Our hearts are with the city of Buffalo and the loved ones of the ten Buffalo, NY community members who were murdered by an 18-year-old white male gunman in act of white nationalist violence on Saturday, May 14, 2022, at the Tops Friendly Supermarket. The GARE Network sends our love and support to the grieving families, and loved ones of:
- Roberta A. Drury
- Margus D. Morrison
- Andre Mackneil
- Aaron Salter
- Geraldine Talley
- Celestine Chaney
- Heyward Patterson
- Katherine Massey
- Pearl Young
- Ruth Whitfield
Our hearts are also with all who consider themselves survivors of this racist rampage, and the hateful and violent ideologies that spawned it. As the grief in Buffalo was still fresh, Uvalde, Texas also suffered unimaginable loss in a primarily Latino community, and our hearts are with the families in Uvalde as well.
We know that gun violence disproportionately brings death to communities of color, but the Buffalo mass shooting was also an act of premeditated white nationalist violence that was clearly inspired by a longstanding fear-based narrative of “replacement theory.” This narrative of hate is no longer a fringe belief and has now entered our mainstream political discourse. It is being actively embraced by elected officials who have sworn to protect and uphold the United States Constitution. It was present in the racialized slaughter of Black worshipers at Emanuel AME church in Charleston, South Carolina, at the large-scale and violent white nationalism rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, and in the slaughter of Muslims attending mosque in Christchurch, New Zealand. It is being used to define civic and social allegiances and serves as a grounding rationale for undermining our basic protections as participants in democracy. As our long history of racialized terror once again peaks, we call for urgent recognition that it is both within our power and our responsibility to change the systems and structures that create conditions for horrific violence like these to occur.
We encourage government at all levels to do what is within our means to interrupt the growth of this dangerous ideology, mitigate harm from growing white nationalist violence and to prevent the recruitment of more people into the white nationalist movement.
White Nationalist Violence and its Implications
In his act of political violence, the Buffalo gunman explicitly targeted Black people. He researched historically Black neighborhoods on the Internet, drove from his home in Conklin, NY, more than 3 hours away to Buffalo, NY. Like others before him, the gunman livestreamed his horrific act of violence to a captive online audience and created a 180-page hateful screed that is filled with anti-Black, anti-Semitic, and anti-immigrant sentiments, memes, and bogus pseudoscience, as well as a fears about the political implications of declining white birth rates.
The Buffalo gunman’s screed is rooted in a deeply anti-democratic and dangerous narrative and conspiracy theory known as the “great replacement.” It trades in fears about the United States’ changing demographics and the changing electorate. It is a narrative that, when taken to its violent extreme and acted upon by wayward individuals leads to racially motivated massacres like recent ones in El Paso, TX (2019), and Charleston, SC (2015), and Atlanta, GA (2021). This zero-sum narrative rejects the core idea that a true, just multiracial democracy can and does make room for everyone, that shared values drive political outcomes, and that political power and collective resources can and should be shared.
Commitment and Action toward a Just, Safe, Multiracial Democracy
In contrast, the GARE network knows our fates are shared, and a true, just, multiracial democracy can and does make room for everyone. We are rooted in values of belonging, that widens the “circle of human concern”. In this moment of clear and heightened threat we must work to deepen our response, and as a start should consider:
Mitigation and Prevention measures government can take to address White Nationalist and anti-democratic violence and actions:
Chief equity officers:
- Update the recently developed the Mass Shooting Protocol to include measures about the rise of white nationalist and white supremacist violence.
- Coordinate a diverse range of agencies to create safety plans and simulations to mitigate the threat of rising white nationalist violence.
- Pass a resolution that clearly and definitively expresses unity against white supremacist and white nationalist violence.
- Read and implement this great resource, Strengthening Local Governments Against Bigoted and Anti-Democratic Movements by Western States Center.
- Read, distribute, and create public programming that includes scenario planning for parents and caregivers sharing findings and approaches found in Confronting Conspiracy Theories and Organized Bigotry At Home:
A Guide for Parents and Caregivers (Western States Center) - Advocate for public investment in critical media literacy and digital literacy programs in public schools and for the public at large.
- Advocate for public investment in local public programming (both in-person and online) that brings people together and breaks isolation and creates a shared sense of belonging, including arts, music, games, sports, and more.
- Invest in art, culture, narrative ecosystems, and community programming that uplifts cooperative values and win-win narratives that are central to a just, multiracial democracy.
- Encourage your jurisdiction to uplift, learn, and adapt policy and implementation strategies from states and localities (e.g. California, New York) who have stricter gun control measures.
Public Librarians and Educators:
- Make critical media literacy an essential component of public education and public institutions. Go beyond fact checking and media bias.
- Surface ways of understanding power and politics that emphasize belonging, trust, cooperation, and positive sum thinking.
- Teach and practice critical media literacy skills early and often, including and especially, digital literacy skills. Here is a great resource.
- Read and implement the Confronting White Nationalism in Schools Toolkit (Western States Center).
Share Opportunities with Community Members to:
- Join H.E.A.L, and organize in your community to ensure honest and accurate teaching of our racism and other equity issues in our public schools.
- Learn to recognize the signs of online radicalization, what drives online radicalization, and how to engage and empower young people at risk for online radicalization, and more. Review this tool and resource by the Southern Poverty Law Center and Polarization and Extremism Research and Innovation Lab (PERIL).
- Advocate for public investment in local public programming (both in-person and online) that brings people together and breaks isolation and creates a shared sense of belonging, including arts, music, games, sports, and more.
- Teach and practice critical media literacy skills in the home and in community spaces early and often, including and especially, digital literacy skills.
- Read, implement and gather others in your networks to use and practice scenarios from Confronting Conspiracy Theories and Organized Bigotry At Home:
A Guide for Parents and Caregivers (Western States Center)
Support and follow organizations monitoring the rise of white nationalist violence and providing tools, resources, and helpful analysis.
- Western States Center,
- Political Research Associates
- Southern Poverty Law Center
- Polarization and Extremism Research Innovation Lab (PERIL)
As a network, we need to continue to develop resources and strategies that confront toxic narratives and ideologies, and widen the circle of belonging, and help us get closer to a true, just, multiracial democracy.
There will be more to follow on this urgent political moment in upcoming GARE programming that confronts these themes, explores the larger political context, and shares practical strategies that local and regional governments can and should adopt to meet our collective responsibility to a just, safe, and multiracial democratic future. If you have resources and/or programming ideas or speaker referrals, please contact gare@raceforward.org with the subject line “Preventing White Nationalist Violence Programming Suggestion.”
GARE members can also contribute to the conversation on this discussion thread in the GARE Network Portal. Employees of GARE member agencies have access to the GARE Network Portal. To create a profile, please sign up here using your government-issued email address. New users are generally approved within 1-2 business days. We will continue to add resources to this folder in the GARE Network Portal.