Y., all week. I seriously doubted that you wanted to hear me rail again about white people slaughtering innocent Black people. But then President Biden reminded us all that “Silence is complicity…. This is work that requires all of us—presidents and politicians, commentators, citizens. None of us can stay on the sidelines.”

Well, I’m a citizen. And there are a few people who read what I write. I imagine you all agree with me on this truly black and white issue, or you wouldn’t keep reading. So as much as I wanted to leave this one alone and try to go on with my life, knocking off chores on my long to-do list, I finally had to stop and say something, however banal and however repetitive.

First it was Rev. Al Sharpton’s words on “Deadline: White House” with Nicolle Wallace. He said, and I’m paraphrasing here, “We can’t stand around while we’re being livestream lynched.” (Those last two words are a direct quote.) The “we” in his emphatic statement I assume to be African Americans. His dragging the term “lynched” out of our nation’s dusty history and into the 21st century with the modifier “livestream” sent a chill up my spine. 

That, of course, is exactly what the shooter did. White Americans may be too busy right now going to graduations and attending children’s soccer games and planning sunny vacations to pack a picnic basket and sit on a hillside for hours anticipating a live lynching, as many of our forebears did. But those in our midst so inclined certainly could muster a few seconds to watch a murderous rampage inside a neighborhood grocery store that took the lives of 10 innocents, including an 86-year-old, who was clearly a threat to that white 18-year-old’s opportunities in the good ol’ U.S.A. 

Then I reread Eugene Robinson’s column from the Washington Post, which started:

“Do not dare look away from the bloody horror that left 10 dead in Buffalo. Do not dare write off the shooter as somehow uniquely ‘troubled.’ Those Black victims were murdered by white supremacy, which grows today in fertile soil nourished not just by fringe-dwelling racists but by politicians and other opportunists who call themselves mainstream.” 

Over the last seven years, many have looked the other way as those embracing white supremacy have been emboldened by powerful voices and by the sometimes covert, sometimes overt, complicity of an entire political party drunk on the promise of power. There are no boundaries. There is no shame. The only human life of value is that of the unborn. And as soon as that infant has hurled its first cry, it can be sacrificed at the altar of mammon if doing so would garner one more vote, one more donation, one more sound bite, one more ego-burnishing story to tell the guys down at the local watering hole.

The Buffalo Massacre. As I typed those words, I thought of the glorious bison who roamed huge swaths of our nation before being slaughtered indiscriminately, largely by the greedy White Man. I couldn’t help but acknowledge the parallels. I have to think that most modern Americans regret that bloodshed. Will we ever muster the fortitude to end the senseless slaughter of our fellow Americans? Or will we look away, despite Eugene Robinson’s entreaty, and allow a tiny minority to continue a reign of terror across this great land?
​

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9 Comments
Kimberly Peterson
5/20/2022 07:31:11 am

Thank you for standing up for so many unheard voices.

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Jeffrey Lee
5/20/2022 08:29:44 am

Straight to the heart of the matter. Thank you for providing the much-needed clarity and focus this matter deserves.

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Joseph Anthony
5/20/2022 09:17:20 am

I disagree on one point: it's not a tiny minority. Millions believe in the "replacement" doctrine. Tucker Carston, the most popular commentator in the country, pushes that theory nightly. Like the "well-bred" racists in Southern towns of yore, they might publicly distance themselves from the vulgar, rough-neck hooligans, but their "intellectual" support enable the murderers.
I look at the face of the young murderer. How did he get to be so full of hatred? Tucker Carston and his ilk come to mind. Will they ever acknowledge that even in the dark recesses of their mind, will they ever, as my Catholic boyhood urged, examine their consciences? I doubt it, but part of speaking up is to accuse. J'accuse Carston and Fox News.

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Tom Martin
5/20/2022 03:29:07 pm

I imagine Native Americans have quite a lot to say about Replacement Theory.

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Robert Mcwilliams
5/20/2022 04:24:03 pm

These days It seems appropriate for many in our country to look the other way because their political party generally excuses this type of behavior. Just as it excused those who tried to overthrow our government. It’s okay for them to rail against masking, abortion, gayness, textbooks but to speak out against whites killing blacks , well that’s just not acceptable to the Republican Party. They and our former president have fanned the flames that have made once reprehensible conduct socially tolerable for some. . These are very sad times.

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Tessa Bishop Hoggard
5/21/2022 01:07:22 pm

Amen, Bro. McWilliams!

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Becky Nelson
5/20/2022 08:39:31 pm

Well said, all. Wish I knew how to combat this. Voting doesn’t seem to be working.

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Barbara R Fallis
5/20/2022 09:09:14 pm

As we all know, racism has existed forever. The Trump and his era ushered in not only acceptance of it but promotion, adulation and, more importantly, the expectation of it. A few hours before receiving Sallie's post I had looked up the Watergate felons due to the current political situation (situation being a lame term). John Ehrlichman, a few years after being released from 18 months in prison for perjury and conspiracy to obstruct justice, said that he mostly brought this on himself. He added (and this was in quotes) "If I had any advise for my kids, it would be to never - never ever - defer your moral judgments to anybody".

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Tom Martin
5/21/2022 07:37:18 am

This deferral of moral judgement is most baffling as it's happening among people who have typically considered themselves guardians of morality. Perhaps to a fault, but if it has to come down to a choice I'll take that over this wholesale abdication of social responsibility any time. As Wendell Berry put it in his twist on the Golden Rule: "Do unto those downstream as you would have those upstream do unto you." If this is no longer a fundamental tenet of civil society then what does that mean?

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    Between the debilitating effects of age and the 24-hour crush of mind-bending news, my brain is frequently in a fog. Nonetheless. I'll occasionally try to sweep aside the ashy gray matter and shed some light on what's going on at Murky Press. Perhaps together we can also gain a little insight into how we can better use words to organize and clarify the world around us.

    Cheers! 
    Sallie Showalter, Murky Press 

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